MetroWeekly has a great interview with Us Helping Us executive Diretor Ron Simmons: This year, 2008, marks two bittersweet 20-year anniversaries: World AIDS Day, first observed Dec. 1, 1988, and Us Helping Us, People Into Living Inc., incorporated the same year.
A local nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing and treating HIV/AIDS among black gay men, UHU just marked its anniversary with a gala on Nov. 21, while the world prepares for World AIDS Day ceremonies with sadness and hope. Treatments have improved, but infection rates remain alarming. And, yes, people still die of AIDS-related illnesses.
If anyone embodies the emotions that infuse discussions of HIV and AIDS, it's Ron Simmons, who has headed UHU since 1992 -- almost as long as he's lived the reality of being HIV-infected himself. Mostly, he laughs. Not for levity's sake, but because his humanity is seemingly unconquerable. He's certainly not afraid to follow laughter with tears.
But with Simmons, it's always the hope that wins out.
continue reading this article in Metro Weekly.
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