Open your eyes
Ignorance is still a crime. Educating people about illnesses and diseases including sexual health has been front of mind for decades.
I’ve recently been close to individual situations that are different in their own ways, but identical in others.
A work colleague found out his wife has breast cancer. It was at such a late stage a mastectomy was required.
You can imagine the impact this has had on this family.
I have always been vigilant about my own health. When I was leaving Dawn and the kids, I was aware of my mental health and sought help when I wasn’t coping.
When I became sexually active, both heterosexually and homosexually, I was aware of my health.
But it wasn’t until recently that I really educated myself on matters closest to our hearts.
Like cancer, our foe HIV continues to impact on lives around us. While HIV can be well managed and lived with, it’s still cloaked in stigma and intolerance.
I recently discovered a friend was living positively with HIV. I thought about the propaganda we used to be fed and it was easy to fall back into a reactive mindset. At times, instead of open arms, people find isolation.
As a community of human beings, gay, straight or otherwise, we are socially responsible for our fellow mates.
With the recent news about Mandy Rollins, it saddens me that some don’t have the strength to reach out.
As a community we are also responsible to open our eyes to look out for others. Educate yourself. Learn about your own health — not just sexual health, but mental health and physical health. If you come across a situation you are unsure of or can’t deal with, ask for help.
From the moment your eyes open you will discover that in darkness and silence there is nothing to learn.
You state in your article “some don’t have the strength to reach out” and you also advocate diligence with health.
I want to address both. It is fine to be aware of health but with the internet, commercial advertising and health campaigns, it does get to the point of being paranoid at every ache, spot on you body, when you get a cold and oh look that lump you had; plan your funeral now. I think it is wise to be aware and seek advice, but it is now at the point where society not only is so scared of disease and pain one panics.
Second, the reasons why some don’t go for help are: the cost of mental health treatment, the ‘build a bridge and get over it’ mentality, remember gay men still harbour men’s I won’t talk about it mindsets, uncaring mental health workers who tell you go to a kid’s cancer ward to see real suffering and a gay society that has no understanding or empathy towards those that have mental illness and say they are ‘stalking’ them and all sorts of online and scene crap.
If one checks every single bump it takes away the joy of living. You message to support each other won’t happen if people especially gay men continue to discriminate against hiv positive people and those living with an illness as part of their bitchy mostly Sydney driven centric scene.