RIP Shelton Jackson

RIP Shelton Jackson
(Feb 4, 1978 - March 2, 2009)

On March the 2nd the world lost an extraordinary man, Shelton Jackson. He was infected with HIV and wanted to share his story with the world to help save lives. I met him a couple of times at some pride events, he seemed very nice and his smile lit up the room. I never knew about the work that he did until later on. He was truly a special person and the world has lost a truly magnificent creature. I know he is in a better place and is at peace




Shelton was 31 years old when he passed away. His story truly touches me because we are around the same age and he is doing what I'm doing now, trying to save lives through telling my story. It just hits so close to home when a fellow HIV Activist dies of this dreadful disease. In a matter a fact it's horrible when anyone dies of this disease. I just know in my heart this is what I've been put on this earth to do. To help as many people as I can with what I have. Thank you to the Gods for Shelton Jackson (Feb 4, 1978 - March 2, 2009)



Shelton also was interviewed by the website called the Body. In his last entry he said this

"I got comfortable -- too comfortable -- and started taking my good health for granted, which led me to stop taking my meds. My CD4 count and viral load went from 638 and undetectable to 150 and 100,000 in a year. I am currently fighting again to get my numbers back up and refortify myself. I see myself in the final stage of my evolution, evolving into the person that will carry out my destiny. I am not giving up because I know my struggles with HIV show others that it can be done. So, I fight the good fight and hope that others learn and grow from my struggles, my failures and my accomplishments."

Updated May 2008

Shelton Jackson's Interview with The Body

One Shelton's My Space page "About me" section

Born and raised in the ruff streets of Newark, New Jersey, Shelton S. Jackson managed to escape the crime and violence of the streets through education and in the eighth grade his world was changed when he was introduced to poetry. Jackson, used this new medium to express his trails of coming out of the closet, falling in love at first sight with a man, becoming HIV positive for that love, and finally being reborn to do what he describes as “God’s will.” Jackson has published two books of poetry on his journey of acceptance. Jackson now still resides in Newark, NJ where he has started his own publishing company, SSJ Publishing, Inc. Through SSJ, Jackson hopes to publish other authors whose personal truth will serve as a beacon of hope for others. Jackson believes that SSJ Publishing is the next step in healing literature that will, “Take Truth to the Next Level-Reality.” See My WebSite

Justin's HIV Journal HIV Choices PSA

Hello Everyone:

I also did one of my own, let me know what you think Mine is called, "Justin's HIV Journal HIV Choices PSA" (Public Service Announcement)



I did a commercial for the DC Center. They wanted to know about my story and I told them the truth candidly. It turned out nicely I just wanted to share with you guys.





SO VIEW THEM BOTH AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK Both PSA are important to HIV Awareness, Education and Prevention. When talking about HIV we can all do our part and this is mine. People have e-mailed me from all over the world praising the work that I do, but I praise them for getting the message for thinking twice about some of the things that we do. We need to bond together.

SO I'm asking for everyone that is reading this to do their own PSA, and post it to my PSA at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00dYO7qNxNY

PLEASE POST SO THE MESSAGE CAN BE SPREAD, WE CAN STOP HIV !!!

HIV & The Generation Gap

HIV & The Generation Gap

There seems to be a disconnect between Generation X and Y vs. The Baby Boomer Generation. In the1980’s and 1990’s a lot people remember their friends dying each day from this disease. People recall going to funerals everyday because each day that went by at least one of their friends’ had died of AIDS. As time went by medicine got stronger and smarter when dealing with HIV/AIDS. People began to live longer and receive better treatment.

Today it’s 2009 the life expectancy of someone who is 20 years of age living with HIV and on medications can be 69 years old. I’m unsure but I think the life expectancy of an adult male in the United States is 75 years of age. You would think with all the advances in medicine we a winning the fight on HIV/AIDS. Think Again?

