Today I sat down in front of my computer screem scanning through a host of "directories" trying to find what other resources I can use to help the people that I volunteer with. See I have been volunteer in Faulkner, Lonoke, White and Pulaski counties helping people who live with HIV/AIDS. Here in our "bible belt" there are people who are suffering. They suffer because they are invisible...sentenced to ignorance, hatred and fear from their families, friends and communities. For me it started 3 years ago, with a favor fo a friend. she was called into work a new shift and needed someone to watch her brother who was in his final stages of AIDS. She knew that I had worked with people with HIV/AIDS before I moved south. She was a good friend ( and you don't get many of those) so I said "yes." For this story I'll call him "Mike". when I met Mike he was a young man, just 29 and very sick, pale and fragile. Mike was on oxygen because of constant pneumonia and breathing problems. the first few days were hard on him, he hadn't eaten much in two days and had no bowel movements in three. I fed him potato soup, and we talked (well I talked) for a long time. After a while, I found Mike to be a very loving person, he had the ability to laugh, joke and talk openly about his homosexuality and disease. During one of our talks I found out that he loved "The Twilight Zone". (I AM A MEGA FAN OF ROD STERLING!) One weekend I went to visit Mike to see how he was doing, armed with the Blockbuster complete series of "the zone" and (too much butter) Orville's popcorn. I thought it would make him happy, and it did, it brought Mike to tears. Mike told me that he "felt ashamed that he had AIDS and because of that he sat in his room all day with nothin to run through his mnd but regrets." "I avoided delaing with ahving HIV, I just didn't want to think about it...or believe it," he told me. We took all day watching DVD's over that popcorn as Mike laughed out loud, jumped at all the scary parts and was stuck with a smile after 10 hours when I finally had to leave. Over the next months I brought other movies, sometimes books or music from the library and my own collection. Mike died 9 months later, "complications from pnemonia". He left me a note that said, "My shining star, I love you, now go and help someone else." there was a list of four names and addresses on the paper. It started out as just a favor for a friend, and I met another friend and another. All are in different stages of HIV/AIDS, all from different backgrounds with different stories. The one thing they all have in common is not the disease, but that they are alone. Mike was lucky that he had a sister, but most of the people I meet have no family, friends or connection to help them. They live in shame, fear and depression; some have been abandoned and some have runaway and many more commit suicide through drug abuse.
Yet "they", as "we", are all human, we all have that light inside of us, the desire to laugh, the need to cry, to be held, fed or just to hear a voice, a story...a song. We must never forget that. Now time has gone by and I have two other part-time helpers and many more people to help. i am looking for other resources that can help people with HIV/AIDS. People are looking for real and true information about the disease, like how to schedule services with a doctor. They should know what kind of new treatments are available and learn new ways to live a healthy life style. People want to know what legal right they have and information is open to the public and other privacy issues.
We need support groups, not just for HIV/AIDS but open to the whole LGBT communityl, all of it, queers, intersexed, ALL! I wonder what groups are out there, if they are there, and where are they? I wonder if there is anyone else interested in starting a LGBT suppport group? OK so heres's my project...I am on a mission to find and/or start a support group. What do you think, can there be equal support groups for the LGBT community in a bible belt state like Arkansas?
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