AIDS Education

Re “Teens and the Perils of HIV,” Ventura County letters, Oct. 3.

As a peer educator and a person who knows many people with AIDS, including my late uncle, I know about the pain of discrimination experienced by people with HIV or AIDS.

I have been a volunteer for AIDS Care for almost two years and have met men, women, gays, straights, Caucasians, Latinos, African Americans, Asians, short people, tall people, fat people, thin people, blonds and brunets who are affected by HIV or AIDS. Is this a “gay disease”? No!

I would like letter-writer Rich Beach to go to the pediatric ward and tell parents whose children are dying of AIDS that their children are too young to know about the disease. Or to tell a mother visiting her child’s grave that the disease that killed her baby was a gay one.

I would also like to clarify that when we went to the Boys & Girls Club we never talked about sex or intravenous drug use. We focused on what to do if a friend has the disease and that you can still be his or her friend.

It is people like Mr. Beach who make me want to go out and educate more people about HIV and AIDS. So thank you, Mr. Beach. You reminded me that there are still close-minded people who need to be awakened to what is really going on.

IRIS WALDRON

Ventura