8 | OutBoise Magazine | NEWS
HIV: Yep, It’s Still a Thing
By Myles Helfand
OutBoisemag.com | Issue 13 | December 2015
did. Heck, can you blame her? I hear people get
unlawfully discriminated against for having that
virus! Someone should put out an ad reminding folks
about that.
Anyway, Nolan (and her lawyers) sued the state
for defamation. In October, a New York State Court
of Claims judge ruled that she (and her lawyers) was
right, and that her lawsuit could continue.
The judge was reasonable. The judge was rational.
The judge was, let’s face it, realistic.
A few weeks ago, it became official: HIV is loathsome.
It all had started so innocently: Back in 2013, the
New York State Division of Human Rights posted a
public awareness ad that featured the image of a
woman alongside the text “I AM POSITIVE(+)” and “I
HAVE RIGHTS.” The intent was to inform people with
HIV that the state’s laws protected them from discrimination. The folks who created the ad grabbed
the model’s photo from Getty Images, a stock photo
service.
Only the model in that picture, Avril Nolan, didn’t
have HIV – and she didn’t want anyone thinking she
“It would be hoped that an indication that someone ... has been diagnosed as HIV positive would
not be viewed as indicative of some failure of moral
fiber, or of some communicable danger, however our
society is not so advanced,” Judge Thomas H. Scuccimarra wrote in his decision. He added that the
ad’s incorrect portrayal “that Ms. Nolan is presently
diagnosed as HIV positive, from the perspective of
the average person, clearly subjects her to public
contempt, ridicule, aversion or disgrace and constitutes defamation per se.” (“Defamation per se” is
legal term that’s typically employed when a person
has been falsely accused of having a “loathsome”
disease, according to the New
York Law Journal.)
In other words, this is where our society is at
today, more than 30 years into our tumultuous
relationship with HIV in the U.S.: People are still
afraid to be associated with the virus for fear they’ll
be discriminated against – and that includes people
who appear in ads informing the public that people
with HIV can’t be discriminated against. My head
hurts.