Dubai, Thursday 18 September 2008, 10:30 AM

I was in my office having a very busy day at the office-as usual-, when I called the hospital after a routine blood test was done for the university as an admission requirement for the MBA I was planning to do.

“Good Morning Dr Walid, can I pass by and take the results of Saturday I’m really busy today?”

“Well, Mr. X, actually we’ve been trying to call you since yesterday, we need to come down to the hospital for a test retake”

“I’m sorry, but what kind of test is that, anything serious?”

“I’m afraid we have to redo the HIV test for you! Kindly pass by the lab today to allow them to take a new blood sample”

“HI. My nick name is A.M. I am a gay living in Palestine. I am 27 years old, and I would like to share with you my experience with H.I.V.  

Two years ago, I was in Amman participating in a youth exchange project. And there were lots of young participants from the Middle East. There were youth from Iraq, Amman, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. The project was so nice and the young participants were even so friendly. As a gay I was able to identify that 2 youths were gay, one was from Lebanon and the other was from Iraq. At the beginning we were not that courageous to talk explicitly about our gay identity. However later on we started to open up to one another.