Scott Brown greets group at AIDS Watch

Seven Massachusetts residents living with HIV/AIDS met members of the Mass. Congressional delegation.

Senator Scott Brown personally greeted seven Massachusetts residents living with HIV/AIDS in April when they traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation during AIDS Watch.

The Senator "said hello to everybody, and told them that he knew this was a very important issue and that he was really glad that they were there doing this, and bringing this to Washington," said Joe Carleo, director of community affairs at Victory Programs, Inc., and the coordinator of the Massachusetts group that attended AIDS Watch. "That was a bit of a surprise."

According to Carleo, a meeting was arranged between his group and one of Brown's staff members during the groups April 26-28 trip to Washington, D.C. Carleo was surprised when Brown attended the brief meeting as well. "Often we meet with staff," Carleo said. Brown "did make the effort and come and say hi to folks."

During the meeting, Carleo's group spoke about the high costs that are part and parcel of living with HIV. "Even though we do have great access to care, it's expensive," Carleo said. The Massachusetts constituents also discussed other states' need to catch up with the Commonwealth in terms of care offered to those with AIDS. "The big hot button issue this year was access to the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program, and in several states in the country, there's...people on waiting lists waiting for drugs that will keep them alive, that they don't have access to."

As far as he could tell, Carleo said, Brown and his staff members were receptive to the discussions. "I think that the group was really very good at educating him about the epidemic. I'm not sure that [the staff member] had too much awareness about it, he was still young [during the 1980s, when the epidemic was first publicized]."

The group, made up of seven Massachusetts HIV positive residents from several different districts, was representative of all walks of life, Carleo said. "We had an amazing cross-section of people. We had black, white, young, older, straight, gay. We had totally different modes of transmission, like a white suburban housewife who didn't know what her husband was up to and found herself HIV positive 15 years ago, and a young guy who was 23, somewhat recently infected. They were very representative of the epidemic, which was good," Carleo said. Each member of the group had the chance to speak with his or her Congressman about the realities of living with the disease.

"I think the most important parts about AIDS Watch are to remind Congress that the epidemic is still very much with us and really to have folks who are living with HIV tell their own stories and talk about how funding and all of that has impacted their own life personally because that's really different from me going and talking about statistics or demographics or anything like that," Carleo said. "It's a pretty powerful event."

AIDS Watch has been in existence for about 20 years, and Carleo has coordinated the Massachusetts group for the past 16. "So many people think that AIDS is behind us, and it so isn't," Carleo said, and recalled that the meeting with Senator brown was a "good" one. "The trip itself was great and the group was really good."

For more information about the annual AIDS Watch, please visit http://bit.ly/dCVYxt.

Senator Brown's office did not respond to phone calls and e-mails for comment.