AIDS Awareness On Rise, But So Are Cases

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by Brent Frazier

Nashville, TENN. - HIV and AIDS are often associated with a homosexual demographic; but heterosexual, African American women, ages 24 to 34, represent the fastest growing demographic of newly reported cases.

This weekend, Ron Crowder, executive director of Street Works, a non profit HIV and AIDS awareness group, offering education and prevention in Nashville the last 10 years, went door to door inside University Court near Lafayette Street, one of the city's public housing developments.

Crowder and two staffers handed out condoms, business cards, and information crib sheets to virtually every man and woman they encountered. The trio was warmly received, and the "freebie" handouts were gobbled up. Crowder suggests the growing number of AIDS cases can be attributed largely to unprotected sex, not necessarily drug activity.

At the same time, Artrageous was going on: the always entertaining art gallery crawl through downtown. The money raised goes to Nashville CARES, the city's community AIDS resource center. Gallery owner Jeff Rymer says AIDS is no longer a gay disease, he calls it a global problem and he looks forward to the day an Artrageous is no longer necessary to raise money for research and education.

"So, this is not a gay disease, by any stretch of the imagination," Rymer said Saturday night inside his 5th Avenue North art gallery, which is along the travel route. "It's a people disease -- and we have to approach it as globally and locally as we can."

Artrageous is Nashville CARES's second largest fundraiser, held annually. The moneymaker, this year, comes at a time when federal and state money used to help fund pricey prescription medications for AIDS patients is dwindling, too. In fact, Tennessee recently announced it will be putting new enrollees for that fiscal assistance on a waiting list: a move some say could be life threatening for some patients.