Jessica Eason: Wellesley senior living with HIV

Jessica Eason, an HIV positive senior at Wellesley College, gave students an optimistic and honest look at living with the disease on Monday, using humor and realism to convey the message that HIV and AIDS can happen to anyone. Her speech, which kicked off Tufts' AIDS awareness week, resonated strongly with her audience of about 30 students.

Eason contracted HIV during her semester abroad in Tanzania. After a night of partying, Eason went home with a local man, and although she was not pressured to have sex, she felt obligated to follow through.

"I didn't have the self-esteem to say no," Eason said. "I didn't have the self-esteem to not get totally wasted and put myself in this bad situation."

Eason addressed the group with the frankness and humility of someone still learning about her sickness. "I don't know how to teach value," she said. "I'm just learning what it is." Eason treated the audience members as peers, and spent a large portion of her talk answering questions about changes in her lifestyle, beliefs, and decisions.

"I guess the best part about contracting HIV is that my family has become much closer and we realize that we should not be so distant," Eason said.

Eason stressed the importance of focusing on quality of life, rather than being consumed by the idea of death. She attributed this outlook to her boyfriend in the Philippines. "I think it has to do with the culture he was brought up in," she said. "When I told him I had HIV he just said, 'so we may fall in love and die happy.' It was really nice having such positive support."

Though some students were opposed to Eason's beliefs, they agreed that the forum had an accepting attitude for alternate viewpoints. "She was really positive about the different opinions," freshman Sarah Rasheed said.

One area of contention surrounded Eason's recent discovery that she might be able to inform the man who infected her that he is a carrier of HIV. Many students were shocked and confused by her inclination to not tell him.

"In Tanzania, it's a death sentence to be told you have HIV," Eason said in explanation. "I'm not sure what placing the burden would do; he doesn't have the same medical help we get in the US."

The most heated dissent surrounded Eason's opinion on when to reveal one's HIV-positive status. As a member of the Wellesley rugby squad, Eason immediately informed the team that she had been infected with HIV. The girls supported Eason, she said, and would not allow her to follow through with her initial plan to quit the team. The squad did not inform opposing teams of Eason's condition, however, a decision that many of Monday night's attendees found unfair and inappropriate.

"I think it was unfair of you to continue playing without notifying other teams about your condition," one freshman girl said. "I want to play rugby here at school and would be uncomfortable knowing there could be a girl playing with HIV without me being told."

Students also seemed troubled by Eason's decision to have unprotected sex with her boyfriend, who is aware that she is HIV positive, or her desire to still have a baby.

"I just don't understand how your partner can be comfortable with having unprotected sex?," one student asked. "Does he want to die?"

Eason did seem to convey effectively the dangers and possibility of contracting HIV even for students at a prestigious university. "When we would get on the bus to come to Boston, we didn't think any of the cute dudes at Harvard, MIT, or Tufts had HIV," she said.

A large portion of Monday's audience consisted of members of AIDS Outreach, a group within the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS). Other students were interested in learning about living with AIDS while young and in college. "I have always been interested in how society acts with people they perceive to have disabilities, and sadly AIDS has become a disability," freshman Elana Eisen-Markowitz said.

In collaboration with Sex Talk, AIDS Outreach has dedicated this week to educating students at Tufts about HIV/AIDS prevention. The week's activities include Sex Talk Meetings, an AIDS Outreach meeting, and an AIDS film screening. On Saturday, Amnesty International will sponsor the annual Jamnesty for AIDS charities in Carmichael lounge.