Stories from the Edge - Volunteer Now

the young David McCartney. He had already come out and declared himself to be gay. It was a time when religiousfundamentalists and the right wing were looking for a group to blame the then little understood Aids epidemic. For themoral right it was God's punishment on the gay community which the traditionalists believed was an abomination to theBible. At around the same time fundamentalists in Northern Ireland paraded the slogan ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy.’ Davidwas lucky; his parents were understanding.Still in his 20s, David McCartney watched as Jim began suffering the physical and psychological twists and turns of failinghealth. Among many of his symptoms were the manic fits of depression. Jim did not want to die. Then the psychicpendulum would swing in the opposite direction. He would become deliriously happy believing that Belfast's Royal VictoriaHospital had discovered a cure for the disease.David is convinced that in the end Jim finally came to terms with his illness, his mortality and finally wanted to die. Deathin these circumstances can be a blessing. David remembers the moment that life left him, "I had never seen anyone diebefore,” he said recalling the time. "At the time it all seemed a matter of fact, it was only afterwards when my mind hadtime to process the information that I realised the awfulness. I remember it was the time of Benetton's advertisingcampaign which so shocked a lot of people. But if they could capture that moment when a person dies there would be ageneral hue and cry,” David added.Two Belfast men, Tom McManus and Aidan Vaughan, were becoming increasingly angry at the medical profession and theHealth Department. They felt not enough was being done to prevent the spread of the modern Black Plaque. Gay menwere most at risk. Tom and Aidan put together the outline of the Rainbow Project. Its flag was to be the rainbow, theuniversal symbol of unity. The enterprise was to make gay men aware of their health and how it had to be protected.Gay men visited Northern Ireland's main gay clubs and bars distributing condoms and the message to 'respect andprotect yourself.’David McCartney had always worked as a volunteer helping out on the Cara Friend helpline. Then he moved across toFoyle Friend, another helpline for gay people. His volunteering led him to downtown Belfast to the Rainbow offices inChurch Lane. He now volunteers full-time for Rainbow and is the public face of the campaign to ensure that gay men areboth physically and psychologically happy.Aids is a particularly upsetting disease. It is linked to a fundamental and necessary human activity.According to Eric Fromm"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” According to Fromm the deepest needof humans is to overcome their separateness, to leave the prison of his and her loneliness. Love then is one of the deepestneeds of humans. To ignore love means insanity because the panic of complete isolation can only be overcome by such aradical withdrawal from the world of the outside. Only by such can the outside world of separateness disappear. Loveovercomes death according to Christians. In our culture love is equated with life and renewal.From a loving act between two people, the death of a person with Aids sets up a horrific contrast. In reaction to the Aidsepidemic governments around the world embarked on a terror campaign showing grim tombstones with the words "Aids"heavily carved on them. Newspapers and the media in general painted a picture of millions of deaths by the year 2000.The imagery was that of the hooded death figure with his sickle cutting huge swathes through the human population. To