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\f0\fs24 \cf0 I\'92m Randy Phillips and I\'92m from Eclectic, Alabama. AIDS doesn\'92t have
a face, it doesn\'92t have a face, it doesn\'92t have a demographic, it can happen to anybody.
It\'92s like coming out of a second closet, it\'92s one thing when you hear that somebody
is gay and that can kinda set you back a minute but then you hear that somebody is HIV positive
and you kinda say did I hear that right? You might remember me as the guy who came out
to his dad on the day of the repeal of Don\'92t Ask Don\'92t Tell and then put it on YouTube
for the entire world to kinda see a success story. As well as my dad took it, my mom didn\'92t
take it quite so easy. And you know she\'92s from the 80s generation where the only thing
you can think about being gay is AIDS and dying very young and not having a good life.
She couldn\'92t think of any, couldn\'92t relate to another gay person who had a normal
life, you know grew up healthy and had a successful life and a career, and lived a long life and
maybe got married and found somebody and possibly had some kids. She didn\'92t think that\'92s
what my life could be like, she thought it would be absolutely a horror story and I\'92d
die ten years later, alone and a drug addict and from HIV. I\'92ve never been really able
to relate to the HIV/AIDS crisis locally. I met a guy on my team last night at dinner
and we talked for twenty minutes and he told me he was HIV positive. He\'92s young, he\'92s
healthy, he\'92s doing this bike ride, he looks just like me. Then he told me he was
24 and he kinda just blew me out of the water. I couldn\'92t imagine that somebody that looks
so healthy and full of life and is doing so much could be HIV positive. Nothing has really
connected with me so much until I got here and felt that with my own teammate. I kinda
wanted to parlay what little bit of attention I got from YouTube into something that I think
is a taboo for our generation. Not very many people in their early 20s like to think about
AIDS. It\'92s such our parents's generation and we kinda think we have it under control,
but we don\'92t. It\'92s still very big and it shouldn\'92t be a taboo it should be something
that we talk about and we discuss and fundraise for and fight and be active in our communities.
So I wanted to change this into something good.}
