First of all, a huge thank you to the folks who got this started. Apart from the traffic, the smog, the potholes, the bosses and an occasional robbery, my taxi years were wonderful. I can’t believe that was over 30 years ago! Now I live in Amsterdam, engaged to my Dutch partner Paul. I’ve kept in touch with just a few taxi colleagues over the years, and through them heard of a few others. I would love to hear more updated taxi stories—and old taxi stories too.
I direct a study abroad program in Holland for US students on sexuality and gender. In November I organized a public forum for my students on HIV/AIDS. Afterwards, I wrote some of my reflections on the epidemic to my students. Coincidentally, this also gives a thumbnail sketch of my time between taxi and Amsterdam.
Here is what I wrote to my students:
Thank you for your reflections following last week’s HIV/AIDS forum. Many were excellent, fascinating and quite moving. I thought I would share some of my own reflections.
I was really struck by the huge generational difference. I don’t want to over-generalize, but for your generation of young Americans, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a background issue. You are aware of the epidemic of course, but it is not a defining issue. In a strange way, that is a sign of the successes of the AIDS movements, but at the same time, a cause for concern. Many youth are complacent about the epidemic, and that has led to worrisome increase in infection rates among youth in certain populations.
Freddie José, Fritz, Ronnie, George, Burr…. These are some of the dear friends I have lost to AIDS. Freddie José was my first boyfriend. By the time he was sick, I was living in El Salvador. When he died, his mother sent me a very sweet note, but this was pre-internet days and the letter sat at the commune in Vermont for half a year until I came “home” for a visit. By then, she too was gone and I was not able to thank her.
Throughout many years of the epidemic, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), was the most persistent and creative activist voice confronting the government, the drug companies, and the gay community. Silence = Death.
In El Salvador in the 1990’s, I knew a number of people working against the epidemic. Some were Catholic nuns who counseled people to judge for themselves which was the worst sin: using a condom against the Pope’s command, or spreading this terrible disease. They also showed that empowering women was more important than “simply” making condoms available. If someone has no voice to express her wishes about whether or not to have sex, or whether or not to use protection—then simply having condoms available is meaningless. I knew others working with prisoners on AIDS prevention. And others working with youth. In a wonderful and bizarre collaboration, since there were no dildos available in the country for condom demonstrations, the prisoners in a workshop carved dildos that were then used in education programs with the youth. In a poor and small rural village, friends of mine work with a local committee to care for those already infected and prevent new infections.
Then I went to Africa for 3 years. Namibia has one of the highest infection rates in the world, yet due to shame and ignorance, no one talks about it. The obituaries were filled with notices of folks who died after a long illness, or who died of TB. HIV was almost never mentioned. But there were dedicated activists working to open the discussion and demand action. Now, HIV+ folks in many southern African nations can receive the drug cocktails that control the progress of the disease. Some see the choice between treatment or prevention. But providing treatment is effective prevention. People who know their status are more conscious of their actions, and treatment also greatly reduces the viral load and contagiousness.
My Namibian colleagues and I organized a couple of public forums on the issue. Well over a hundred people came because they were hungry for info. One forum was on “HIV/AIDS as a development issue.” AIDS was claiming a disproportionate number of people in their most productive years and devastating the education system. The disease was infecting the structure of society. Another forum was “HIV/AIDS as a gender issue.” In Africa, AIDS is primarily a heterosexual disease where a majority of the HIV+ folks are female. In addition, it is many times the grandmothers who end up caring for the children.
One of our panelists was the Minister of Health. When we were publicizing this event, I told her staff that I would like a quote from her for the press release saying something like, “The disease is the same, but the social effects are different for women and men.” The next day, the Minister wrote back and said, “that’s a good quote, go ahead and quote me saying that.”
To build on that quote, the disease is the same, but it manifests itself differently in different social settings and regions. The “at-risk” populations are different in different places, and the ways to combat it must adapt. There have been some successes, but so much is still to do.
Taxi Rank & File Coalition 