Interpersonal Roulette and HIV/AIDS as Disability: Stigma and Social Support in Tension

Keywords: Disclosure, identity management, stigma, social support, uncertainty

reduction

Disability divides the world into “us” and “them.” For the disabled, much everyday

interaction is driven by interpersonal dynamics associated with stigma. People with

HIV/AIDS are more likely to be stigmatized than to be socially supported (Cline, 1989).

For most of the course of their disease, people with HIV/AIDS have a disability that is