[Viva] 3 cheers for positive women in the media!

[Denise Becker]

Thanks Kath, for this article and your words.  I think it is one of the
hardest things to do - come out to the media.  They do their story and walk
away leaving you with the results.  Having children and respecting their
privacy makes things even more difficult and then there are questions from
people.  I found that it was a great thing for me because it made people
understand why I was off work and I got a lot of people who said caring
things.  However, I did get a couple of letters from religious nuts telling
me "if only I took Jesus as my Saviour then all would be forgiven".  Of
course, they assumed I couldn't possibly be Christian already, hah!

If ever you consider talking to the public about your diagnosis or to the
media I would strongly caution you to think hard about it.  It will be
life-changing and there is no going back.  I found one family wanted to do
it and I talked to them for a long time about it.  Eventually, they did an
interview with the Globe & Mail.  On the day it was to come out then the
Globe found a story about a woman who had not taken meds and had infected
her baby and of course that was the big news and their story was dropped!
 Once again, it showed that the media loves bad news.  I felt very, very sad
for the family because the media had no idea how extremely hard it was for
them to talk to anyone at all about it and they had really done a brave
thing and not even to be told it would not be run in the end was terrible!
 Shame on the media!

Another friend of mine talked to the media and she is constantly asked at
any event to talk to them again.  It is very hard when there is one or two
of you and they try to get you to talk about it over and over, re-living it
every time.

Anyway, enough of my rambling on.  Kath, you are a very strong woman and I
applaud your courage.

Denise



On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 10:19 AM, Kath Webster <kathwebster at shaw.ca> wrote:

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> Hey gals,
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> Please click on this link to read a story about climbing rates of HIV among
> women in Ontario. It highlights a wonderful woman I know named Marvelous
> Muchenje (Zimbabwean born).
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> I think we need to celebrate our sisters who are courageously come out so
> publically with their HIV status.  It helps break down stigma bit by bit and
> paves the way for all of us.
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> http://www.lfpress.com/news/canada/2011/06/02/18226551.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4de76d13abb7306f%2C0
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>
>
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