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Sarah_Jayne · 11-12-2005, 01:43 AM

7. Did you goto the national AIDS confrence cause you have AIDS?

At that stage the only thing I was in danger of catching was a cold.

For some reason that I still don't remember, as a teenager I took a really strong interest in the HIV/AIDs situation. I have always had a strong hatrid for bigotry and ignorance and the way people with HiV/AIDS were being treated at the time was a perfect example of both.

When I was about 16 I started a group in my school called T.A.S.T.E. - Teens Aligned Stopping The Epidemic. I had no idea what I was doing but I took it to the principal of my school and he reluctantly let me set it up as an after school group in the school. It took a while to get a teacher to agree to be the sponsor but I did find one and we started off by doing things for National Aids day and the like. Essentially I wanted to raise awareness in my school that thought HIV/AIDS was something that only people they never met would get.

I was lucky that I had a very good health education teacher that listened to me when I talked. At the time the school was still showing the C. Everett Koop HIV/AIDS education video for school. It was so out of date and in it he blames the whole thing squarely on the shoulders of gay people. When I saw that in class all the political and social justice vibes in my body were set off and I went on a personal campaign to get that video removed from the ciriculum. As I said, my teacher was a good man and took my side and after many weeks and going to the school board they removed it.

Somehow along the line my Senator's office must have heard about me or contacted someone and asked for suggestions of teenagers interested in such matters because I had a phone call from his office asking me if I wanted to be Pennsylvania's reprentative to something called 'Metro Teen AIDs Conference' in Washington DC. After much talking to my parents (my mother who was a scientist but was convinced someone would bleed on me by accident) I was allowed to go. I went for two years and every time I went my mind opened up a bit more.

Suddenly I was taken out of my stuffy and town and taken to this conference that was full of teenagers from all sort of backgrounds, many of whom had HIV and AIDS and even more that were gay, transgender, lesbian, bisexual or just weren't sure yet. The puropse of the conference was to teach us to be 'peer to peer' educators on the subject. For me, it did that but it also took me from being interested in the subject to knowing people that would die..to touching people with HIV/AIDS and suddenly it was my cause and it lit a fire under me.

The good side of that was that it helped me to to what I consider to be my biggest accomplishment in high school. After VH1 did their first 'Concert for Life' I suggested to my school that we have a battle of the bands and do the same thing. Again, the principal said it was okay but he gave me a whole list of things I had to do inorder for it to go off. I had to get so many bands (in a place that never did anything like this), I had to get everything donated so the school didn't have to pay anything and a lot of other little things.

As I said in an earlier answer, I often doubt my abilities and need to push myself and go out of my comfort zone. This was one of the first times I did that. I talked a lot of kids a lot 'cooler' than me to do the show, I got stuff donated from around town and I used AOL and BBSes (old fashioned) to advertise the thing. That last bit was pretty new as no one had the web at that stage and anyone that knew what 'download' meant was a freak.

As a result of advertising like that I was able to reach people on various gay themed Fidonet and mailing lists. As a result we had a big turn out of people from all over the Philadelphia area and our little school earned about $5,000 profit that night that all went to HIV/AIDS charities.

I was particuarly moved when I went onto the school website last year and saw an advertisement for this year's concert for life. They have changed it so part of the money goes to cancer charites but regardless it feels good that ten years on (eek) my school is still mixing music and politics..my two faveorite things.

11-12-2005, 01:43 AM
Sarah_Jayne Now with more Jayne Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 40,077	7. Did you goto the national AIDS confrence cause you have AIDS? At that stage the only thing I was in danger of catching was a cold. For some reason that I still don't remember, as a teenager I took a really strong interest in the HIV/AIDs situation. I have always had a strong hatrid for bigotry and ignorance and the way people with HiV/AIDS were being treated at the time was a perfect example of both. When I was about 16 I started a group in my school called T.A.S.T.E. - Teens Aligned Stopping The Epidemic. I had no idea what I was doing but I took it to the principal of my school and he reluctantly let me set it up as an after school group in the school. It took a while to get a teacher to agree to be the sponsor but I did find one and we started off by doing things for National Aids day and the like. Essentially I wanted to raise awareness in my school that thought HIV/AIDS was something that only people they never met would get. I was lucky that I had a very good health education teacher that listened to me when I talked. At the time the school was still showing the C. Everett Koop HIV/AIDS education video for school. It was so out of date and in it he blames the whole thing squarely on the shoulders of gay people. When I saw that in class all the political and social justice vibes in my body were set off and I went on a personal campaign to get that video removed from the ciriculum. As I said, my teacher was a good man and took my side and after many weeks and going to the school board they removed it. Somehow along the line my Senator's office must have heard about me or contacted someone and asked for suggestions of teenagers interested in such matters because I had a phone call from his office asking me if I wanted to be Pennsylvania's reprentative to something called 'Metro Teen AIDs Conference' in Washington DC. After much talking to my parents (my mother who was a scientist but was convinced someone would bleed on me by accident) I was allowed to go. I went for two years and every time I went my mind opened up a bit more. Suddenly I was taken out of my stuffy and town and taken to this conference that was full of teenagers from all sort of backgrounds, many of whom had HIV and AIDS and even more that were gay, transgender, lesbian, bisexual or just weren't sure yet. The puropse of the conference was to teach us to be 'peer to peer' educators on the subject. For me, it did that but it also took me from being interested in the subject to knowing people that would die..to touching people with HIV/AIDS and suddenly it was my cause and it lit a fire under me. The good side of that was that it helped me to to what I consider to be my biggest accomplishment in high school. After VH1 did their first 'Concert for Life' I suggested to my school that we have a battle of the bands and do the same thing. Again, the principal said it was okay but he gave me a whole list of things I had to do inorder for it to go off. I had to get so many bands (in a place that never did anything like this), I had to get everything donated so the school didn't have to pay anything and a lot of other little things. As I said in an earlier answer, I often doubt my abilities and need to push myself and go out of my comfort zone. This was one of the first times I did that. I talked a lot of kids a lot 'cooler' than me to do the show, I got stuff donated from around town and I used AOL and BBSes (old fashioned) to advertise the thing. That last bit was pretty new as no one had the web at that stage and anyone that knew what 'download' meant was a freak. As a result of advertising like that I was able to reach people on various gay themed Fidonet and mailing lists. As a result we had a big turn out of people from all over the Philadelphia area and our little school earned about $5,000 profit that night that all went to HIV/AIDS charities. I was particuarly moved when I went onto the school website last year and saw an advertisement for this year's concert for life. They have changed it so part of the money goes to cancer charites but regardless it feels good that ten years on (eek) my school is still mixing music and politics..my two faveorite things. Last edited by Sarah_Jayne; 11-12-2005 at 01:45 AM..