From Angela Merkel to Lady Gaga: on 1 December, everyone is affected and wearing a bow. What do those living with HIV actually think? We asked our positive role models
Stephan (Berlin): "Just terrible!"
Since I have been affected myself, I have been annoyed by World AIDS Day. There is far too little to be found in the media and, above all, the same thing is always shown: Everyone is lying sick and the buck is passed around as to who is to blame. It's just terrible! That's why World Aids Day is hardly taken seriously by the public, but is mentioned and ticked off. The question of how to protect yourself from infection on the remaining days of the year is not mentioned. I don't need the day to remember deceased friends either. Their birthdays are my own personal days of remembrance. I don't go to these funeral marches because you often see such fake funeral bitterness there. Especially those who don't have it. It's also difficult to empathise with a positive person. I couldn't do that before either. My brother has been positive for longer than I have, and back then I used to put up candles and sometimes even cry. But nothing bad had happened yet. We should celebrate life much more. We should celebrate the fact that we're doing so well here in Germany!
Marcel (Essen): "You don't have to be Einstein to get the message"
World AIDS Day has moved me more since I became positive myself. I take a closer look at what is reported in the media and, above all, like is reported. In 2009, I experienced the day as a positive for the first time. I was at the "Red Ribbon Special" party in Cologne. Everyone there gets a red ribbon and then everyone celebrates together. That really touched me: People show their solidarity - regardless of whether they themselves are positive or negative. However, not everyone has realised that yet. A friend of mine also wore a Red Ribbon and was asked: "Do you have HIV?" As if the ribbon was an identification mark for positive people. That would be daft! - The double message of World AIDS Day - you can live well and for a long time with HIV, but you shouldn't get it anyway - is not so easy to grasp. But it's not that difficult either. It can be explained in three or four sentences and you don't have to be Einstein to understand it. Despite the therapies, the infection still causes a lot of difficulties, both physically and through marginalisation. That's why solidarity with positive people is so important.
Andreas (Koblenz): "I don't want pity!"
My friend Wolfgang and I had to adjust our lives to the disease 16 years ago. We don't start all over again every year just because it's World Aids Day! It's annoying that the topic is forced on you by others once a year. We live with it every day of the year - including Wolfgang, even though he is negative. World Aids Day is often used as a pity party. But I don't want to stir up pity, HIV is no reason to mourn! I've been positive for 16 years and haven't missed a day of work. For others, the infection may have far more serious consequences. But there's nothing you can do about the infection itself. We simply had to learn to deal with it.
Andreas' and Wolfgang's story on iwwit.de
Markus (Frankfurt): "I wear the red ribbon almost all the time"
I used to be aware of World Aids Day, but I never supported it. I come from a small village and didn't know anything about it there. Now I wear the red ribbon almost all the time. I have one made of red beads and small pins. World Aids Day is still very important. It's only in the last few days that I've really realised how much the topic is once again in the spotlight. Of course, it would be nicer if the media would spread out the 50 interviews I've already given over the year and not send them all out on the same day. - Here in Frankfurt, nails are always hammered into the AIDS memorial on World AIDS Day - in memory of those who have died in the past year. This year I get to hammer in one of the nails myself. It's very emotional, of course, because I know that one day my name will be read out.
Thilo, Sieversdorf-Hohenofen: "People in the countryside don't need that kind of frippery"
World Aids Day is pretty important, but it has the same problem as Mother's Day: there is a lot of hypocrisy. Many people decorate their chests with the red ribbon and don't give a damn about the issue the rest of the year. I've never seen a red ribbon here in the village. People in the countryside don't need all that frippery to show their solidarity. They are much more pragmatic: they take a close look at a person and if they are OK, they support them - regardless of whether they are positive or negative. My friend and I are a good example of how you can live an openly positive life anywhere. Here in our community of 500 people in Ostprignitz, everyone knows about it and the whole village community is behind us. - If we can manage it, we always take part in the funeral march in Berlin on World AIDS Day. That way we can remember the people we have lost to Aids. The mood is never the same. Sometimes it gets you totally down. But often we also remember the wonderful moments we shared with a friend who has died.
Achim (Berlin): "The Aids number is over for me"
I can't understand this snivelling about World Aids Day: I've been positive for 15 years, I'm in good health, I live a relatively openly positive life. I don't experience negative reactions. That's why 1 December no longer affects me at all. When I take to the streets against a Nazi demonstration on 1 May or protest against nuclear transports in Wendland, it's a personal matter for me. But the AIDS number is over for me. If World Aids Day is supposed to spread a message, then it's this: HIV infection is completely normal!
