I was having dinner last week with a younger person, in his 20s, who remarked when the topic of Keifer Sutherland came up: "He's so hot! I'd let him do me bareback."
I did not laugh. I was quietly horrified. And yet, not completely surprised that someone that age might not have the same fear that I have had all my adult life about catching AIDS though unsafe sex. During the opening ceremonies of AIDS Walk Los Angeles this morning, I was happy to hear so many of the speakers address this very problem regarding the younger generation who doesn't look at AIDS as a death sentence and are not as careful with their bodies as they need to be.
"Grey's Anatomy" star T.R. Knight told the crowd: "Even though we read a lot that things are changing in this fight against AIDS, it's so easy to get lulled into a false sense of security - especially the yoiunger people who are just exploring their sexuality. Whether you're gay like me or straight or anywhere in between, I think we need to continue to teach each other and talk to each other especially if our parents or our schools don't do an adequate job. I think that's the way to fight it."
Kimberly McCullough, whose character of Robin Scorpio was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS on "General Hospital" 12 years ago, has been an active participant in the AIDS Walk for years - organizing a team of walkers from the soap who have raised tens iof thousands of dollars over the years.
McCullough told me that even though her character is make-believe, she is very concerned for the youth of today:"They totally don't get it. Just in general, kids, their minds are generally in the wrong place. One of my best friends teaches sex education at Planned Parenthood and she said it is worse than ever - they really don't know what's going on. In the beginning, it was super scary because we knew nothing about it, Now they just assume because we know about it and because there are drugs out there to maintain it, that they don't have to worry as much. Until we have a cure, we have to treat it the same way."
Andrea Bowen, who plays Teri Hatcher's daugher on "Desperate Housewives," told me about how much she had learned aboyt HIV/AIDS while starring in the TV movie "Girl Positive" about a teenage girl who becomes infected.
"As much as people don't want to think about it, it's natural and normal [for teens] to be examining what their sexuality and it's so important to be safe about it and so important to get the message out there instead of turning out backs to it and say that it's not happening."

Andrea (pictured above on Sunday with Hal Sparks) did a lot of research for her character in "Girl Positive" and said, "It's just so shocking. I thought I knew everything I needed to because of the industry that I'm in, it's kind of talked about more often, and I grew up doing a lot of theater and Broadway and it's talked about a lot there. But I was so shocked to find out how many young people between the ages of 18-25 are infected with HIV daily and they don't even know it and they don't know how to protect themselves. Yes, it's talked about but not nearly as much as I think it should be."
"Dreamgirls" star Anika Noni Rose was blunt when she addressed the crowd that had converged upon San Vicente in West Hollywood to watch the star-studded ceremony. She had recently been to Botswana and said while there, "I found out that there is not a teenager who doesn't know at least one to two people who have died of AIDS...Everyday, those people walk in life. They walk looking forward to living, looking forward to doing things, thinking about their mortality but thinking about how to live and move forward...While we're worried about giving our children condoms in health class, while we're worried about telling them about sexual education, in reality, maybe we should actually put some condoms in the classroom, in the gym, in the auditorium, in the back room where you know somebody's gettin' it. Put the condoms out and let these children know {applause] because we're looking at something that we've gotten complacent about, that we've gotten comfortable with, that we know there are drugs and we know there are ways to deal with it. But if we don't teach the babies, we're gonna really have some problems.