PLATFORM : Stardom Spotlights Hypocrisy on AIDS

As a society, Americans do not deal very well with taboo issues of sex, death and drugs, especially as they relate to us as individuals. We confuse issues of public health with issues of morality. The Bush Administration removes sex from instruction about AIDS and we do not feel comfortable with safe-sex messages to our children in schools, despite the fact that they may save lives. However, connect the subject of AIDS with a celebrity name and our taboos melt away like moral butter on a hot pan of prurience. Put AIDS on Oprah and you have society’s rapt attention.

The victim of this hypocrisy is the celebrity figure. The benefactor may be those who tirelessly attempt to get a consciousness-raising message out to a reluctant society in order to save lives. Between the victim and the benefactor is often the press, which crosses the line of conveyor of news when it decides to make a personal decision for the celebrity with AIDS. Unfortunately, in this game of secrecy, prurience and deception, there is no referee.

It is always an important positive step for celebrities to come forward with their message of HIV. However, it is a personal decision. It is the kind of decision that would be easier if we didn’t attach taboos to the subject of AIDS, but provided a nonthreatening environment of compassion, concern and caring. That would make the decision for the celebrity less agonizing, the press less interfering and the AIDS educator more effective.