TV show to make HIV now still a problem stigma and fear

[em]

Just an idea to kick around

NCIS New Orleans episode

How about an episode were an HIV + sailor gets killed by the crew of a ship.

they find out he is HIV + they did it because of the policy that HIV + service men do not get deployed ?? They did it to prevent him from passing it on because they did not know about it being undetectable and safer then other things in this world

Or they did it not knowing he was HIV positive just that for some reason he was permanently placed on shore duty. Stranger things do happen in the service. they get in all kinds of trouble. Sand crabs (sailors who never get assigned sea duty) are not looked on as real sailors. salty sea dogs do not look kindly at them and there jobs are considered not being real sailors.

they just did it cause they did not think he measured up to what they thought a service man should be

I could write up a scenario about it. This would show how far we have come and explain HIV in the service now what it might be like what they have to put up with from other service men the dangers of doing so. Being outed as having  the virus and being gay while trying to keep it a secret . The policy of if you do have sex make sure they know your status. Easy way for the info of being positive getting out. I am sure a great deal of military minded service man in the Navy would love to deep six someone who is not up to there standards HIV and gay being on the list.

Have one of the older officers of the ship discover what had happened and getting very upset because he lost many friends to the virus from way back when.



Having the service mans family an old retired military father shocked to find out his son was gay and HIV+ after he had died.

He says I should have never pushed him into the military as he feels guilty for what happened . The show tries to send a positive message of acceptance by showing tragedy and what might happen.

Then again do not want to plant any seeds of thoughts for real sailors to take action against service man with HIV or gay  ??

Maybe some one else could write a better story with a better ending
O well just a thought to bring attention to our plight  on a popular show and show the virus in not the only danger other peoples reactions to it can be more dangerous well like the Laramie project documentary about the poor guy who was murdered by those two guys who thought it was ok to kill him cause he was gay they did not even know he was HIV + they just wanted to kill him?  They thought they were doing the world a favor sick stuff in the real world.

I know dragging up old news been done but the people attention span is short they may have forgotten already what happened and bring a what might happen may prevent it form happening . How is that for loopy


just a thought to try and help get ideas out there into the world

[Jim Allen]

Perhaps a female character in the Navy, instead of a gay guy?

But I think overall portraying HIV in a more common day to day interactions or scenarios that a wider audience can relate to or do experience and just having the character being HIV positive so in a sense normalizing this for the public and putting the subject of HIV in the world.  So perfectly standard movies, not about HIV at all and just a one liner or 1 scene that one of the characters happens to be HIV positive, nobody cares and goes on, raising awareness that its not a taboo and people with HIV are not to be feared,  instead of endless fighting the topic head on.

Even bigger step would be a to crack a joke from time to time but in context such as a scene "between friends" showing that its a normal topic, open and not a taboo, but of course that would upset some.

Jim 

[em]

I like that.

She gets jumped in New Orleans and the perpetrators try to make it look like a mugging and they botch it up and she survives barely . and after coming too after the trauma and near death  she identifies her attackers and tells how they found out about her HIV and wanted to save others she might have infected if she kept on living her life. Or they find some evidence saying it might have been sailors who attacked her. She says they found out about her HIV and said while they beat her she needed to be stopped before she spread the virus. Even though we all know if well treated and undetectable there is very little chance of transmission.

A high ranking  officer with years of honorable impeccable service tells the crew about the attack and notices some of the men in formation can not hide there feelings about the great job they did saving there corner of the world from HIV and are beaming  and smiling proudly and can not hide there true feelings for  what they had done.

He walks over to where  the men with the smiles are standing says I have HIV ( being how older people get HIV later on in life too)  and I am proud to say once we and we will find the evidence for what truly happened  and get convictions and the perpetrators will spend seriously long  time in Leavenworth federal prison. There actions will lead to them ruining there own lives with a fate,  ruined lives of a  life sentence worse then HIV. ( or something like that)

Does that seem like worth while idea?
 again just a day dream to get some thought about something modern about HIV

sorry I do not think as clearly as I once did. I do not know if time or the start of dementia or years of psych meds have taken there toll and left me not as bright as I once was

[CaveyUK]

I think the problem (hypothetically speaking of course!) is that any TV show or film that showed extreme HIV stigma and prejudice would only glorify or perpetuate that stigma...even if the moral of the story is that stigma is bad and we've come a long way etc etc.

Personally, I'd like a show where a central character - someone who just does normal things in that context of that character, just happens to be HIV positive. Something where it is just an attribute of that character rather than a plot line.

[em]

How about his version then : A cold case were a mother tells the Navy she has evidence about her sons death in the early eighties  that he had sent  letters home telling her about the guys on his ship threatening him and they thought he might have AIDS and they were not to happy with him. this being just before he disappeared.

She had kept it a secret because her husband if he ever found out there brave little boy was gay it would have killed him or at least crushed his spirit that there son died senselessly and needlessly, She could not loss both of them.telling her husband about the letters would not bring there son back from the dead so she let it alone. Until now when her husband has passed away. She brings  letters from her son telling how scared he was of the other guys on board his ship naming names and incidence of  how they threatened him and before the results of his HIV testing were used he disappeared and was never heard from again.

This Navy service man of woman closes the episode with how sad that time was and how far we have come saying she or he  has been HIV positive for a few years without incidence or problem in the here and now.


sorry can not please everyone I guess a network TV show about HIV would be to difficult to do anyway

[em]

OK I think I got this now

regular NCIS

The missing service member from the eighties his mother sends the letters to them along with his old hair brush she had saved because it reminded her of him. She says I know it is a long shot but you can do a DNA test on the hair and match to maybe some day someone might DNA unclaimed bodies and He might be found. I will not hold my breath but maybe a chance given a small chance of finding him.

So they oblige and do a DNA test and find a match an arrest record from standing rock Dakota access pipeline  protester was a match to the DNA so they do a finger print comparison to the old fingerprints taken when he enlisted and they match too

They then get in touch with him telling him they now who he is. He turns himself in. They ask what happened. He says he could not face a admin discharge for being GAY and thought the HIV test would come back positive . After he left he did come down with AIDS but survived until pro tease inhibitors came around. He says he knows there is no excuse for desertion and going AWOL. But thought of the news getting to his dad was something he could not do. So he was willing and able to face whatever punishment they deem appropriate for what he did

A female  jag officer says we have discussed this with her superiors and they agree that the treatment of Gay servicemen thirty years ago was not the best thing the military could have done. She then says she too is HIV + and has been serving in the military with the virus without any problems. How far we have come.

No charges would be filled he was free to go. He says wait till my wife and kids hear about this. they say we found you because your mother has been looking for you. He reunites with his mother tears all around and well how about that version ?


maybe I should submit this myself to whatever network NCIS is on. Maybe it is better to get the opinion of other HIV + people first
either way it was entertaining day dreaming about this thank you