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Lorraine explains what an HIV/AIDS positive individual looks like.
Lorraine:
It doesn’t look like what everyone thinks it looks like. Everyone thinks that someone is going to look sickly, look like they are dying, real thin, and I am not going to say that that’s not how someone who dies with AIDS ends up because they do, but that doesn’t mean that someone who has AIDS is always going to look that way.
I am a woman who has been diagnosed with AIDS for 22 years and when I tell people that, there are some people when they look at me say, “Oh my God, you’ve got AIDS? You don’t look like it.” Okay, what does it look like? You know, and when they describe it, it’s always someone who is real thin and frail and dying. Well, I am not dying.
So, you know, people need to understand that it could be their best friend; it could be a relative; it could be someone that is over 400 pounds, and they would not have any idea that they are positive.
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Add a Comment1 Comments
Lorraine,
What a wonderful video!!! And how awesome that you have been living with AIDS for 22 years and that you are still doing so well. I think that many people's ideas of "what someone with AIDS looks like" were perhaps formed during the first decade of AIDS, when survival rates were not so long nor so high. The image of the gaunt, pale, frail Tom Hanks in the movie "Philadelphia" is a good example. It's awesome to see you -- vibrant, strong, advocating -- speaking out to show us all the difference. Thank you!!
October 5, 2009 - 8:20amThis Comment