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How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
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BytheSea
11/13/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
Kami may be controversial for a westeran audience, but in parts of Africa, the pediatric AIDS rate can go as high as 50%. AIDs is not an "issue" there, it's a daily reality. #sesamestreet
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whynotshesaid
11/12/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
I knew about AIDS when I was about eight or nine years old. Two words: Ryan. White. #sesamestreet
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you've got red on you
11/12/09

@whynotshesaid: That's exactly what came to mind for me, too. His story was fascinating and sad to me. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, so it was also extremely close to home--and caused the first stirrings of disgust with the intolerance of the bible belt. I have no issue with an HIV-positive muppet; I think it's a wonderful way to teach children acceptance and tolerance. #sesamestreet
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Red-headed bookworm
11/12/09

@whynotshesaid: Me too. I lived in Indianapolis as a kid, EVERYONE knew about Ryan White there. #sesamestreet
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whynotshesaid
11/12/09

@Red-headed bookworm: @you've got red on you: I actually lived in Utah at the time, and a lot of kids didn't know anything about AIDS, but those who did were pretty ignorant and mean about it. It just wasn't something that was discussed, you know? Plus our educators were too busy sending home fliers warning our parents about drug dealers who were hanging around playgrounds and pushing LSD on Mickey Mouse stickers to spend any time clarifying things related to the "gay disease."

But I used to sneak my stepmom's People magazines, and I watched the made-for-TV movie with Lukas Haas when it came out, and I was so upset by the whole thing. Not just that he had this fatal illness through no fault of his own, but that other people were so cruel about it. I mean, I was old enough to know that people could be real dicks to each other - I knew about slavery and the civil rights movement and sexism and sex abuse and ugly divorces and custody battles - but even so, the language used to discuss people with AIDS was shocking to me.
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Edited by whynotshesaid at 11/12/09 10:34 AM whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred

TubOfTaft
11/12/09

@Red-headed bookworm: They even have a section of the Children's Museum in Indy dedicated to him - with his actual bedroom furniture and all. #sesamestreet
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Lin-Z [linguist on duty]
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
A while back I watched a documentary about Sesame Street and how they launch the series and localize it in different countries. And I have to say that lambasting an HIV-positive puppet for the South African series is just ignorant. A huge percentage of children have HIV/AIDS and/or have lost a family member to it. Introducing this character is a way for kids to know what's going on. This is a very real issue there. #sesamestreet
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Lin-Z [linguist on duty]
11/11/09

@Lin-Z [linguist on duty]: This isn't the part about South Africa, but here's a bit of the film anyway #sesamestreet
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KATE!
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
if sesame street really wanted to push the gay agenda, Bert would get aids from a late-night cruise in central park and pass it along to Ernie. That would be a great scandal. #sesamestreet
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DutchessOfDork
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
Kami probably got it from her mother as I read somewhere that mothers have about 1 in 4 chance of passing it on to their children if they give birth through the birth canal.
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Edited by DutchessOfDork at 11/11/09 7:47 PM DutchessOfDork was starred DutchessOfDork was unstarred

molly pocket
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
My parents had a good friend who was living with AIDS and eventually died from it when I was around 8 years old. We discussed his illness in a way that was appropriate for our ages (and similar to the Sesame Street approach) – my siblings and I knew he was sick and that it was serious. But we also knew we loved him and could hug him and not have to keep a guard around us.

When he died, it was an immensely sad moment because he was a good friend and it seemed so tragic. My mom told me more details as I became older, and I really began to understand the impact as I became more familiar with the disease.

I guess what I really want to say is that the Kami character is wonderful and knowledge is always a great thing. Promoting tolerance early on makes sense, doesn't it? #sesamestreet
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coconanas
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
Unlike conservatives, HIV doesn't discriminate. Luckily Sesame Street is there to help educate kids without prejudice. #sesamestreet
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Penny
11/11/09

@coconanas: HIV doesn't discriminate.

It does not. Although I always kind of find it interesting that some people feel free to slam people for having, say, Herpes, but fall over themselves in a PC flurry when HIV comes up.

Bittah..... #sesamestreet
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Penny
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
Personally, there is no "too" young, and I think this character is great. One of my best friend's hubby is HIV+ and it's important for kids (hell, grown ups) to understand that 1) this is not just a developing world illness and 2) it does not mean you're going to drop dead any second. Oh, and it's not contagious. Seriously, it still baffles me how some people retract.

Anything that promotes tolerance for something that has been so stigmatized is a positive in my book.
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Edited by Penny at 11/11/09 7:12 PM Penny was starred Penny was unstarred

Elaken
11/11/09

@Penny: Not only tolerance but actually knowing anything about it. I had a human sexuality teacher at a community college tell the class that HIV can skip generations. A woman can have it, not give it to her child, but then the grandkid can be born with it because apparently he thinks it becomes part of the DNA. Like, wtf. I was the only one to call him on it. The amount of misconceptions I have come across when it deals with HIV/AIDS is just staggering. #sesamestreet
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la.donna.pietra
11/11/09

@Elaken: My sixth-grade teacher told my class that AIDS came from people having sex with monkeys. Really. 1987 was a weird time, but still. #sesamestreet
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Elaken
11/11/09

@la.donna.pietra: I still hear people say that and it shows such a limited knowledge about how things work. #sesamestreet
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wannabegossipgirl
11/11/09

@Elaken: This is actually possible, any university microbiology/virology classes will tell you that HIV can be intgrated into the host genome (AKA human DNA) and remain in a dormant like state called latency. It probably wasn't passed through the mother's DNA because HIV doesnt tend to attack gamete cells, they go for immune cells which could have been given to the child in many possible ways, through the placenta, or the breast milk. And then the child carried the latent form throughout her life and then in the grandchild the virus decided to manifest itself. #sesamestreet
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thechibster63
11/12/09

