WELLNESS STARTS WITH AWARENESS - CD8 T cells - The Body

“I borrowed my brother’s van, we got
a vendors license and set up a table, and
then a couple of amazing things happened.
First, we couldn’t take money from people’s
hands fast enough once they found out what
we were doing. More importantly though,
people with AIDS from all over the country
started coming up to us saying, ‘Th is is so
awesome! I would love to work the two days
a week when I’m not sick. Do you know of
anything like this in my city? Are you guys
gonna franchise?’ ”
By the end of the weekend, they learned
that a project similar to Nightsweats and
T-cells was operating in New York City. It
was called Multitasking Systems, and it
was a temp service staff ed with people with
AIDS.
Unfortunately, the man who told them
about this other organization was suff ering
from severe dementia, and wasn’t able
to provide any type of contact information
(and you have to remember that this was the
early 1990s, and the luxury of the Internet
was not as widely available).
For the sake of exchanging ideas about
running an operation such as theirs, Gil
was determined to connect with the folks
who had organized Multitasking Systems.
His persistence paid off and in 1994 he
co-presented a groundbreaking workshop
with them at the National Skills Building
Conference, which later became the United
States Conference on AIDS.
“Th is was the fi rst time that employment
issues for people with AIDS, not talking
about giving us disability but talking
about getting us jobs, was addressed on a
national level,” Gil remembers.
“But out of 3,500 people, only six people
showed up to the workshop. Everyone was
trying to bury us back then. People thought
we were nuts. Th ey would say, ‘People with
AIDS can’t do that much work. We can’t run
a business staff ed with PWAs.’ ”
Infuriated, Gil reminded them of the
contrary.
“I said, ‘Well, who do you think built
your agencies? We built a whole care system
for people with AIDS. Th ere is nothing
we can’t do. We’ve already proved that to
the world.’ ”
Th e seeds that were planted that day
were not lost on unfertile ground. One of
the six attendees was from Oklahoma City
and, upon returning to his home town, he
wrote a grant and was funded to start a
temp service there.
PA • September / October 2008 • tpan.com • positivelyaware.com
Positively Aware
Nightsweats and T-cells remained a
unique entity unlike this newly created
organization, or even like Multitasking
Systems, in that it has opted to not go the
not-for-profi t route.
“We don’t want to have to stop doing
the kinds of shirts we do,” says Gil (they
are currently working on a shirt in support
of Barack Obama, to complement the ones
that strongly criticize and ridicule the current
administration). “We want this to be
about being self-reliant.”
Th at self-reliance, however, has not
come without cost. When asked about the
single most challenging aspect of running a
shop such as Nightsweats and T-cells, both
Michael and Gil respond, without hesitation,
that it is getting work.
“Sometimes just getting people within
the AIDS industry to support us is a challenge,”
said Gil. “Th e AIDS industry has
become an industry, and people change
jobs all the time. We’re constantly having
to re-introduce ourselves to people in ASOs
all over the country.
“We travel to conferences to reach people
with AIDS and to harass the drug companies.
We’ve never had a pharma company
do business with us. All those thousands
and thousands of bags you see at all those
conferences. We’ve never been allowed to
bid on one of those bags. Th ey get them
mass produced in China somewhere, where
they can pay less money.”
To sustain itself and continually
increase opportunity for people with AIDS,
Nightsweats and T-cells extended the
reach of its line of shirts to store shelves in
places as far away as Hawaii and London.
Th ey have also maintained a loyal base of
customers who frequently use them for
custom work. Th eir customer base ranges
from families wanting T-shirts for their
annual reunions, to the restaurant on the
corner, agencies such as TPAN and Broadway
Cares, to Bernadette Peters and Mary
Tyler Moore.
“Our prices are competitive and we do
quality work,” said Gil. “Th e people who created
Adobe Photoshop do business with us.
In fact, they sent somebody to us for advice
on how to do the four-color process.”
Gil admits, though, that even with all
of the fi nancial obstacles, Nightsweats and
T-cells is very diff erent from other companies,
where the bottom line is money.
“Our bottom line is staying alive,” he
says.
In 1995, Gil’s deteriorating health
forced him to quit his job in the hospital
and take on a more full-time role with
Nightsweats and T-cells.
“I just got too sick to continue working
there,” he says. “I was exposed to way
more pathogens than most people with HIV
would normally be exposed to.”
And, the truth of the matter is, a work
environment such as what he’s helped to
create at Nightsweats and T-cells is far more
favorable for people with AIDS.
He recalls an incident where a reporter
was coming to the shop to interview him
about the work that Nightsweats and T-cells
is doing, and he had an “accident” following
his morning dose of meds.
“I was able to yell from the bathroom,
‘Somebody go and get my spare shorts
because the reporter from the gay press is
on his way,’ ” he says, laughing hysterically.
“And that could happen fi ve times a week
here and nobody would bat an eye.”
He says that organizations like Nightsweats
and T-cells are still relevant today
because, contrary to what you hear, the
AIDS epidemic is not over. It simply has a
diff erent face. And, even in 2008, employment
opportunities for people with AIDS
are limited.
All of the local social workers know
Nightsweats and T-cells, and call upon them
when they’re trying to fi nd work for some of
their most “unemployable” clients—former
sex workers with no traceable work history,
or men who have been recently released
from prison who no one will hire because
of their rap sheet.
Th e social workers call on Nightsweats
and T-cells because they know that such
people, particularly the ones who are also
infected with HIV, will be welcomed with
open arms at Nightsweats and T-cells.
One PWA staff member came to Nightsweats
and T-cells aft er 20 years in prison.
With two years of work there under his belt,
he was able to step up to a much better position
somewhere else, where he’s been for the
past three years.
“Someone who has been selling their
body on the streets for the last 15 years can
sell the hell out of shirts,” Gil says seriously
of some of the staff members who’ve come
their way. “Th ey know how to sell. Th ey’ve
been selling their whole lives. Th ey are
salespeople. It’s just a matter of us looking
diff erently at our surroundings. And, hopefully,
we are a role model for that.” e
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