There are a growing number of young people contracting HIV. I’m am 29 and I’m a little older than the demographic I’m talking about. I had to say that because of the postings and e-mails I’m getting from my youtube site, my e-mail address, and other mailings.

I was on my facebook page today and I was speaking to my friends, when I noticed I received an e-mail on another website. It was from a 20 year old named Tony, who was so scared I felt like I wanted to hold him. His e-mail stated, “My boyfriend and I just had sex 2 weeks ago, and he just told me yesterday that he is HIV positive. What should I do? Am I going to die?” I get e-mails like this a lot of the time and I feel I must listen, read and respond. Now most of you know that I’m very busy so I try to get to as much and to as many people as I can. I e-mailed him back and ask for his number. He gave it to me and I called him. He said, “Hello” in a very soft tone. I said, “Hello this is Justin B Smith from Justin’s HIV Journal”. He said, “Thank you so much for calling me”. He then went on about what he was scared about what he should do if he is positive.

He was very scared.

I just wanted to hold him and tell him everything will be alright even if you’re positive. I got off the phone with the young man and then got back on facebook and had changed my status to “I counseled a 20 year old about HIV/AIDS”. I had gotten some replies but one of my friends said she had something like that happen to her. She said she was talking a 19 year old, that opening said he engaged in unprotected sex, because………………………………….………………………..he knows one day that he will be infected with HIV, that why he doesn’t use condoms.

It broke my heart to hear that. This is a self esteem issue with a lot of young people that contract HIV. Why are these young people not getting it that if you don’t use a condom you will get HIV or some other STD. We need to help them understand. We need to help them take pride in themselves. We need to help them to not be victims of this plague. Life is precious and some people don't think that it is. I think being in a certain demographic (especially being a minority or a minority) has a lot to do with it. I really wish I could save them just by touching them. I want to save them from having to go through this disease and if they do contract it. WE need to let them no they are not alone. There are people and services that we need to direct them to for help. WE NEED TO BAND TOGETHER AND HELP THEM. They are our children. They are our future and right now in DC the Black Gay men's future looks bleak and I WANT TO HELP STOP IT

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: HIV Denial Kills

Justin's HIV Journal: HIV Denial Kills




HIV Denialist Christine Maggiore, 52 died on the 29th of December. Maggorie was a Italian American woman who founded the organization of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, a nonprofit group that questions whether HIV causes AIDS.

The organization is centered around HIV-positive mothers, like Maggiore who don’t want to take meds while pregnant. Marjorie was diagnosed as being HIV positive in 1992. Also her organization promotes women, who are already HIV infected who plan to breast-feed their babies (a known route of HIV transmission). She also was the author of an HIV denialist book, What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?




In May 2005 the County Coroner determined that Majorie’s 3 year old daughter. Eliza Jane Scovill, died of AIDS-related pneumonia. In the following year the court decided not to file criminal charges against Maggorie and her husband for not having their two children tested for the HIV virus.

This woman’s (Maggorie) way of thinking is just one example how many people view the HIV virus. Many people that have a HIV denialist way of thinking contact me on Justin’s HIV Journal on youtube.com. They often tell me that I’m poisoning myself because I take HIV medications. A lot of them eat foods and take vitamins which to them is an alternate way of treated their HIV, but changing your diet isn’t enough. You need to seek medical attention for HIV. I’ve had trouble with my meds but my body has gotten adjusted to them and I’ve changed my diet and how much alcohol I consume and when.

Justin, you do have reason to be scared if you remain in the CLUTCHES of the HIV/AIDS Establisment!
They'll do you in brother .. there's no doubt about that. You are such a DIVINE, adorable soul & deserve all the LOVE, COMPASSION & CONCERN that comes your way.
You don't have to worry about HIV - it means IMMUNITY! So relax!
Now get in touch with DAVID CROWE and/or Christine at:
howpositiveareyou . com
That's where I truly HOPE to hear you again!
Love you ..
South Africa :)

This is just one of the messages that I’ve received on my youtube site.



