He became an activist to help those with HIV. Phill Wilson speaks with Karl about his activism, Dance For Life, and why the fight for equity is so important. https://www.danceforlife.info
The following is a transcript of the conversation between Karl and Phill.
PHILL
My activism served as a survival mechanism.
KARL
Welcome to Plus Talk and Plus Life. We’re all about turning positive into a plus. And my guest today, Phill Wilson, has been doing that since the early ’80s. He’s a phenomenal activist and just all round great guy. Hey Phill, good to see you. PHIL
Hey there, how are you doing? It’s good to see you. It’s been about a year since I saw you, I think. KARL
Right exactly. Well, I always love chatting to you. And well, let’s just dive right in. You kind of really turned pain into purpose from the get go, when you were diagnosed all those years ago with HIV. Was that a survival mechanism for you to take on this role of advocacy and getting out there and helping?
PHILL
I don’t think that it was intentional. I think that basically what happened is that, you know HIV showed up. It was attacking people that I cared about, and I thought I had to get involved. But the first kind of narrative of HIV was that it was exclusively a white gay disease, you know? And so on one level in the very, very beginning although that narrative didn’t make sense to me, but that was the narrative. So I didn’t think about it personally initially relative to my own health. But what I knew is that my partner at the time was a white gay man. I had friends that were white gay men. And so I knew that as a gay man, it was an issue that I really needed to address. And you know, obviously now that we look back at it that first narrative was completely wrong, and it was an issue that was important to all of us anyway. And so after I was involved, certainly my activism served as a survival mechanism or as a tool.
KARL
I mean, you’ve dedicated your life essentially, since that moment, to really making sure and fighting for things like equity, which is still a huge battle in this country and around the world. But to making sure that all voices in this fight are heard because it’s so important that all voices living with HIV have a seat at the table.
PHILL
And quite frankly, you can replace HIV and AIDS, with all of the social determinants of health, and justice, and equity anywhere on the planet is by you know, making sure that everybody has a seat at the table and that everyone’s voice is heard.
KARL
When you look over your career in activism, do you have a proudest moment, a proudest achievement that really stands out to you?
PHILL
Instead of one individual event, that perseverance, you know, and holding on to my own optimism. You know, during the darkest days are the things that I’m most proud of. You know, at some point, I think one makes a decision. And for me, that decision was that I had to do my part. I neither then nor there, to tell you the truth, knew what an impact my part might have, but that didn’t matter. You know, as long as I did my part, then that is the thing. And I feel like I at least try every day to do my part. And that’s the thing I’m most proud of.
KARL
What do you see the biggest difference is, for a person of color being diagnosed HIV positive in the ’80s versus today?
PHILL
So the difference between now and then is that there is documented information and data, and tools, that were not available in the ’80s. You know, we now have the ability to prevent both HIV acquisition, and HIV transmission, which means that we can prevent all new infections. Today we have treatment tools, which means that if you are diagnosed with HIV, there are tools that are available to you that can basically stop the trajectory of the pandemic. So we have treatment tools that allow people who have HIV to quite frankly, live a full and robust life. So those are the differences. So there’s reasons to be hopeful. Now, one of the things that is the same, quite frankly, I guess to be fair, there are improvements, but still a huge barrier is access. Now, quite frankly, you know, if you have treatment but no access, if you have treatment but no utilization, if you have prevention and no access, or prevention without utilization, then you don’t have treatment or prevention. And so what’s the same is there continues to be a huge HIV access gap. There continues to be huge health inequities in our world. And until and unless we can eliminate those inequities those disparities, then we’re not gonna be successful in ultimately crossing the finish line to end the AIDS pandemic or any other health issue.
KARL
Does it shock you that in 40 something years, we still have these huge gaps?
PHILL
Well, it doesn’t shock me, and it’s clear to me why we have those gaps. Because we still have systems and people that control the levers of those systems that don’t quite frankly embrace the humanity of all people. We still have racism. We still have homophobia. We still have misogyny. We still have discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, origin of birth. We still have social-economic disparities. So all of these activities contribute to those disparities, and they put all of us at risk, no matter race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class.
KARL
We know also that people thankfully, are living longer and to be sensitive about you being a man of a certain age. You know, when you were diagnosed, you probably didn’t think you would be living at this point in your life. What are some of the challenges and obstacles you think, Phill, that you face or have faced or will face as a long-term survivor?
PHILL
Well, you know, on two occasions in my life, a doctor said to me that it is time to start marking the calendar, if you will. Initially when I was diagnosed the doctor gave me six months to live, and told me I should start putting my affairs in order. I was not yet 30 years old. I didn’t have affairs to put into order. And in 1996, a doctor gave me less than 24 hours to live. I am now 67 years old. I’ve been living with this disease, basically my entire adult life, since I was 23. Those of us who experienced the early days of the HIV pandemic, that all of us suffered to various degrees of depression, we suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome. You can’t go through that experience and not have those mental and physical health issues that require attention. And so I think that many of us, one of the big issues that we have to deal with is our mental and our emotional health.
KARL
You’re still bringing the community together in so many ways. Tell us about Dance for Life. What is it, and why is it so special to you?
PHILL
Well, I mean, Dance for Life is kind of a remarkable thing. Our goal in Dance for Life is to bring new voices into the conversation, to bring artists into the conversation. And in this case, we created an organization called Artists and Activists for Health Equity. Our flagship project is a dance festival called Dance for Life, where we bring in all genres of dance, from classical ballet, to modern and contemporary ballet, to hip hop, to tap, to Bollywood, to aerial dance, to salsa, to ballroom, being able to support efforts to fight HIV and AIDS and other health disparities. All the funds raised at this festival will go to Benefit three organizations. One is the AMAAD Institute in South Los Angeles. The other one is the St. John’s Community Health, which runs clinics all over South Los Angeles. And the other one is amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. All these organizations are doing remarkable work. So it’s a good time for a good cause. It’s a win-win situation.
KARL
Well, you are the definition of turning positive into a plus. Phill Wilson, thank you so much for your time.
PHILL
Thank you.
KARL
That is gonna do it for this episode of Plus Talk. If you want more information about what we’ve talked about or information on Dance for Life, go to the website PlusLifeMedia.com. And remember, you can follow us across all social media platforms. We are @PlusLifeMedia. Until next time, go live your best life. We’ll see you soon, bye-bye.