The history of HIV/AIDS, PrEP, viral loads, the stigma behind the start of it all and where we need to go from here were some of the talking points touched upon in the last Censored Series of the Spring 2017 semester.
The talk was hosted in the Women’s Resource Center, where taboo topics are destigmatized and students can better educate themselves on often controvertial topics.
The event was hosted by Feminists Organized to Resist Create and Empower. The invited community experts were Miss Jai, Michael Lopez and Taylor Ducklow from the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation.
“We just try to teach folks it’s more about safety and being able to have an honest conversation, because the reality is people living with HIV do not want to transmit HIV to other people,” Lopez said. “When transmission happens, it is usually when people don’t know, so testing yourself and knowing your status is so important.”
The discussion was led by Lili Steffen, who is the community outreach coordinator with FORCE, and the first question was “Where and how did you first hear about HIV/AIDS?”
Students and community members went on to discuss their stories of how they came to hear about the diseases, from first hearing it from a friend whose family member had been infected with the virus at the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to learning about it in documentaries, social media, school or dramatic depictions in film and television.