For over an hour, I spoke about my experiences living with HIV, as well as my work on the criminalisation of HIV transmission.
The interview did not make the final cut of the programme, ostensibly due to time limitations, although I suspect that the issue – and my opinions on criminalisation – did not the fit in with the show’s agenda. Here is a an excerpt.
Canadian journalist, Shawn Syms, interviewed me in July 2008 for his article, Criminalizing HIV may only fuel the epidemic, published in the online edition of Canada's gay newspaper, Xtra. The article examines the impact of criminal prosecutions for HIV exposure and transmission in the country with the most prosecutions per capita in the world.
In February 2005, I was interviewed for an
article in gay men’s magazine, Attitude, about my experiences with facial
wasting and New Fill.
NAME EDWIN
AGE 42
OCCUPATION EDITOR, AIDS TREATMENT UPDATE
In 2000 I nearly died of Aids. But by the end of 2001 after being put on a new combination of drugs I was back to good health and had more T-cells than I'd had in the last decade. Unfortunately, the combination therapy led to lipodystrophy – a change in the distribution of body fat. And although I was able to build muscle in some of the places on my body where I'd lost fat, there was nothing I could do about the facial wasting I was left with. At first I was in denial about it, despite the fact that my doctor offered me this new treatment called New Fill, which corrects it and despite the fact that I was working as an HIV journalist and doing work around facial wasting. I just didn't think it was that bad, but when I look back at photos now I think, 'Oh my god I looked terrible!' It began to dawn on me though that the deep lines in my face were affecting me on a psychological level. As a gay man a lot of your confidence is based on your looks or how you perceive people to look at you and I realised that my confidence had become eroded, as the lines on my face had got thicker. I wasn't as outgoing as I used to be and if I was in a bar I just didn't feel that I could attract people. After looking in the mirror one day and studying how I looked when I smiled I decided that from then on it I would smile less because I just didn't want those huge crates on my face to show. I didn't mind that people could tell I'm HIV positive, what I minded was that people would think I was less attractive because of the facial wasting. But the turning point came for me when I bumped into a friend who had just had the New Fill treatment and he was absolutely glowing with happiness and confidence. So I booked myself in and even after the first session (of three) there was a remarkable transformation. When I looked at myself I saw the Edwin I remembered as opposed to this person who had been scarred by so much fighting with HIV. And a few months after the last treatment I met my boyfriend and fell in love.
Canadian journalist, Shawn Syms, interviewed me in July 2008 for his article, Criminalizing HIV may only fuel the epidemic, published in the online edition of Canada's gay newspaper, Xtra. The article examines the impact of criminal prosecutions for HIV exposure and transmission in the country with the most prosecutions per capita in the world.