For most of us, the thought of dying never crosses our minds. Someone with HIV or AIDS does not have that luxury. A person with HIV or AIDS faces death on a regular basis. Welcome to the life of Hassan James Gibbs.

Gibbs spoke in front of a sparse crowd in the Bryan Auditorium inside the Frank Science Center Mon., Feb. 11. He shared some of his knowledge and answered questions about the AIDS virus and its effects. He spoke on his race and sexuality and the manner in which he has dealt with the way he is viewed because of his illness.

In the African-American community, “being gay might get you beat up,” Gibbs stated, “or even worse, it might get you ostracized from your family.” Treasurer of Pride Chris Poole, who attended the gathering, said that “it’s definitely true in white neighborhoods as well, just not as true.”

This was true for Gibbs, who is a recovering crack addict and former homeless person. He was kicked out of his mother’s home because he was “same-gender-loving.”

Gibbs explained how HIV is being spread and that in order to prevent the spread of the disease, we must get to the root of the problem, “It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it,” he said.

According to Gibbs, we are not doing enough “talking about sex with children. We talk early about the stork, but babies aren’t brought in by a bird.”

Another problem he believes we face is the education level in African-American communities. Gibbs said this is a huge contributing factor to the problem because African-Americans are being infected at such a high rate compared to other sectors of society.

Younger people are very susceptible to contracting the disease because many convince themselves they are invulnerable. Fifty percent of all new HIV infections occur in people under the age of 24.

There is also a common belief that you must be homosexual in order to be infected with HIV. Again, the reality is the opposite. “Most people getting HIV are heterosexual,” Gibbs said.

People have told Gibbs that he deserves what he got because of his former lifestyle. “But no one deserves a disease,” he replied.

Gibbs proudly said that “if I live ’til March, I’ll be HIV positive for nineteen years.” In 1990, a doctor told Gibbs he had four months to live. He quickly made the decision that he was not going to die. “Today, you don’t have to die if you have HIV,” Gibbs said. Gibbs later urged that you must love “yourself enough to protect yourself.”

Rushdee Omar, a junior who attended the gathering, said in amazement, “I didn’t think that you could live that long with the epidemic.”

Sophomore Daniel Thigpen believes that “no one left without learning something new.”