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Larry meets HIV: Part I
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Larry Bryant aka Positive Brown
On a typical Tuesday evening, Larry Bryant could be watching television or packing for travel. But on this balmy Tuesday evening in autumn he is sitting across the table from an aspiring writer sharing his life story. Larry is a 42 year old HIV positive resident of DC. He has been positive for 24 years. Positive without medication. Positive without purplish lesions or dramatic weight loss. Positive without a low t-cell count or night sweats. Larry is a healthy looking, physically fit activist who not only lives with HIV but also works within the community to helps others fight it as the Director of National Organizing for Housing Works. Housing Works is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting HIV positive men and women find affordable housing.
Icarus
A younger Larry entered Norfolk State University in 1985. As a graduate of TC Williams high school in Alexandria, Virginia, he won a football scholarship and planned to study Graphic Arts design. He played defensive back and kept a low social profile. “My freshman and sophomore years weren’t exactly horror stories. We all go through developmental changes. I’ve never been the actively social type. I’m kind of a quiet person.” (All evidence to the contrary in later years when he laid down in the middle of busy Pennsylvania Avenue next to a casket in a staged protest. The protest was in response to the 3% HIV infection rate in DC) Larry was not as educated about HIV/AIDS in college as he is now. Information about the disease was sparse in the African-American community and most people still regarded it as a gay, white, male disease. “I think I really started to pay attention to it when Melvin Lindsey died. Growing up with black men in the community, they tell you ‘you get crabs or herpes you get a shot.’ No big deal.”
Varsity athletes at Norfolk State were encouraged to volunteer . Larry decided to give blood to the American Red Cross and earn a small stipend for his donation. “As a broke college student, [if] you get ten or fifteen dollars, it’s like winning the lottery.” After one of his visits, the nurse asked him to wait before he donated so the doctor could talk to him. Larry says he wasn't’ worried for his health. “The doctor never came within five feet of me. I walked in and he walked behind me and closed the door. He said ‘I’m sorry but you can’t donate blood here anymore. We tested your blood sample. Your donation came back positive for the antibodies that fight HIV. The whole visit took about 90 seconds but it felt longer than that.” There was no counseling or information about his newly discovered , deadly infection. The projected life span of a person living with HIV during that era was nine years. Larry figured he had about that long to live.
Positively Silent
“I waited in the lobby for my friends. When they asked me what happened, I made up something about the needle wouldn’t work in my arm. We left. From that day on, I never said a word.” Larry was paralyzed by fear of the unknown. He knew he wasn’t gay but would others believe that? He didn’t want to die. He could not bring himself to disclose his illness with anyone because of the stigma that comes along with being HIV positive. In the early 1990’s AIDS was still regarded as a white, gay man’s disease and the life of a HIV positive person was a lonely and dangerous one. “When Magic [Johnson] disclosed his illness, to me, it was the best and the worse. It showed that people who are not gay or white are affected. The worse thing is that people think that Magic has been positive for so long, what’s the big deal. I was very leery because I know how people saw the disease. I didn’t feel the pressure to disclose. I just wanted to be alone.” Larry left that waiting room in April 1986 muted about his illness. He continued the silence for another five years.
Coming up: Larry meets HIV Part II and Larry meets HIV: Part III
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