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CNN Saturday Morning News
Reaction to Growing AIDS Infection Rates Among Blacks
Aired June 02, 2001 - 07:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
O'BRIEN: Once again shifting gears, this week the government released a report showing progress in fighting the deadly disease AIDS. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said the rate of infection among young gay and bisexual African-American men is on the rise.
Now, some straight talk from black women about the risks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know that the average person knows, that the average African-American knows, that it's one in 50 black man has HIV.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. But it's still very taboo, though. I mean, in our community, we don't really -- we don't want to talk about it, it's our dirty little secret.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: AIDS is like -- and HIV is on the back burner now, just people are...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that's because they can't make a good action movie about it. Everything is sex this, sex that, sex this...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Think about it. If at a club there was five people with T-shirts that said, "I Could Have AIDS," walking around the club talking to people, passing out pamphlets, that club would be, like -- you know, get out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a very touchy subject to bring up to people, but I think for your own safety, you have to, because of the state that we're in, not only with heterosexual relationships but with people experimenting with same-sexes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I work with a makeup artist. He's from New York. He was here one day, one weekend, and he was saying, You need to watch out for all the guys you date. And I was, like, Oh, really? And he -- you know, he was just telling me stories of how he had -- would have intimate things with straight men, you know, from cops to, you know, the grocery boy. So -- that had the wives and the girlfriends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So does that create a sense of fear? Do you guys -- does it -- do you think...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tremendous sense of fear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you meet a guy you really like, and you're getting along, everything is going well, you start asking him questions about past partners, or, Have you had any tests? He says, No, I don't want to talk about it. Automatically he's out? What...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... he's out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Once you're into it, I guess, and you're moving along that path that you're probably going to become intimate with this person, the conversations begin then. And if they don't, you know, if you think I'm being too personal or whatever, I mean, I'm willing to -- it's a deal-breaker for me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the past, women were just so happy to meet a guy, that it was, like, I don't care. What are you talking about?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today, not the past.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he's that person for you, it would be easy to say, You know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), when was the last time you (UNINTELLIGIBLE)? You know, really, or, you know, what was your past like? And if not, then you need to move on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you've ever had unprotected sex, for whatever reason, either it's your boyfriend, you've been with him a year and you've had sex or...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Husband or a baby, right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A situation where you had an accident with a condom or whatever, you're always thinking that, you know, that one time could have been the time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, in college I had a bad experience with a guy, and it still freaks me out. And to this day, I think, you know, my head, I'm, like, Oh, my God. I never got tested. I was so naive and so freaked out by the experience...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, that I'm, like, I didn't even want to know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't even want to know. And still to this day, I'm, like, I will get a test when I'm getting married.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a whole other question, you know, in our community. It's, like, do you get tested, or do you want to know at all? You know? So it's, like, I don't want to get tested, because I don't want to know if I do or not. You know, which is scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It may not be a big deal now, but if you got sick, yes, you'd be really mad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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