Denial and the nation’s AIDS response, by Susan
MacNeil
Thirtieth birthdays are a benchmark of
maturation, often bringing focus to life goals
and their pursuit. But the recent firestorm
around the distribution of safe-sex kits by AIDS
Services for the Monadnock Region (ASMR) at a
local rural high school made national news and
missed an important opportunity for
enlightenment.
In early December, teens at Monadnock Regional High School in Swanzey picked up a total of 74 safe-sex kits during a World AIDS Day event.
Reporters questioned the contents of the kits, which included condoms, lubricant and a piece of candy as a conversation starter, missing the much larger questions.
Why haven’t we been able to stop a deadly virus when we know how to stem its spread? And why, in a culture suffused with sexual images aimed at teens, is honest discussion of prevention strategy deemed taboo?
Since the first diagnosis of AIDS in 1981, more than 30 million people have died. Forty million people live with HIV today; half are women. The World Health Organization estimates that 8,000 new HIV infections occur daily in youth ages 14 to 25. Without wide-scale youth prevention efforts, AIDS deaths by 2030 could reach 117 million, compared to 11.5 million for cancer in the same timeframe.
Stopping new HIV infections has three major obstacles: silence, ignorance, and fear. The candy in the teen prevention kits targets the first. Teens’ questions immediately reveal the two remaining challenges.
“But I’m on the pill so I won’t get HIV.”
“My boyfriend won’t use condoms when we have sex.”
“I’m not gay so I don’t need to worry.”
And specifically at Monadnock Regional High School last month: “I’m afraid to say anything, or go buy condoms. But I don’t want to get HIV. So thanks for the kit.”
Believing that middle- and high-school students aren’t engaging in high-risk sexual behavior is arrogant and dangerous. Abstinence messages are only one tool in an effective prevention repertoire. When adults place all bets on restraint to trump teen hormones, teens suffer the consequences. They want accurate answers to their questions about sex without fear of judgment. They deserve nothing less.
High schools should distribute safe-sex information and materials. And trained staff from AIDS service organizations, often filling the role of nurses and teachers laid off by budget cuts, are here to assist them.
Should school policies outline responsible communication channels, including parents? Yes. Should teachers and administrators who abide by them be crucified when talk radio blowhards, parents, school board members, or superintendents overreact? No.
Denial in the face of new infections is a tactic we have seen before. In 1990, AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region initiated its first broad-scale prevention effort by bringing Suzi Landolphi to Keene. A comedienne and one of the first safe-sex educators to focus on HIV, Landolphi presented her program called “Hot, Sexy, Safer.” She used humor to break down barriers and dispel fear and ignorance with facts about HIV and how to stop its transmission.
Twenty years ago, angry parents converged to protest her presentation. The board chair of Fall Mountain Regional High School expressed outrage and canceled Landolphi’s event. Sound familiar? He banned our agency from entering the high school ever again. The message of suppression took hold and took years to break through.
Two decades later, our prevention message has once again become an enemy for some in New Hampshire. One school’s principal uninvited us from their health fair after months of planning. We wait to discover if other baseless collateral damage will hamper educational outreach. Hard times and false allegations provide convenient excuses for turning away from the uncomfortable facts of HIV/AIDS in our communities.
From the first Landolphi program to World AIDS Day activities in 2010, AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region has worked tirelessly and professionally with very few resources to build a reputation of confidence, trustworthiness, dependability and accomplishment.
Fear of administrative retribution creates hasty reactions from school administrators, the result of weak educational systems rather than agency malfeasance.
AIDS services organizations are easy targets for scapegoating, like the people whom we serve. One by one our financially fragile organizations are disappearing, which means there are fewer people who have resolve and courage to stand up to the fear, ignorance and discrimination that goes along with the territory.
AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region spent 63 months fighting for the right to house seven HIV-positive adults in the Cleve Jones Wellness House. Let’s hope that it won’t take another five years — or worse, three more decades — before honest discourse about safe sex practices can occur openly among this nation’s youth, adults and HIV prevention educators.