This comment from Annie 46664 can be found on the following link:

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

This comment listed above is trying to pressure me to be apart of the same organization that Christine Marjorie was apart of.

A couple of months ago a study came out with a life expectancy for people who live with HIV in this country. A person who is 20 years old and starting medications can expect to live to about 69 which is a vast improvement when not taking meds at all.

I’m not blaming this woman for killing her child but I do think she is partly to blame for not getting either one of her children tested for HIV. This hurts me to see that there are people who actually think this way. It’s my treatment and my life.

It’s ironic that this woman died on my birthday December 27, 2008.

Justin's HIV Journal: HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Justin’s HIV Journal:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Hello EVERYONE I know it’s that time of the year again. I was so busy with Christmas things I couldn’t get all my articles out in time. This is Justin B Smith from Justin’s HIV journal saying Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year to all of my readers and listeners. This journal that I’ve been dedicated to has helped a lot of people get over the stigma of living with HIV. Also it given people a chance to see there is life after HIV. I’ve decided to make it a journey to help others on my personal path for personal enlightenment and community service.

These holidays are very tough. With the economy in peril and people having very little money for the holidays the dc boys of leather have decided to raise money for Pediatric AIDS. This year we raised about 310.00 for Pediatric AIDS was created at a time when few people knew that HIV/AIDS affected children. There was no research specifically on pediatric AIDS, and the drugs being used and developed for adults were not being used or tested in children.

Established to help level the playing field for children, the Foundation has spent almost two decades funding pediatric research and raising awareness about children's fight against HIV/AIDS. Thanks to this research and awareness, as well as the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy, many children born infected with HIV/AIDS now have the opportunity to grow up healthy. For children in resource-poor countries, however, long-term survival is still a dream.

Also we donated over 8 big garbage bags full of toys for Toy for Tots. The objectives of Toys for Tots are to help needy children throughout the United States experience the joy of Christmas; to play an active role in the development of one of our nation's most valuable natural resources - our children; to unite all members of local communities in a common cause for three months each year during the annual toy collection and distribution campaign; and to contribute to better communities in the future.

I hope everyone got what they wanted this Christmas. Remember there are people that are infected with HIV/AIDS on the street. Lend your hand and help them. We must do what we can to help them as much as we can. Whether it be a blanket or some food we have to take care of each. Now is the time, and not later.

OHH YEAH MY BIRTHDAY WAS ON THE 27TH of DECEMBER, I'M 29 AND LOVING IT!!!!

Justin’s HIV Journal World AIDS Days Part II Justin B Smith sees the AIDS Quilt for the first time,

Justin’s HIV Journal
World AIDS Days Part II
Justin B Smith sees the AIDS Quilt for the first time,

When it was World AIDS Day I decided to make this video because I’d had never seen the AIDS Quilt before. I’m 28 years old and AIDS is just about as old as me. It’s even older it you look at it literally. Some experts says AIDS has been around a lot longer than people think. I believe them. In the 80’s 90’s AIDS carried off many of our Black, White, Hispanic, Latino, Asian brothers and sisters. I went to see the AIDS to remember them. To remember all those who had been infected before me and who had died doing the very same thing I am. I also thought about my friends’ whose funerals I had missed and who also died from AIDS. I know there might come a day where I too will pass away from this disease.



My mother has a quilt that she made for my when I graduated High School. It’s very special to me she made it with love. I have now decided that if I die from this disease then she has my permission to make it a part of the AIDS Quilt or bury me with it. I’m unsure which one she will do but I’m sure she will make the right decision. I cannot let the death of anyone of myself go in vain.

