About AIDS

Tired of battling the "tell-or-not?" bogeyman as you negotiate the dating scene? For many HIV-positive people, the solution has been to meet friends and potential dates via a personal ad on a Web site for HIVers only.

There are several such sites, including Austin's own

LivingPositive.com (or LivingPositive.org), which offers information, news ... and an extensive personal ads database. LivingPositive is put up by and for HIV-positive people and lists more than 9,000 "members" from across the U.S. and even abroad.

Now a new kid is arriving: the POZ Personals section in one of the best HIV/AIDS magazines in the U.S., also significantly created by HIV-positive folks. It won't debut until January, but it will surely be well done. As their promo says, "HIVers could use a safe place to be openly positive while seeking friendships, sex or romance. POZ Personals might be just the HIV love line that many of you have been looking for." Anyone interested in participating can send their e-mail address to personals@poz.com. When the site is ready, these early birds will be notified first. Privacy is guaranteed, of course, and I trust them.

In using nontraditional contact methods like the Internet, appropriate personal safety measures always should be observed. Even so, Web-based contact enables more "efficient," less potentially embarrassing friendships to occur by a selectivity process ("sero-sorting") that's within your control. Perhaps it deserves a look.