Trouble with HIV Meds Part II

Hello Everyone,

This is Justin B Smith from Justin’s HIV Journal. As most of you can recall I was put on the HIV medication regime that incorporated Norvir, Truvada, and Rayatez, it took a while for my body to adjust to these medications.

HIV Medications Problems Video Part 1 of 2

The Rayatez medication made my eyes yellow, which means that it was affecting my Liver functions. I first noticed this about a week after starting the medication. I was so self conscience about my eyes. Everyone was going to know that I was sick and there was nothing I could do about it. I told my doctor at the next appointment. He told me that it might occur when first stating the medications. I believe in what my doctor told me. After a few weeks went by my eyes were still a little yellow.

My second visit to my doctor was a good one. I voiced my concerns and he listened. He instructed me to go to the lab and get my blood work done.

HIV Medications Problems Part 2 of 2

As I sat in my chair having my blood work done I thought about the events of the future. I thought about then candidate Barack H. Obama. I thought about the many struggles that this man had to endure. That was the moment I posed a question to myself, “What was this man’s drive to become President of a wounded country?” My second thought was, “I’m wounded, but NOT dead”.

The third visit was the reading of my blood work. It turned out to be a surprise to me. My eyes have since been better. I have been feeling so much better and the election in November gave me a lot of hope.

I had the fortune of witnessing history first hand when I went to President Barack H Obama’s Inauguration on January 20^th in Washington DC. I’m originally from Washington DC, by way of Silver Spring MD, so it felt like home.

President Barack Obama's Inauguration Video

The Washington DC area was energized by this new President, one who has given people joy and hope. He has made people think a little differently about how they treat others, how they treat themselves and hopefully how they treat people who are living with HIV.

The people of the world have now been given a more positive outlook on life by a man who came from meager beginnings to become the leader of the free world.

Only time will tell if we as a people can keep this positive energy up, only time can tell if the health care promises of President Barack Obama will be kept. Only time will tell if HIV positive people will be given a more optimistic out look on their own lives because of new found light in America’s leadership.

President Barack Obama’s Promise on HIV and AIDS:

According to the White House Website, in the first year of his presidency, President Obama promises to develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. The President promises to support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception and STD prevention. His promise includes combating infection within our prison population through education and prevention, and distributing prophylactics through our public health system. The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. President Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS.

HOPE FULLY THESE PROMISES WILL BE KEPT AND WE CAN ALL LOOK WITH CLEAR EYES TO THE FUTURE, WITH OR WITHOUT REYETAZ.

LINKS

Justin’s HIV Journal: Trouble with Medications Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ESC7otKxU

Justin’s HIV Journal: Trouble with Medications Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r07y3ED3gXU

Justin’s HIV Journal: President Barack Obama’s Inauguration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_RiBUKDMmA

HIV and Hooking Up

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Justin's HIV Journal: Gay, Straight, Black, White Marriage is a Civil Right

Protest on Proposition 8 Washington DC

Hello my name is Justin B Smith, from Justin’s HIV Journal.. I first decided to record my life with HIV using live video feeds because of the lack of representation that we as African American men have when it comes to documentation of this disease. With all the recent strides the United States has been going through such as the first Black President and Gay Marriage being legalized in Connecticut, I felt it only right for me to take my watchers and readers to the Protest on Proposition 8 held in Washington DC in response to the constitutional vote in California banning same sex marriage.

This recent vote is but one example of when a majority has institutionalized discrimination. People have to know that banning anyone from having a legal marriage is discrimination. Let’s look at it from both a Civil Rights and Religious stand point.

In the case of Loving vs. the Commonwealth of Virginia, two people who loved and were devoted to each other decided to get married. Mildred Loving a woman of African and Native American descent and Richard Perry Loving, a Caucasian man. Both were residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia. They were arrested and charged with miscegenation, which in this instance banned inter-racial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to one year in prison, with the sentence suspended for 25 years on condition that they leave the state of Virginia. The trial judge in the case, Leon Bazile, repeated Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's 18th-century interpretation of race, proclaiming that


“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and He placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with His arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that He separated the races shows that He did not intend for the races to mix.”

History has shown us that people have been using God and the Bible as their platform for discrimination. The Bible has been used and misinterpreted to justify discrimination against blacks and others, in defining marriage as in the case of Loving fight and now against gay marriage. Many “Christians” use it to impose their moral stance. When Christianity and Catholicism were introduced and forced on African and South American nations, they were told that homosexuality, amongst other things, was wrong, when it was already a part of everyday life even when it was unspoken. Those cultures were required to accept the Christian and Catholic beliefs and forced to disregard their own. Has history taught us nothing. Hopefully, history will repeat itself and will use the case of Loving vs the Commonwealth of Virginia to overturn this ban on gay marriage. If Christians want to talk to moralization tell them to look at their own history books for the truth about homosexuality, and make sure it’s NOT the bible.