By Ted Kleine
Holmes passes out a handwritten true-or-false quiz on the virus, then starts asking the group for answers.
Holmes nods. “Very good. This is a real good group. I’m impressed.
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“If you shoot up and dispose of your needle improperly and a kid plays with it, he can get HIV,” the man says.
Most of the group says false, but a big man in a flannel shirt insists it’s true. “Yes, you can get HIV on the job. Two people working on a porn set. Think about that. He’s fucking her.”
Holmes leaves to applause.
The 51-year-old mother of three has a frank, caring demeanor that makes it easy for her to talk about AIDS with people caught up in the life. Once, when a member of one of her groups complained that he was having trouble keeping a condom on, Holmes asked him to lift up his two fingers and roll the sheath over it. It was discovered he was wearing his condoms inside out. Holmes corrected him, then offered this advice: “You’ve got to go with the flow.”