@la.donna.pietra: Kids in my class ask me about this all the time. #sesamestreet
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la.donna.pietra
11/12/09

@wannabegossipgirl: Your definition of "latency" seems to be unsupported by the scientific community:

[pathmicro.med.sc.edu] #sesamestreet
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la.donna.pietra
11/12/09

@thechibster63: I suspect that it's some sort of conservative meme that won't go away. It's certainly very popular online. #sesamestreet
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thechibster63
11/12/09

@la.donna.pietra: Sometimes they tell me that the government created AIDS to kill black people. To which I reply, "Then why did gay white men have it first in the U.S.?" #sesamestreet
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la.donna.pietra
11/12/09

@thechibster63: Gay white men didn't have it first. Gay white men were diagnosed with it first. Big difference. #sesamestreet
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wannabegossipgirl
11/12/09

@la.donna.pietra: The section from that website about post-integration latency is says that the HIV genome is, in some cases, integrated into the host genome. Maybe I was a little unclear with my definition of latency? Latency in viruses is just when a virus establishes a domant state in a host cell, some viruses are incorportated into the genome and some just lie within the cytoplasm, but in the website article it is talking about clinical latency which is different. I just wanted to make a point that it could be possible for someone to have it, their kid "not have it" (latent virus stage) and then the grandkid have it, although this is probably very common, and that the HIV genome being integrated into the human genome is not some absurd idea (look at retrovirus, almost 10% of our human genome has ancient retroviral DNA). I'm not an expert (yet haha) by any means, I've only taken a few courses on this stuff. #sesamestreet
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thechibster63
11/12/09

@la.donna.pietra: I understand this, but try explaining it to high-schoolers. #sesamestreet
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Truna
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
The man who gave me my name passed away from an illness complicated by AIDS not long after. The next person close to me died when i was around 4, from pneumonia complicated by AIDS. I've known about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent for as long as I knew the names of all the care bears. I never understood why people think it's inappropriate for kids to know about the disease, nor why people insist that kids in this country are not affected by the epidemic. #sesamestreet
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RollRoll
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
The Traditional Values Coalition:

Protecting American's traditional lack of understanding since the inception of the country. #sesamestreet
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itsonreserve
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
We have gotten so much more conservative as a nation, since I was a kid. Our nurse came in and explained AIDS to us one day and answered questions, because it was on the news. No permission slips, no hullabaloo. I grew up in a class of twenty kids in a corn feild too, I don't think a single one of us knew (or at least knew we knew) a kid with AIDS, which is an actual reality for most children. Sigh.
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Elizabooth
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
Seeing as so many kids in Africa are BORN with HIV, it is never to young to teach a kid about AIDS. Why does this disease still have such a stigma? The fact that this is a controversy at all is stupid and sad.
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jemandtheholograms
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
Oh Traditional Values Coalition--you never stop amazing me in your ability to not get it. The issue with Kami presumable has nothing to do with homosexuality since she's a 5 year old orphan--presumably infected by her now deceased mother! #sesamestreet
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ladyfalcon is skin deep
11/11/09

@jemandtheholograms: Another "what?" moment was when they said that HIV is primarily spread by homosexuals in the U.S. Now, I know in my area (DC) this falls under the Super Not True category, and while I'm not certain I would be willing to bet that it's not true elsewhere, either. But the big moment of confusion is, What the fuck does the US rates and means of infection have to do with the presentation of an HIV+ muppet to South African kids? #sesamestreet
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jemandtheholograms
11/11/09

@ladyfalcon is skin deep: Anything they can do to hate on the gays and prevent the spread of knowledge is good in their book. #sesamestreet
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mishaps
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
Oh, for goodness' sake!

Nearly two years ago, I worked on an HIV-education/treatment project in Kwa-Zulu Natal, one of the provinces of South Africa. It's estimated that 40% of the adult population of KZN is HIV+. Some of the people I met on that project provide services to "child-headed households" - families where both parents are dead, and a kid not much past Sesame Street age him- or herself ends up trying to support younger siblings. Think about that for a while.

The state of HIV/AIDS education in South Africa has improved slightly since then, but it is still horrifically bad, in large part because the previous government spent years denying the link between HIV and AIDS even existed. There's also (at least among the Zulu people I worked with) a strong cultural taboo against talking about sex or HIV at all; several of the people I met had tested positive and stayed in denial about it for YEARS afterward until they had a health crisis. Anything that can be done to lessen the stigma of HIV, anything that can be done to support those kids whose parents are sick, or dying, or who maybe have friends whose parents are sick or gone, anything, is a good start (and local SA TV has done some good educational entertainment initiatives as well, to be fair).

The idea that someone could be against Kami because she would "indoctrinate kids into the homosexual lifestyle" is beyond maddening in its homophobia, it's murderously ignorant. #sesamestreet
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jigglyball
11/11/09

In reply to How Young Is Too Young To Teach Kids About AIDS?
My dad did HIV research when I was a little kid, and by the time I was 10, I'd gone to several HIV research conferences, awareness events, pride parades, etc. My dad never hid the "realities of the virus" from me, and I don't remember ever feeling traumatized (The Hot Zone and Outbreak, though, are a different story).

My dad was also careful to destigmatize the disease in an age when rumors were flying fast and furious. #sesamestreet
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lp8790
11/11/09

@jigglyball: I read the Hot Zone for my high school bio class. That book was ridiculous. #sesamestreet
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jigglyball
11/11/09

@lp8790: I couldn't sleep through the night for weeks after I read that book. At one point, I woke my dad up in the middle of the night to ask him if he though my skin was disintegrating from Ebola (at this time, he happened to work at the only center in the country that handles the Ebola virus - FEAR). #sesamestreet
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