澳大利亚亚军Ji Wallace日前向公众公布了他是艾滋病感染者的事实

xblues

Olympian vows to fight fear

Posted on 17 August 2012

If Olympian Ji Wallace had any doubts about going public with his HIV status they have vanished under the tide of goodwill and messages of support he has received since the announcement last week.
奥运会蹦床比赛银牌得主，澳大利亚亚军Ji Wallace日前向公众公布了他是艾滋病感染者的事实，受到了来自各界的支持与慰问。

Wallace, who won a silver medal in trampoline at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, was diagnosed just 12 months ago with HIV but now speaks like a man transformed by a purpose.
“It’s been out of control,” Wallace says of the response to his public declaration in the Star Observer last week.
Wallace 在2000年悉尼奥运会获得了蹦床运动银牌的时候，恰恰是他被确诊携带HIV病毒的一年之后。他日前向公众公布了他感染艾滋病毒的事实。

“My boyfriend and myself sat down and read the messages and some of them brought us to tears; people saying they are so alone and scared, living in fear of friends and families finding out.
我和我男朋友一起阅读我们收到的来信，很多来信很感人。很多艾滋病携带者来信说他们感觉很孤单和恐惧，恐怕被朋友和家庭发现他们感染了艾滋病毒。

“There [are] people who are in small towns and they say I’m the first person they have told. Some of the stories are awful. It really is heartbreaking.”
有些来自偏远小镇的艾滋病携带者说他们是第一次决定写信告诉Wallace他们的病情的，很多他们的故事都很可怕，也很让人心碎。

Wallace said he has already decided to take an active role as a campaigner for HIV awareness, this is on top of the work he already does as an ambassador for the Federation of Gay Games.
Wallace目前正在从事【同性恋人体育竞赛】的推广活动，但是他决定还要积极参与【艾滋病防止宣传】的活动。

“There’s still a lot of stigma for me to get out there and fight,” he said.
还有很多偏见与误解需要我去面对和斗争。

“These people deserve happiness and the fear of retribution and discrimination is holding them back.”
那些艾滋病携带者也同样有享受生活的权利，但是他们却生活在被歧视和仇视中。

For Wallace, the hardest thing about revealing his own status was deciding to do it in the first place, but a conversation with openly gay and HIV-positive Olympic diver Greg Louganis made his mind up for him.
Wallace一直都想要公开他的艾滋病携带者的身份，但是真正推动他做出这一决定的是著名的奥运会跳水运动选手艾滋病携带者和同志 Greg Louganis

“I was thinking about doing it for some time, but obviously there’s a lot to consider,” he said.

“When you do find out it literally is like a bomb going off in your head, but luckily I had very good friends around me.
每当想到要公布事实的事后，感觉就像炸弹爆炸一样，幸运的是我有朋友支持我。

“When I came home [to Australia after being diagnosed] I made sure my parents knew and my close friends as well. I was in a new relationship and so I made sure he knew and his family knew.”
当我被检测出艾滋病携带者之后，我告诉了我的朋友和家人，以及我的刚确立关系的男朋友和男朋友的家人。

When it came to going public, it was a television interview by CNN’s Piers Morgan with Louganis during the London Olympics this month that decided things for Wallace.
是另外一个奥运选手Louganis在美国CNN脱口秀Piers Morgan节目上公开了其艾滋病携带者的身份，才使Wallace最终做出向公众公布这个事实的决定的。

“It was so nice to see Piers so interested in [Louganis’] life and HIV is such a small part of his life and Piers did not make a big deal about it,” he said.
很高兴看到主持人Piers 所感兴趣的是 Lougains的生活，而不是过分强调他感染艾滋病的事实，因为作为艾滋病毒携带者，Louganis依然是一个正常人，有着正常的生活。

“After the interview I was lying there in bed and couldn’t sleep and I decided to write and say thank you [to Morgan] for treating [Louganis] normally and like every other human being on the planet.”
看完了访谈以后，我决定写信给主持人感谢他想对待正常人那样对待访谈对象。

“I spoke with Greg very briefly online about going public and he said ‘you know what, just go for it’.”
我在公开事实以前曾经和Greg简要的聊了几句，他很支持我这样做。

Surprisingly, despite Wallace’s own experiences – first revealing his sexuality after the Sydney Olympics and now his HIV status – he does not automatically encourage gay young athletes to come out, instead saying he believed it was a lot of extra pressure for a competitive athlete to deal with.
Wallace在奥运会以后公开了他的同性恋身份，如今他又公开了他是艾滋病携带者的事实，但是他并不鼓励其他年轻的同性恋运动员对公众公布同性恋身份的做法，他说他相信对于一个正在竞技的运动员来说，公布同性恋身份的压力是非常巨大的。

“The only example I can talk about is my own. My decision to come out after the games was mine and I was a competitor who just happened to be gay but that was not all there was to me – you’re not a gay person who happens to be an athlete,” he said.
就我自身的经验而言，我在奥运会以后公开我的同性恋身份。我更是一个竞技者，同性恋只是我的一部分。

“Everything goes into being a great competitor, my focus was not on being gay or an activist in the community.
对我来说最重要的是作一个优秀的运动员，我的目标不是做同性恋也不是同性恋平权运动的推动者。

“Those negative responses will be in your head and affect your ability to get asleep and focus on training and being your best; you have this one moment in your life to shine and the rest of your life to do and be what ever you want to be.”
在准备比赛过程中集中精力很重要，因为那是最关键的时刻，其他的事情可以以后解决。因此尤其不应该受到因为公开同性恋身份受到负面的评论的影响。

Wallace said he has been encouraged by the response to his HIV status, vowing to fight the fear and stigma that still surrounds the disease.
Wallace即将投身于消除对艾滋病携带者面对的误解和偏见。

“One of my main goals is doing something for Worlds Aids Day, I want to do something amazing out of respect for the millions of people who have passed, to show HIV/AIDS is still is here and it’s not ok to get [complacent],” he said.
我想要为世界艾滋病日做一些事情，让公众意识到艾滋病的问题还是很严重的，需要大家的共同关注。

“But also to say that it is a disease where you can live a very healthy, very normal and functioning life.
但是也想要让公众了解到，艾滋病毒携带者完全可以生活得健康，过正常人的生活。

“You can understand why people are still feeling [prejudice] and that way, but at the same time it’s still just fear.”
公众对艾滋病携带者的基于恐惧所引起的偏见是可以理解的，但归根结底这仅仅是恐惧（误解和不了解）

                               
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choz

So sad!