Susan MacNeil is executive director of AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region.
In early December, teens at Monadnock Regional High School in Swanzey picked up a total of 74 safe-sex kits during a World AIDS Day event.
Reporters questioned the contents of the kits, which included condoms, lubricant and a piece of candy as a conversation starter, missing the much larger questions.
Why haven’t we been able to stop a deadly virus when we know how to stem its spread? And why, in a culture suffused with sexual images aimed at teens, is honest discussion of prevention strategy deemed taboo?
Since the first diagnosis of AIDS in 1981, more than 30 million people have died. Forty million people live with HIV today; half are women. The World Health Organization estimates that 8,000 new HIV infections occur daily in youth ages 14 to 25. Without wide-scale youth prevention efforts, AIDS deaths by 2030 could reach 117 million, compared to 11.5 million for cancer in the same timeframe.
Stopping new HIV infections has three major obstacles: silence, ignorance, and fear. The candy in the teen prevention kits targets the first. Teens’ questions immediately reveal the two remaining challenges.
“But I’m on the pill so I won’t get HIV.”
“My boyfriend won’t use condoms when we have sex.”
“I’m not gay so I don’t need to worry.”
And specifically at Monadnock Regional High School last month: “I’m afraid to say anything, or go buy condoms. But I don’t want to get HIV. So thanks for the kit.”
Believing that middle- and high-school students aren’t engaging in high-risk sexual behavior is arrogant and dangerous. Abstinence messages are only one tool in an effective prevention repertoire. When adults place all bets on restraint to trump teen hormones, teens suffer the consequences. They want accurate answers to their questions about sex without fear of judgment. They deserve nothing less.
High schools should distribute safe-sex information and materials. And trained staff from AIDS service organizations, often filling the role of nurses and teachers laid off by budget cuts, are here to assist them.
Should school policies outline responsible communication channels, including parents? Yes. Should teachers and administrators who abide by them be crucified when talk radio blowhards, parents, school board members, or superintendents overreact? No.
Denial in the face of new infections is a tactic we have seen before. In 1990, AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region initiated its first broad-scale prevention effort by bringing Suzi Landolphi to Keene. A comedienne and one of the first safe-sex educators to focus on HIV, Landolphi presented her program called “Hot, Sexy, Safer.” She used humor to break down barriers and dispel fear and ignorance with facts about HIV and how to stop its transmission.
Twenty years ago, angry parents converged to protest her presentation. The board chair of Fall Mountain Regional High School expressed outrage and canceled Landolphi’s event. Sound familiar? He banned our agency from entering the high school ever again. The message of suppression took hold and took years to break through.
Two decades later, our prevention message has once again become an enemy for some in New Hampshire. One school’s principal uninvited us from their health fair after months of planning. We wait to discover if other baseless collateral damage will hamper educational outreach. Hard times and false allegations provide convenient excuses for turning away from the uncomfortable facts of HIV/AIDS in our communities.
From the first Landolphi program to World AIDS Day activities in 2010, AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region has worked tirelessly and professionally with very few resources to build a reputation of confidence, trustworthiness, dependability and accomplishment.
Fear of administrative retribution creates hasty reactions from school administrators, the result of weak educational systems rather than agency malfeasance.
AIDS services organizations are easy targets for scapegoating, like the people whom we serve. One by one our financially fragile organizations are disappearing, which means there are fewer people who have resolve and courage to stand up to the fear, ignorance and discrimination that goes along with the territory.
AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region spent 63 months fighting for the right to house seven HIV-positive adults in the Cleve Jones Wellness House. Let’s hope that it won’t take another five years — or worse, three more decades — before honest discourse about safe sex practices can occur openly among this nation’s youth, adults and HIV prevention educators.
Susan MacNeil is executive director of AIDS Services for the Monadnock Region.