Hillary Clinton just slammed the stigma surrounding sexually transmitted infections
Washington Post ^ | September 7, 2016 | Danielle Paquette
Posted on 9/15/2016, 4:41:18 AM by Pinkbell
Ella Dawson expected to find a Netflix bill in her Brooklyn mailbox. She discovered instead a letter from Hillary Clinton. The 24-year-old blogger, who writes often about living with genital herpes, figured it was a standard campaign mailer. She once donated $50 to Clinton.
She tore open the envelope. She froze. Did the Democratic presidential candidate, one of the most famous figures on the planet, just thank her for talking about sexually transmitted infections on the Internet?
“I am so grateful to you for not only speaking out against the stigma,” Clinton wrote, “but for also taking a courageous stand against the ridiculous, but very real, barrage of hate you received online.”
Dawson shared a photo of the letter Tuesday with her 7,600 Twitter followers:
Thank you, @HillaryClinton, for reading. I'm incredibly moved. To be accurate, I'm ugly crying. #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/kt5tAVWrFX
Messages poured in:
Thank you for standing up.
I'm sorry you have had to suffer harassment, Ella, but thank you for fighting.
#UglyCrying too!! There are so many of these personal stories out there!
Politics aside, Dawson hopes the high-profile recognition will help change the way people talk about herpes — a condition she says is misunderstood and common. Two out of three people under the age of 50 have Herpes Simplex Virus 1, which can cause oral and genital sores, according to a January report by the World Health Organization.
That amounts to roughly 3.7 billion people with an incurable virus. Doctors say the majority never see an outbreak.
(Snip)
Dawson’s diagnosis came days before she turned 21, she told The Post, and the news left her confused. She said she used condoms, but didn’t know herpes spreads through skin-to-skin contact and latex doesn’t always stop it. She feared she could never enjoy intimate relationships again.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
