Sorry to inform those of you who'd side with Arsenio Hall and the rest of those patting Johnson on the back, but I'm going with Navratilova on this one. Magic is not my hero.
This isn't to say that I don't feel for him. Johnson is undoubtedly one of the finest basketball players ever, seems to be an incredibly warm, intelligent, and nice human being, and doesn't deserve the hideous, drawn-out death that awaits him in the closer-than-we'd-like-to-think future. I was stunned and hurt when I discovered that he had tested HIV-positive.
But this entire Magic/HIV story has also filled me with a great deal of anger. First off, let's address Navratilova's points: sexism and heterosexism. The fact is, if we found out that a woman had slept with as many uncounted partners as Johnson (who admitted he couldn't pick out who he got the disease from... no doubt due to the sheer number of women he had sex with), we'd say that she was a slut or a tramp or a whore. Johnson, however, has simply been a "stud."
And if it was Navratilova, a lesbian? Simple: she's been performing unnatural acts. She's got it coming, just like all of those homosexuals did.
The fact that Johnson has HIV is a positive event for AIDS awareness. But it also shows just how pathetic our society's attitudes toward sex really are. For Johnson to be accepted as a hero, he first had to make it clear on the Arsenio Hall Show that he wasn't one of those homosexuals. When that was over, it was okay to touch him, to make him a hero.
The facts are that it's been at least eight years since we discovered how the AIDS-causing virus is transmitted. Johnson kept having unprotected sex. With multiple partners. Had he listened, the whole thing could have been prevented.
Still, he doesn't deserve what has happened to him. But neither did the thousands of victims who died of AIDS before anyone knew what caused it, when some scientists thought that a nitrogen inhaler used by gay men in nightclubs might be behind the whole thing.
Our society didn't care about them. They got what was coming to them, simply because of their lifestyle. But Magic Johnson -- he's a hero.
Unlike many other AIDS victims past, present and future, Magic knew what causes the disease and should have taken steps to prevent it.
In some ways, he is less deserving of our pity than those forgotten thousands who died in the late '70s and early '80s.
But Magic is okay -- he's a heterosexual, a man, an athlete. We approve of all those attributes: heterosexual sex is the preferred form, men are allowed to screw around all they want, and athletes travelling from town to town are permitted to bed down with as many partners as possible.
The fact that AIDS awareness is increasing now is wonderful. But the reason it's increasing is because Magic -- someone who counts -- has got the disease. It's a scathing indictment of our society, that we had to wait until Magic Johnson was HIV-positive before we'd care about a spreading epidemic that's probably 100 percent fatal.
For those of you looking for sports, for a diversion from the terrible realities of everyday life, I'm afraid you haven't found any.
This is about reality. And -- especially in times like these -- reality is far more important than any fantasy world we might like to build around ourselves.