Just out., November 21, 2003, Page 20, Image 20

• november 2 1.2 0 0 3
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m & m S in u a ta * S U IT em umm/ n to r 5 1 fu r s
Mriui s sessions over
12 m onths about
life Dritti N IK a
W e'd like
sour view s,
1
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In our own words
Continued from Page 19
life as a netvNazi skin­
head and suddenly discov­
ering you’re black. I grew
up in a redneck town with
a hunch of redneck homo­
phobes, and suddenly
everyone was going to put
me into that category.
My girlfriend was
seven months pregnant at
the time I received my
results. (She is negative, as
is the baby. | There was a
lot of fear in the medical
community over the preg­
nancy. They threatened to
take the baby away if we
breast-fed. About a month
after my daughter was
Kim, I got sick. It took
about three weeks to get
Through a nonprofit service organization for kids touched by HIV,
me healthy and stable
Sean Cox shares his personal experience as a child of a poz parent
enough to go home (from
the hospital!- During that
time 1 lost my job because I was tixi weak to
the future. I used to think, “My dad isn’t going to
return to work, I was evicted from my apartment
see me get married; my dad isn’t going to see my
because I couldn’t pay my hills, I had no health
kids.” I was at a conference with a kid who was
insurance, 1 had no savings account. I got very
Kim with HIV and now he’s 23. He wasn’t sup­
depressed, hut I |never used or drank). 1 held onto
posed to live to see 6, and now that he is exiting
the fact that this was a stark reminder that 1 did
young adulthixxl, it’s absolutely incredible.
not want to return to that way of life.
Believe me, if I could make the disease go
Johnson suffers from fatigue and other side
away I would take th a t path in a heartbeat,
effects of the medication. He is the sole guardian
hut since I d o n ’t have th e ability to do that, I
of his beautiful 8-year-old daughter, Miranda Vera am proud to do what I do. [One of our kids
(which means “extraordinary faith" in Latin).
described FUN this way:] “It feels like hom e,
I feel welcome, it feels like family and when
Sean Cox learned that his father was HIV­
I’m here I feel like I’m n o t alone.”
positive in 1994 . Sean founded For Us North­
Cox is now 27 and has been happily married
west, a service organisation whose mission is to
to his wife, Kacey, for two years. His father is still
help kids touched by H IV just be kids.
alive and well.
IV] became a way for me to recog­
nize strengths 1 had and to develop
Joe Jefferson, 41, has been HIV-pisitive for 16
a sense that one person really can
years and describes his good health as a combination of
make a difference. In starting FUN, I gave a
“self-care, fate and fortitude.” After six months as a
voice to kids who, for the first 17 years of the
volunteer, he is nou’ development director for Our
epidemic, didn’t really have a voice locally.
House of Portland.
Most services are based on catching kids as
ntil my arrival at Our House, I had a
they’re falling. We really teach kids to fly.
philosophy committed to taking care of
With HIV it’s difficult to create a picture of
myself and staying alive, hut the idea of
g facing HIV/AIDS on a daily basis
o had never crossed my mind. Five or
| six years ago, the future was much
$ more uncertain. I felt stalked hv the
o virus, and signs of an abbreviated life
| seemed imminent. I was 24 or 25
years old when 1 tested poz, and since
then medicines have changed.
Up to three or four years ago, I
had no plans to live a longer life. I
started asking myself questions like;
“Will I he here for the next election?
The next millennium?” I thought I
was not lovable; the self-pity was
evident. 1 had to disclose to
everyone; I had to restructure my
self-identity. I’ve been single 3 1/2
years, and now it feels like any sort
of rejection aKiut the disease is their
problem and not mine.
Being poz has made me present in
life. A lot of times people put off
important decisions like career inten­
tions, relationship intentions....
Expressing ixir needs and fine-tuning
mir voices are very critical when you’re
poz, as are not taking life and people
for granted. Fatal prognosis has
changed to developing a gixxJ rela­
Having lived with H IV for 16 years, Joe Jefferson no
tionship with the vims for me—not
longer thinks of H IV as an all-consuming fatal prognosis; pretending it is not there, not putting
instead, he has come to terms with poz living and looks
oft dreams until later.
ahead to a fulfilling career and relationship
Jefjcrson recently became mvolved