A Daughter's Death,A Mother's Survival - What Really ...

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A Daughter’s Death,A Mother’s Survival - Los Angeles CityBeat~ DANCEBEAT ~~ SOUNDS ~~ CONCERTS ~~ STAGE ~~ GALLERY ~~ READINGS, ETC. ~~ GIVE IT UP! ~~ SUBMISSIONS ~Sherman Oaks SoulL’Kesh Café is a Valleyoasis of Southern homecooking~ DINING GUIDE ~The L.A. Times refused to publish even a letter fromMaggiore in which she spelled out the controversialdecisions in the coroner’s report. It was around this timethat I began to speak to Christine Maggiore on the phoneand take notes on her story, which often left mespeechless. I had been reporting on AIDS for 20 years,and we were both familiar with the impossiblycensorious and even brutal treatment one can expect ifone is branded an “AIDS denialist.” We talked about ourown capacity for seeing, hearing, knowing reality. “Iwant to know what killed EJ,” she would say, and I feltshe really meant that.More and more, as time passed, I started to see the storyas one that was less and less medical, more and morepsycho-social – a story of an almost crushing kind ofmob rule, where the victims have no rights. Few couldresist the delicious temptation to condemn a “denialist”mother, or to appropriate EJ as their own tragic little girl.It was all done in the pitch-perfect tones of the AIDSmorality play some of us know so well.So, they have had their play. The lights have gone up,the mother is, in some minds, swinging from thegallows, and the pious are triumphant in their lament.Bloggers have made their names dissecting and redissectingEJ’s autopsy reports with tongue-cluckingcertainty. ABC Primetime showed footage of Christineand Robin watching film of EJ’s brain tissue, which wassaid to be ravaged by an HIV protein called p24. Theythen posted her autopsy report on their website, whichthe anti-Maggiore bloggers went at like sharks afterchum. Anonymous hate groups sprouted from Bethesdato L.A., distributing increasingly deranged flyers,erecting an anti-Maggiore website, and even starting anew activist group called the “Christine MaggioreAction Committee” (CMAC, pronounced “smack”),devoted to forcing her to publicly recant her HIVpositions, and “apologize for her involvement in theAIDS denialism movement.” One of these groupsprinted a flyer that was originally a picture of EJ in a hat,taken from a website that friends of Maggiore andScovill put up, but the photo was defaced. Black Xmarks were over her eyes, her lips were morphed andturned down over ghoulish teeth, and the text read: “Idied of neglect and AIDS and then my Mommy paidpeople big bucks to lie and say it was bad medicine! Seeyou in HELL Mommy!”These and other similarly grisly flyers were distributedall over L.A.. She received profane, abusive e-mailsfrom e-mail addresses with her late daughter’s name inthe address, as well as heavy-breathing anonymousphone calls that were traced to the Gay and LesbianTransgender Community Center (LGBT) in L.A. whoalso distributed 1,500 copies of a leaflet asking people tohttp://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3887&IssueNum=157 (4 of 11)6/13/2006 12:07:12 PM
A Daughter’s Death,A Mother’s Survival - Los Angeles CityBeatget involved in the campaign to “ … Help STOPChristine Maggiore.”All this courtesy of the people who for years haveinstructed the world about “compassion.” They wereonce called “AIDS activists”; now they are called“Treatment Activists.” EJ Scovill’s death has become, inthe past year, the very crucible of the HIV CausationWar.I have more of these profane and cruel flyers and e-mailsat hand, but let’s stop there. The point is made. AIDS hasbecome synonymous with rage and hatred of those whothink differently from the orthodoxy. About that there isno question. The question is: In such a climate, what arethe chances of anybody, on either side, being able to seeclearly what the “facts” are about the sudden death ofEliza Jane Scovill, one year ago? Especially one fact: thecounty coroner has produced no HIV test on EJ Scovill.AIDS IS SO OBVIOUSChristine Maggiore originally tested positive on an HIVtest during a routine physical in 1990, and became aposter girl for heterosexual, middle-class AIDS,speaking to groups and telling them: “If I can get it,anybody can.” She became an HIV “skeptic” when sherepeated the HIV test and tested inconclusive twice,positive three times, and negative once. This caused herto start researching the scientific underpinnings of theHIV test, the hypothesis itself, the assumptions aboutillness and death attached to it, and the wisdom of thedrug regimens. She founded what would become thelargest “dissident” AIDS charity in the country, Aliveand Well, rooted in the heretical idea that people whotested positive for HIV antibodies could live long,healthy lives and not die from HIV “infection,” per se.Though she never gave medical advice, she authored aself-published book, What if Everything You ThoughtYou Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?, and became a kindof motivational figurehead for the HIV positives of theworld, speaking, holding meetings, and working behindthe scenes to help mothers and fathers who were undersiege by draconian HIV mandates.Being hyper-aware of the high incidence of falsepositives, of the stigmas attached to the test and apositive result, and above all, of the crushing power ofthe state to enforce toxic medications, ban breastfeeding,and even seize children at gunpoint if HIVpositive mothers disobeyed, Maggiore says to this daythat she does not regret not testing her children. Since EJdied, she had Charlie tested, and he has tested negativeon all tests, as has her husband Robin, with whom shehas had unprotected sex for 11 years. Robin Scovill is anaward-winning filmmaker who shares his wife’sconvictions about the need to question HIV dogma. Hehttp://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3887&IssueNum=157 (5 of 11)6/13/2006 12:07:12 PM
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