Issue 828 University of Surrey Students' Union 2nd December 1994 Itwon't happen to me.... • • It won' t happen to me" - the W % utopian mytb and one we use ali too often. Itcertainly applied to me. AIDS and HIV are something you read or hear about, which happens to mìnority groups, its something distant from your life. Well that's a lie and the only person who will suffer from these lies is you. l'm not a drug user, and at the time I had only had 3 sexual parmers in 21 years, whicb I did not consider sleeping around and I am heterosexual - it defmitely wouid not happen to me. This was the most d^gerous idea I bave ever had in my life and considering Tm amongst the top 5-10% of the population the most stupidi I al ways thought that with a parmer p{ 4 years and loving him very uch, condoms would have de- m stroyed our intìmacy - WRONG - unprotected sex whilst fon ai the time wilI always mean, the un- likely (in your own mind) but nev- ertheless undisputed, possibility of contracting HIV. After one and half years mit - you know the prejudiœs that exist, three days in hindsight were the longest of the relationship ending HIV and AIDS you were as guilty as the next person in in my life. Of course I contemplated how was stili not a concern. But just before holding these préjudices; you feel stupid I would feel about a positive result and of Christmas two years ago my nightmares and ignorant. course I thought of suicide - not in the "I became reality. I got a phone cali which I The pressure of this on my mind was can't cairy on any more way", but more could not and did not want to accept horrendous. I had to teli someone. I because it was a way out: a way of avoid- There was a chance I could be HIV posi- thought carefiilly about who I told. I chose ing ali the prejudices and stigma which tive - déniai was rife, but I realised it did someone who I believed had a very r^ exist in your mind and evwyone else's, not matter that I was not part of a "minor- perception of such issues, someone who prejudices whicb I would have to face. ity" risk group - sex: a naturai and enjoy- wouldn't be shocked or repulsed and who I went back for the result, the hardest able part of life had ensured that HIV and is a dose friend. To say it upset him is an thing I have ever had to do, everyone likes AIDS could affectme. Understatement, but it helped me réalisé to believe tbey're in control of what hap- To réalisé this and not dismiss the possi- thiU I was not alc»ie in holding the utopian pens to them and I felt I had lost that The bili^ takes a lot of cor.'rage and is by no myth so religiously. Inspite of ali this, the result was negative. I don't know if my ex means any easy conclusion to reach, but I test was my décision and mine alone. Ali was so lucky - for it is purely luck, every did and believe me it is very frightening. I can say now is the fear of not knowing tìme you have unprotected sex you are Having acknowledged this I then had to is far worse than knowing one way or the playing Russian Roulette - please don't decide whether to go for a test I chose to other in this case ignorance was not bliss. fmd the bullet rotates round to you: try and deal with this alone for the first Going for the test was easy - after all it Wake up to the fact you are at risk -1 have! tluee weeks - it's not something you ad- was just another blood test The foUowing 2 Bare Facts \f Brwery aar P ologetic... tb^ the jumble sale did not happen last week, as they say it was due to circumstances compleiely beyond my control! How- ever, rest assured ali bargain hunters out there, the jumble sale will be happening on Friday 9th December between 12 and 1 instead.Very aPologetic... Big Thank You To everyone who has donated lo the National AIDS Trust this week and to Guildfwd AIDSlink, the money will be well re- ceived. The week has been a great success and I bave been v^ pleased to see so many supportìng AIDS awareness by wearing Red Ribbons. I hope the week has gone some way to getting rìd of the piejudice and discrimination which so sadly stili exists in some people's minds. If you bave any concems or questiCHìs about the week and any of the issues raised then please do not hesitate to see me. Welfare Committee You have ali been great this tenn and this week has been no exception - keep up the good work. If you are interested in getting invol ved with any of the awareness weeks run by the Union, then come to the Welfare meetings Friday Ipm in the Nelson Mandela Room - everyone welcome. Degrees of Debt Surveys Thanks to everyone who retumed a survey durìng week 5,1 have been so inundated with them that it has taken me longer than I originally anticipated to collate the info. I hope to have ali the results ready for publication next week. Heather Stych Vice President Welfare & Education Heather says "Use a Condom' Lets talk about AIDS PlaysoG Training Sessioni IDS ÌS offìdally non-existent in Russia and will continue to be. Russian n^onalistic politìcians have introduced nterestedinvoliteeringfor a clause that abuses basic human rights. They bave Adecided to forbid foreigners, be they students or business men entrance into Russia without showing a negative playleaiigandlielpiiigni AIDS test certificate. However, you can volunteer to have it done at the customs on arrivai in Russia unless you drop your holiday plans and want to be on the next piane back home. le U-tenn and sunmer playschemes? AIDS was introduced by an HTV-infected American travelling to the USSR, so the officiai state opinion says. AIDS was then seen as the badies capitalist disease from the West and therefore did not occur in the Socialist block. People were deliberately Collis oleng to our misinformed about the disease and unaware of the pqssibilities to protect against it Condoms were not widely available and those you could get hold off on the black market were tbick, training session rubber-like and ineffective. The mytbs about AIDS lives on today. Russia has admitted to only 130 deaths caused by the fatai IU< disease since 1987 and only 831 HIV- infected prople, wbile the UN names at least 8000 HIV- victims. Interestingly enough, a 5-8pm n tS 1/3 of the the infected people are children - an unlikely group fbr being infected by foreigners. Ihun. 8lh D*c«mb*r Russian healths authorìties now admit that the number of AIDS S-8pm n £1 victims is steadily growing and bave accepted the concepì of greaier awareness. However, it has noi prevented nimours and misunderstandings about the csuise of üie disease. Ibis is re- Refreshments provided flected in the new policy of testing ALL foreigners. Il seems very bizarre to think that AIDS is only spread by foreigners. Indeed they are the only ones being targeted by the Russian AIDS Fuiiher ìofo. from Wdfsre Office noticeboard awareness campaign. 2nd December 1994 CHEESY QUAVERS Political hat makes people take social risks, I wonder? I ask this because of three events that happened to me this Correctness week. One was the watching, for the first time, the Wmovie Philadelphia. Another was the whole AIDS Because of the nature of this subject an article like this is Awareness Week put together by Heather Stych and the third extremely hard to write. The best way to approach this, I decided, was the multiple ¿cisión to look fcM* a house to rent next year, was to ask you a few questions. share it with fellow bon vivant Dave Smithee and to look for some third or fourth person to share it with. All of which involves What do you think If you see a man wearing a red ribbon some sort of risk. expressing his support for an AIDSNHIV charity? Yes, I know that watching a movie doesn't involve too much risk, but that's not what I meanL We'd all like to think that we're What would you say to a Men-Only night in the Union» responsible types when it comes to the important things, like a bearing in mind that there seems to be nothing wrong with a quick bonk leading to a slow death. Given someone questioning Women-Only night or, similarly, advertising In this very us I'm sure that we'd all answer that of course we always use a paper a Women-Only night of entertainment In Guildford? condom when engaging in horizontal recreation. But being the small, barefoot, farty creatures that we are, it's not unheard of for us to lie so that we don't look socially unacceptable. The Who would you think is to blame If you were told that a white movie made me think of the number of times I have not been as male moved residences because of racial abuse? good a boy as I should have. Equally, it shows that the girls I weren't squeaky-clean in the morals department every single These are just a few examples based on some of the events in and time, either.