About The Quilt
Founded in 1987, The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for use in preventing new HIV infections, and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world. Each "block" (or section) of The AIDS Memorial Quilt measures approximately twelve feet square, and a typical block consists of eight individual three foot by six foot panels sewn together. Virtually every one of the more than 40,000 colorful panels that make up the Quilt memorializes the life of a person lost to AIDS.
As the epidemic continues claiming lives around the world and here in the United States, the Quilt continues to grow and to reach more communities with its messages of remembrance, awareness and hope.
History of the Quilt
In June of 1987, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Today the Quilt is a powerful visual reminder of the AIDS pandemic. More than 44,000 individual 3-by-6-foot memorial panels -- most commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS -- have been sewn together by friends, lovers and family members. This is the story of how the Quilt began…
Activist Beginnings
The Quilt was conceived in November of 1985 by long-time San Francisco gay rights activist Cleve Jones. Since the 1978 assassinations of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, Jones had helped organize the annual candlelight march honoring these men. While planning the 1985 march, he learned that over 1,000 San Franciscans had been lost to AIDS. He asked each of his fellow marchers to write on placards the names of friends and loved ones who had died of AIDS. At the end of the march, Jones and others stood on ladders taping these placards to the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. The wall of names looked like a patchwork quilt.
Inspired by this sight, Jones and friends made plans for a larger memorial. A little over a year later, he created the first panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman. In June of 1987, Jones teamed up with Mike Smith and several others to formally organize the NAMES Project Foundation.
Public response to the Quilt was immediate. People in the U.S. cities most affected by AIDS -- Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco -- sent panels to the San Francisco workshop. Generous donors rapidly supplied sewing machines, equipment and other materials, and many volunteered tirelessly.
The Inaugural Display
On October 11, 1987, the Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. Half a million people visited the Quilt that weekend.
The overwhelming response to the Quilt's inaugural display led to a four-month, 20-city, national tour for the Quilt in the spring of 1988. The tour raised nearly $500,000 for hundreds of AIDS service organizations. More than 9,000 volunteers across the country helped the seven-person traveling crew move and display the Quilt. Local panels were added in each city, tripling the Quilt's size to more than 6,000 panels by the end of the tour.
The Quilt Grows
The Quilt returned to Washington, D.C. in October of 1988, when 8,288 panels were displayed on the Ellipse in front of the White House. Celebrities, politicians, families, lovers and friends read aloud the names of the people represented by the Quilt panels. The reading of names is now a tradition followed at nearly every Quilt display.
In 1989 a second tour of North America brought the Quilt to 19 additional cities in the United States and Canada. That tour and other 1989 displays raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for AIDS service organizations. In October of that year, the Quilt was again displayed on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C.
By 1992, the AIDS Memorial Quilt included panels from every state and 28 countries. In October 1992, the entire Quilt returned to Washington, D.C.. and in January 1993 The NAMES Project was invited to march in President Clinton's inaugural parade.
The last display of the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt was in October of 1996 when The Quilt covered the entire National Mall in Washington, D.C. The 1,000 newest blocks - those blocks received at or since the October 1996 display - were displayed the weekend of June 26, 2004 on The Ellipse in Washington D.C. in observance of National HIV Testing Day.
The Quilt Today
Today there are NAMES Project chapters across the United States and independent Quilt affiliates around the world. Since 1987, over 14 million people have visited the Quilt at thousands of displays worldwide. Through such displays, the NAMES Project Foundation has raised over $3 million for AIDS service organizations throughout North America.
The Washington, D.C. displays of October 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1996 are the only ones to have featured the Quilt in its entirety,
The Quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and remains the largest community art project in the world. The Quilt has been the subject of countless books, films, scholarly papers, articles, and theatrical, artistic and musical performances, including "Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt" which won the Academy Award as the best feature-length documentary film of 1989.
The Quilt has redefined the tradition of quilt-making in response to contemporary circumstances. A memorial, a tool for education and a work of art, the Quilt is a unique creation, an uncommon and uplifting response to the tragic loss of human life.

Information provided by The Names Project Foundation – AIDS Memorial Quilt website
http://www.aidsquilt.org/