Selma de Ruiter is furious by the statements of FVD leader Thierry Baudet. As a white straight woman with HIV, she takes Baudet’s words personally: “People feel pain and sorrow because of this.”
“I felt like the housewife next door that something like this would never happen to. But anyone can get it,” Selma says. She was diagnosed with HIV 1.5 years ago. “There isn’t a day that I don’t think about it, but I hope it will one day.”
Humberto tan
Because of her own diagnosis, she takes Baudet’s words personally. The FVD leader said at a meeting in Heerhugowaard that AIDS ‘in principle’ does not exist for white heterosexuals.
Presenter Humberto Tan, among others, spoke strongly against his words, as did the Aidsfonds and the interest group COC.
‘This is injustice’
“For me it is personal”, Selma says. “I have only had this diagnosis for 1.5 years and I still have something to do in my head. His laziness in particular makes me angry: that he just wipes everything off the table. People are in pain and sadness, not just me. statement touches so many people. You can have an opinion, but you don’t have to touch people so unnecessarily. This is injustice. And that makes me angry.”
Selma occasionally notices a lack of understanding when it comes to HIV, and these kinds of statements do not help. “I immediately thought of Rene Klijn and Freddie Mercury when I heard I had it. But that’s not how it is now, and I think people should know that,” she says.
“Can I drink from your cup?”
Her family and friends all responded positively, but sometimes she also gets nasty comments. “A colleague recently asked: ‘Can I drink from the same cup as you?’ Then I think: go read the newspaper dude.”
She also encountered these kinds of reactions when getting her corona vaccine. “You have to indicate there whether you have underlying conditions and then a GP will talk to you. He said to me: then we should put on double gloves for the person who is going to prick you. Come on, we know that is not necessary. “
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‘Stigma because it has to do with sex’
“That’s not nice to hear, but I am combative. I would like to be able to do something about it,” she says. Selma is not ashamed of the fact that she has HIV and talks about it openly.
“It is what it is. The fact that it still has a stigma has also to do with that it is about sex. That is also a problem. But this can happen to anyone: it’s not just sex workers in obscure rooms.”
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