What if you were told to wear the letter of shame?

From the days of yore, stories of outcasts, misfits and vagabonds have been always known. Sometimes, purpose of those stories was to entertain. Quite often, the protagonist would experience amazing adventures, thus intriguing the readers. The other purpose of such stories was to teach the audience a lesson. The protagonist of the story, the sinner, would be set as an example of indecent and intolerable behaviour.
  However, such stories are not always a fantasy. Even in the 20th Century, we have people who are isolated from the society. This is still common for different reasons. One of them is fear. Whenever people fear something, they try to escape from it. When the subject of fear is someone from the society, that person then has to be excluded from the group. The fear comes from the unknown. Often people lack information and thus misinterpretations happen. These interpretations are usually very damaging and highly untrue.
  Other reason for why people ostracise is the fear of the problem spreading. People fear that if “the sinner” stays in the society, the others will be “infected” and thus, the society will collapse. So, in this case, the ostracism is used to prevent the “sin” from being spread.
  Despite 20 years of HIV charities campaigns, the discrimination against the sufferers of HIV and AIDS still exists. Those who talk about their diagnosis, are often harassed at work, unfairly dismissed from jobs and rejected by friends and relatives. Such treatment may seem old fashioned and may seem to only show the lack of understanding that people have. However, people are not afraid to take on such views, probably out of fear of being infected with the virus themselves. So in such cases, the sufferers of AIDS or HIV are made into personae non grata by the society.
  Perhaps the most famous case of such discrimination is Geoffrey F. Bowers’ story. Despite him being a good lawyer at an elite New York Lawyers’ firm, he was sacked as soon as his employers learned about his condition. He was an HIV positive, but was still fit for the job. Toward the end, he came to define himself by his work as a lawyer. His job with the New York office of the world's largest law firm, a friend said, „gave him a sense of belonging, a sense of worth, the fact he could continue his job even though he had this deadly disease. „ However, when he was dismissed, he was stripped of such fundamental rights as dignity and purposefulness. Now, he was a pest to the society, although the society itself rejected him.
  Geoffrey F. Bowers was one of the first people to seek a compensation for his suffering. His case was won; and it was won for all the sufferers of AIDS and HIV who have been treated unfairly. However, he did not see his victory, as he died earlier than the resolution of the seven - year - long case.
  However, as I mentioned earlier, social exclusion is not new. There are many examples in the course of history of people, who were ostracised. One of them is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. She was ostracised for adultery and her sin was publicised by jury’s decision to make her wear a red letter A on her clothes. That letter is like an ancient equivalent of modern media, which labels people with “letters”.
  There are a few characteristic similarities between Hester and Geoffrey Bowers. Even though they were both faced with discrimination, they still kept their strength and fought back against all conventions. The society, actually, is afraid of them, because they have more inner strength than anyone else added together.
  Even though it is quite irrational, but the phobia of HIV sufferers is still in practice. Such prejudice can be regarded as a violation of Human Rights. In the universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23, part 3, it states that: “Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
  We must ensure that such prejudices are completely abandoned and we perceive the problems that the ostracised people face with a clearer understanding.