Oral History

 

"“VD” was a bad word, venereal disease, and they had these VD clinics, which were all men. No women went to them because they didn’t have any symptoms. Do you see what I mean? So it was like “nice” women didn’t get disease, and those who did have disease were prostitutes or whores or whatever. So there was such a sensitivity about that, and still is. There still is. A woman with a sexually transmitted disease, there is this stigma, as with all sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Stigma still exists. So I decided that I was going to try and change that..." - Mary Guinan, on the lack of data on and stigma surrounding women with venereal disease

 

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For a full transcript of this oral history, click here.