NEW NATIONAL AIDS POLICY

Dear President Barack Obama,

My name is Nathan Tyson and I am a person living with HIV, the virus which causes AIDS and I live in Cordele, Georgia.

I work in a volunteer capacity for Safe Haven of Thomasville, GA - which is a small grass roots developed HIV/AIDS not for profit social service organization within the Southwest Georgia region as an HIV/AIDS Educator and though if you'd asked me 10 years ago if I envisioned myself in this social service field? - I assure you, my answer might've been a bit different at the time.

I became more involved in HIV/AIDS Advocacy because overtime, even though medical advances continued in HIV medicine and our quality of life experiences continued to improve - the Stigma of HIV prevailed, in some ways, it grew stronger and the divisions amongst the HIV Negative people of our society within the United States of America and those that are living with HIV/AIDS deepened considerably.

Consequently, a younger generation of youth has begun to look upon HIV as a proverbial "cake walk", thru life due to these recent medical advances in HIV medicine and again, the numbers of our nation's youth and it's seniors contracting HIV has began to escalate and grow at alarming numbers in our society once again - this is when I had my epiphany moment at age 35 (or mid life crisis, whichever it was), and realized I could no-longer take my blessings I was afforded living with HIV for granted.

I had to "get" involved - too much was at stake now... the Stigma of HIV and the Ignorance surrounding it was still with us and looking the other way or pretending this didn't affect me directly wasn't going to make the problems go away.

We each have a responsibility to be honest with ourselves first and foremost and then to the people we choose to love as well, especially those combatting a life threatening, terminal ilness like HIV, the virus which causes AIDS!

We also have an imperative to try to live our lives with as much passion and dignity as we can -- anything less than this is a life not lived well and who truly wants to be remembered for that?!

I ask you President Obama, to reach out to our nation's HIV/AIDS communities, to ask our top medical brass within the National Institutes of Health to work harder on a cure for HIV/AIDS and to eliminate red tape which may possibly be hampering their ability to further testing for an HIV/AIDS vaccine clinical trials program in our country!

I've lived with HIV for the past 17 years and am now 42 years old, I tested HIV Positive when I was only 25 years old and I've endured many hardships along the way, from housing discrimination in Greenville, South Carolina in December of 1995, to employment discrimination in Atlanta, Georgia in February of 1997, to medical apathy in my hometown of Cordele, GA with Crisp Regional Hospital and it's staff since day-1, of testing HIV Positive in May of 1992.

These discriminatorial practices I am sorry to tell you, "still" goes on - Silent Discrimination by these types of people within our society are unscrupulous and these individuals are resourceful in procuring appropriate language which enables them to acutely violate the Americans with Disabilities Act(A.D.A.), even though people like myself living with HIV/AIDS are within a protected non-discrimination class under the A.D.A.!!

We as a nation need to heal many wounds -- one of which is the Stigma we keep generating towards those living with HIV/AIDS in the United States of America!

It is now 2009, it has been 25 years since former President Ronald Reagan said the word "AIDS", on national television in 1984, and yet today, HIV and AIDS continues to be words for shame, fear, intimidation, discrimination, and hostile intentions from housing sectors, employment venues, and medical facilities throughout our nation.

I am only one person and one voice on this issue, but there are many like me... All you have to do is consult your National Director for AIDS and you will discover that my words are true.

Our nation needs a new, more relevant National AIDS Policy - the message of "Abstinence", alone, isn't enough of a message to send to our citizens -  a new message to our nation's youth, adults and our seniors is urgently needed from our President and his Administration!

1. We need a National AIDS Policy and Message which is more relevant, more tactile and in the same breath, compassionate for those like myself living each day and breath in the moment, ever-thankful for our many blessings and hopeful for a brighter tomorrow than the today we find ourselves living within on this journey with HIV.

It is my dream of living long enough to see the cure for HIV made real for ALL of the people of our planet -- What a glorious day that will be for us all to share with tearful eyes and jubilant smiles!


Please help me send this message to President Obama, informing him that a new, National AIDS Policy is needed with a more relevant message, one that promotes education of HIV in our school systems, our colleges and universities, our medical facilities, our housing sectors and our employment sectors!