In the late 1980s, Shawn Decker contracted HIV after being exposed to contaminated blood during treatment for hemophilia. Nearly 20 years later, Gwenn Barringer was writing about HIV for her graduate student thesis and was looking to interview someone with the disease.
That’s when Gwenn met Shawn.
They’ve now been together for 11 years — and Barringer is still HIV-negative. The couple travels across the country, visiting nearly 150 universities, speaking to students about the prevalence of HIV, the stigmas associated with HIV/AIDS and the importance of communication in relationships.
Last night, they stopped at the Hoff Theater to speak to a group of about 10 students, sharing their unlikely story of boy-meets-girl.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HIV rates among those in nearby Washington rival those of populations in Western Africa — about 3 percent of the District’s residents are living with HIV, and the rate of transmission is still on the rise. And among new cases of infection, about half nationally are among individuals under the age of 25. Barringer said it is for this reason college students are their target audience.
Decker and Barringer said part of their awareness campaign is to educate young people before it’s too late — often times, people start learning about the transmission of infections after they have already contracted them.
“HIV isn’t the most humorous topic you’ve ever heard of, but I’ve been living with HIV for most of my life,” said Decker. “I think one of the reasons why I’m here and I’m able to thrive is because I’m able to laugh at myself.”
Throughout last night’s hourlong event, Decker used humor to explain the stigma he faced growing up as a child with a disease rarely talked about, noting he was kicked out of the sixth grade for “failing the HIV test.”
“HIV was a medical condition, but it was unlike hemophilia, which is also a medical condition,” he said. “HIV came with so much more stigma, so much more fear, so much more discrimination. The same friends that I grew up with and played in the neighborhood, their parent wouldn’t let me spend the night at their house anymore.”
And though Barringer said the two have faced criticism as a couple for being sexually active, she said they choose to focus on the task at hand — educating others so they are not faced with the same situation.
“We realized that we do the best we can to educate people and give them accurate information,” she said. “And if people then choose to not listen to the information or to still have prejudices or think that I’m not safe, we kind of accept that there’s nothing we can do about that.”
The couple said they have kept Barringer HIV-negative by always practicing safe sex.
“Yes, we have sex, and how that works is we use condoms each and every time,” Decker said.
Many students said they were interested in hearing about a topic that is not often discussed on college campuses.
“It was very, very refreshing,” said junior government and politics and history major Andrew Deiner. “They were so dynamic and friendly about it because a lot of sex talk are awkward ‘don’t do this, don’t do that,’ but this was very informative.”
“I’ve never really had peers or close to peers talk to me about sexual education,” said junior criminology and criminal justice major Laura Dickol. “I came from a very conservative town where there was abstinence-only sexual education, so I see it as my opportunity to educate myself about stuff like this.”
Students can get tested for HIV and other STDs at the University Health Center, which provides HIV testing for a $25 fee Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
hicks at umdbk dot com
