|
Page 11
Antigone Hodgins
Her Apartment, Upper Tenderloin
June 17 and August 19, 1995
Recently, I read that George Bush said something like, "People with HIV are on the fringes of society." So that's how I think that I'm viewed. Even though I'm not on society's fringes, and I don't think anyone is, we're all part of this society. In the beginning, people treated me as if I was a fluke, and I'm not.
MW:
How do you feel that working at BAY Positives has affected your life?
Antigone: I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if BAY Positives wasn't there in the beginning. I hope that they can do that for other people. I don't go home anymore and say, " I'm positive. I'm going die."
MW: Are you thinking about leaving BAY Positives?
Antigone: Not yet. Because I still have a lot to learn. And emotionally I can't. If I were to leave BAY Positives and try to find another job, I wouldn't have the emotional energy to do it. I plan on being there at least for another year to two years, hopefully, if they'll have me. I'm going to be 27, you know?
MW: You have a picture in your hallway of you and Helen. And underneath the picture it says, "HIV positive - not yet tested." What does that mean?
Antigone: My stepmother took that picture and wrote that, which actually pissed me off a lot. She took a picture of my sister Helen and I, and then she wrote "HIV positive- not tested." Then in her photo class, she put it up for her critique, and she didn't tell me until afterward. She told everyone who I was. The reason why I put it up on my wall was because... I don't know. Maybe I should take it down. Well, I like the picture of me and Helen, and the reason my stepmother wrote that was to acknowledge that anybody can have HIV and you really can't tell by looking at someone. I look at old pictures sometimes and I think, "God, I was probably positive then and didn't know it."
MW: Why do you have it up on your wall?
Antigone: Anyone who comes in here knows that I'm positive, and if they don't, they will once they walk down the hall.
» This completes 1995. Continue reading 2000
Back to top