Just sharing...

Hello everyone,

First, I just want to say that I was very happy with my book report grade :) I got a 296/300, which I think is impressive. No, not because I am lazy, but because I am one of those people who love reading but hate writing about what they read!!! I hope y’all did good and got what you where looking for.

As I said in my last blog, I started watching the assigned movies for assignment 4. The first movie that I watched was “And the Band Played On” and oh my God, I LOVED IT… It was by far the most amazing educational movie EVER!! I know I said that in the student discussion before but I just have to make sure everyone watches it, lol. I just loved how the AIDS topic was presented in the movie and how hard doctors had to work to identify the virus.
“Why did this happen? You’re a doctor, how you don’t know?” This line was said in the beginning of the movie by a little boy who lost his family to a mysterious disease that was later identified as the Ebola Fever. This quote reminded me of myself, because I never put so much thought into the struggle and the confusion doctors have to go through when they’re faced with a new disease. But when I was watching the movie, I realized that even doctors get confused, struggle, and argue with each other in order to identify a virus and help the rest of us. This movie really changed the way I think about illness and how much it takes to identify it. So now, I don’t think that doctors have to know what happened, because they’re humans too and they are limited, just like the rest of us.

I also watched the movie "Philadelphia" and it was another nice movie discussing the discrimination agianst Homosexuals who have AIDS. it talked about a successful lawyer who was fired when his boss found out about his sexual orientation. It is this movie that made me decide to discuss stigma against homosexuals who have AIDS in my DID YOU KNOW?

So.....

DID YOU KNOW?
Okay what I am going to mention is not related directly to HIV/AIDS, but I heard this in the movie “And the Band Played On”. Did you guys know that in 1981 there was a straight press and a gay press?????!!!!!!!!
When I heard that I was like “Oh my God, that’s impossible”, like seriously!!! Do homosexuals and heterosexuals watch different news??? Does your sexual orientation effect what kind of news you like to watch??? If they both live in the same country, then why different presses????? I was just shocked to hear that. It reminded me of the “white” vs. “black”. I’m so glad that we don’t have that anymore, hopefully.
Also, did you guys know that AIDS was first called the “Gay-related immune deficiency” or GRID? But then it got renamed by Dr. Voeller.
This made me want to know more about the stigma against homosexuals who have AIDS. So I went online and did some research and found out that during the 1997, a survey was conducted and participants were asked what they think about when they hear the word AIDS. Guess what the answer was? 53% said that they think of homosexuals when they hear the word AIDS! Very shocking; I mean even after proving that AIDS is not gay-related, people still link it to homosexuality!

Reference: Capitanio, J & Herek, G. (1999). Aids Stigma and Sexual Prejudice. Retrieved September 29, 2009, from http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/abs99_sp.pdf