Two UH students are taking stands against the stigmas in their lives as panelists at Tuesday’s Anti-Stigma Day symposium in the Houston Room, University Center.
Live Consortium Inc. will feature panelists from various backgrounds who will discuss stigmas’ effects on society from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
One of these panelists is HIV-positive kinesiology senior Scott Thomison.
‘You’re not going to get it from sitting next to us in class, or drinking out of the same glass or kissing us,’ Thomison said about people’s misconceptions of how HIV is transmitted.
These misunderstandings are why he’s going into the health field to teach.
‘There’s so much stuff kids are not taught at school that they should know about that would put their minds at ease,’ he said.
The gay and HIV communities are not alone in their fights against stigmas. Public relations sophomore Allison Neal was asked to speak at the upcoming symposium because of her interest in stigmas in the Greek community.
‘I’m not trying to compare sororities to HIV at all,’ Neal said. ‘I’m just saying we both have stigmas in our community, and we can work against fighting stigmas together.’
Thominson said he decided to get tested at the University Health Center when he was bored one Friday three years ago. Having not been sexually active for about a year and a half, Thominson said there wasn’t a worry in his mind, and he was confident the test would prove negative.
However, Thominson said he knew something was different when one of the health center’s staff members called him into an office.
The day he found out he was HIV positive, Thominson said he told his five closest friends and then no one else for six months until he publicized his HIV status on Facebook and MySpace.
‘It’s like telling someone you have cancer,’ Thomison said.
After going public about being HIV positive, Thomison said he received degrading messages and e-mails, mostly from people he didn’t know, with hurtful messages about how he ought to stay away from them.
People would also say things to his face or, in terms of dating, reject him harshly. He used to be hurt by it, he said, but now just laughs at it.
‘A lot of the stigma comes from people just thinking that you’re just a bad person if you get HIV,’ Thomison said.
After waiting six months to come out after his diagnosis, Thominson’s best friend told him he has HIV, which overwhelmed Thomison with sadness, shock, and hurt.
‘I wish he would’ve told me (sooner) because I know what it is to go through that alone,’ Thomison said. ‘In my mind, a negative person is (safer) with somebody that has HIV than somebody that doesn’t have HIV.’
He said this is because people with HIV get tested every three to six months, whereas HIV-negative people tend to test every six months to a year, so those with HIV are going to be more safe sexually and careful to not hurt their sexual partner.’
Dating is lonely, Thomison said, as he hopes to find someone who is accepting and understands that the stigmas around HIV are generally untrue.
His family doesn’t know about his HIV status, and when he came out as gay to them, nothing more was talked about.
‘Gay identity development is a tough road,’ clinical psychologist David S. Genac said. ‘It makes people very skeptical of the mainstream community.’
Genac owns and operates his private practice in the Montrose area where he gives therapy for couples, anxiety and depression.’
He said a small percentage of his patients’ problems actually stem from being members of the gay community. He sees many gay and lesbian clients who may not necessarily have scheduled an appointment for a gay or lesbian concern, but just want a gay therapist since they won’t feel judgment or stigma.
A speaker for the symposium, Genac said many people in the gay community are skeptical of being a part of or volunteering for HIV-prevention programs, which are generally run by straight people and feed off of the underlying stigma that HIV is a ‘gay disease.’
Genac said he hopes to educate students on the many reasons why stigmas are a hindrance to our own health.
‘As a psychologist, I think I could also talk about how our own defense mechanisms a lot of times get in the way of us having a healthy life,’ Genac said.
He spoke of his internal struggle with coming out as gay because he had convinced himself it would have a terrible outcome, he wouldn’t have a career and that his family would never talk to him again. Coming out ended up being one of the best experiences of his life, ‘more important than getting my Ph.D.’
As a member of Chi Omega, Neal feels that sororities and fraternities have also been given false reputations.
A common misconception is people in Greek organizations are people who like to drink every night, Neal said, but the one stigma ringing the least true to her is they are made up of unintelligent, wealthy people. Many students work at least one job and live without assistance from their parents, she said.
Students who participate in UH Greek life represent three percent of the University’s population. Neal said the small contingency is faced with assumption like the excessive ‘drama’ connected to living in sorority houses.
‘For the most part, we don’t have an exaggerated amount of drama that any other group wouldn’t have,’ Neal said. ‘I mean, there’s drama in the chess club.’
Chi Omega focuses on many positive goals, among them community service, sisterhood, and academic excellence, which go against what first comes to mind when thinking of a sorority, Neal said.
Being at a school with many commuters, it’s difficult to make friends and many are missing out on that opportunity because of stigmas against the Greek community, she said.
Many different people are misrepresented, Neal said, and she can relate to the campaign because of her observations of attitudes towards the Greek community.
‘On the University of Houston campus, we have such a large population but such a small Greek life,’ Neal said. ‘A lot of that has to do with stigmas of ‘I don’t have the time to be in a sorority, I don’t want my grades to suffer, I’m not into partying, ‘hellip; I don’t have the money.’ In reality, a lot of those things aren’t really issues – it’s more of a sisterly bond we’re looking for.’
