David Waggoner’s Frontdesk
AIDS is a happenin’ thing again. It’s got buzz. And I’m not talking about AIDS over there in South Africa or India. I’m talking about right here. This month, someone living with HIV will probably bag your groceries, buy your house, cook your food, even give you a flu shot. Who knows? Someday we might elect someone to the highest office in the land who is living with HIV. The virus is now connecting so strongly with the average HIV-negative American’s consciousness, that it strikes me as quite odd to hear someone speak about the “promiscuous lifestyle” of those living with HIV/AIDS. That kind of ignorance, and the way people mistreat and isolate each other, is how AIDS is spread according to this month’s Gallery artist, Donald Woodman, who advocates for a stronger understanding of the interconnectedness of all peoples, cultures, and diseases.
Accordingly, playwright Ntare Mwine is bringing AIDS triumphs and tragedies from Uganda to American audiences in New York City with his one-man show, Biro, for many of the same reasons. This month’s cover story, Mwine is no stranger to reaching the masses, having appeared on E.R., Law & Order, and C.S.I. It’s amazing that someone with his acting opportunities has chosen to raise awareness about AIDS his way—connecting to a live theater audience with a heartfelt performance.
Speaking of theater, June is the month that the Tonys are given out. Too bad there isn’t an award for most AIDS-centered philanthropist in the American theater. Surely producer Jordan Roth would win. At the tender age of twenty-eight, Mr. Roth has taken advantage of his powerful Broadway connections to start an initiative with Harvey Fierstein to educate gay men to take charge of their sexual health once again.
There’s someone else using connections to an acting community to protect against HIV. Aaron Krach explores a new groundswell of AIDS awareness in the person of activist Dr. Sharon Mitchell, a former actress who is spearheading the drive to quarantine the recent porn-industry outbreak and to mandate the use of condoms for all commercial porn films. Dr. Mitchell feels that there’s no excuse for heterosexual sex scenes to be filmed without latex. It’s these actions, from legitimate Broadway productions to everyday porn, that are causing Americans to wake up from the fantasy that AIDS doesn’t affect their lives.
And so from adult movie theaters in the heartland to thousand-seat houses on the Great White Way, AIDS is being talked about. After all, AIDS is discussed when it’s not discussed: by simply putting on a condom in someone’s bedroom or in someone’s favorite porn flick. Our civil rights as HIV-positive and HIV-aware consumers are not being threatened, but strengthened through this kind of honesty and integrity.
AIDS needs buzz. Especially when sixty-eight percent of new HIV infections occur in African-American women, many of whom were infected by boyfriends and husbands who are leading double sex lives. Even The Oprah Winfrey Show has discussed this “down low” phenomenon: a previously overlooked closeted culture of sex between black men who lead “straight” lives and who are often putting their female sex partners at risk. If Oprah is talking about it, then America is sure to soon be “making the connection.”
AIDS is everywhere again. And that is a good thing. For it doesn’t have to be about death and dying, but protection and survival. That’s the truly revolutionary message: HIV can stop with me.
June 2004
