Gays, transsexuals and bisexuals who contracted AIDS in the 90 have access problems to residential centers
GAYLES.TV.- Every first of December we celebrate the “World Day for the fight against HIV” And this year we have reason to rejoice. The main one would be the inclusion of the PrEP, better known as the preventive pill for AIDS for people at high risk of contracting the virus, in the portfolio of basic services of the Social security that, finally, has heeded the recommendations of the WHO (World Health Organization) and the repeated claims of entities and groups. The information in this regard can be retrieved in the article “Health will finance PrEP”.
But today we want to deal with the situation of those elderly people who contracted HIV around the decade of the 90. Juan Diego Ramos, HIV coordinator of the FELGTB (State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals), in a ceremony commemorating World AIDS Day, he wanted to frame the situation in the thematic year “Seniors Without Wardrobes: History, Struggle and Memory!”: “People who were diagnosed with HIV at the time when nothing was known about the disease and who survived are now reaching old age and doing so in a situation of special vulnerability. We can't keep leaving them unattended. These are trans women and gay and bisexual men who suffer the consequences of the very high toxicity of the first medications and premature aging, in addition to emotional dramas such as family rejection, grief over the death of friends due to HIV and social and labor discrimination due to stigma ” And he added, "Therefore, we demand that urgent measures be taken to guarantee the correct socio-health care of these people."
It is for this reason that from the FELGTB the autonomous communities are required to fulfill the commitment acquired during the past Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (SNS) of adapting access instructions to residential centers to avoid discriminatory exclusions towards people with HIV.
In the act the testimonies of people diagnosed at the end of the last century have been collected.
Miryam Amaya He recalled the enormous rejection suffered by people with HIV by the rest of society. “It was considered a disease of gay and it was even said that it was a divine punishment, that's why the stigma was so great. The visible people were separated and, for example, if they used a spoon or a glass, then others were running to disinfect it. ” Another assistant, Kike Poveda, explained the consequences suffered by those who experienced that situation: “These sequels are similar to those derived from post-traumatic syndrome: depression, anxiety, emotional numbness, strong feelings of anger, feelings of guilt or insomnia, among others. They are presented with greater or less intensity, often combined with each other and place the people who suffer them in a situation of great vulnerability ”. Finally we collect the moving testimony of Quim Roqueta, who has remembered how hard it was for the infected to live that period. “There were support groups, but you went there, you made friends with someone and the following week you still came back and that person had died. The stigma was so great and the side effects of the medication were so strong that there were people who committed suicide. There were also couples with HIV and when one of them died, the other's family took away his house, car, etc. and it left the survivor in a situation of absolute vulnerability ”.
Therefore, it is urgent to implement the “Social Pact for Non-Discrimination and Equal Treatment” and thus eradicate stigma and serophobia, associated with HIV from a gender perspective and with special attention to the most vulnerable realities.
Commemorate yes, but we will not be able to celebrate anything until the total eradication and due attention to the victims of the virus.
Source: felgtb.org
Photography: RRSS
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