WASHINGTON – For Shante Miller, stigma is “an ugly word” that came into her life and stole away her grandmother.
“My grandmother passed due to AIDS-related complications in 1996 when I was in ninth grade,” Miller, a consultant for HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia told a crowd that had gathered to talk about the impact of the shame associated with the disease, “and it was because of stigma.”
Her grandmother found out she was HIV positive and never told anyone, she said. One day, Miller and family members came home and found her grandmother was sick.
“She was so sick,” she said. “”We didn’t know what was going on. We took her to the doctor and came home without her.
“My grandmother would not go to the doctor, and she would not tell us what was going on with her.”
Miller is one of the millions whose lives have been affected by the shame, the stigma, associated with HIV and AIDS.
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Briahnna M. Brown 