JESUS: IMMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE

Your undocumented friend with HIV is suddenly denied treatment. As you witness his suffering, you must decide whether to publicly advocate for undocumented patients, quietly use your own resources to help, or stay silent to protect your safety. Every choice affects not only his future but also your own survival.

💔 Decision Path: Healthcare, Risk, and Resilience

The narrative begins with a critical choice following Decision 1: Healthcare Denial. You learn that your undocumented friend, who is living with HIV, has been denied necessary medical treatment. This forces you to choose between public action, private sacrifice, or inaction.

Branching Paths from Denial 🗺️

Path 2A: Advocacy & Risk 🗣️ If you Advocate publicly for undocumented patients, you risk being targeted by immigration authorities. This path intensifies at Decision 2A when your activism draws media and immigration attention, compelling you to choose between doubling down on your demands (risking deportation but inspiring others) or toning down your activism for safety (losing momentum).
- Leading to 3A: If you speak out, you face Decision 3A: Risk Deportation, where testifying at a government hearing could spark a national debate, but also endangers you directly. This culminates in Decision 4A: National Debate, where your viral testimony attracts a legal investigation from ICE, forcing you to accept legal defense, abandon activism, or continue the fight underground. The ultimate consequence at Decision 5A: Deportation Fight is an ongoing legal battle for your right to stay, where you must choose between continued advocacy, focusing solely on legal defense, or fleeing the country.

Path 2B: Personal Sacrifice 💸 Choosing to Help him quietly with your own resources provides temporary relief but proves unsustainable. At Decision 2B, your personal savings are depleted, forcing a choice between continued sacrifice (risking your own homelessness), asking the community for contributions (leading to mixed results), or encouraging your friend to self-advocate (empowering but scary for him).
- Leading to 3D: If you keep sacrificing, you face Decision 3D: Homelessness Risk after running out of funds. Your options are moving into a shelter, seeking dangerous undocumented work, or asking an NGO for emergency assistance (which might flag your case publicly). This leads to Decision 4D: Shelter Survival, where the shelter environment itself is unstable and threatening, forcing you to choose between enduring the humiliation, risking the streets, or reporting the discrimination (which carries legal risks). The situation worsens at Decision 5D: Humiliating Shelter as your health declines, forcing a final choice between bare survival, fighting for change within the shelter, or seeking unstable independence.

Path 2C: Silence & Guilt 😔 If you Do nothing to avoid drawing attention, he suffers, and you carry guilt. This inaction weighs heavily at Decision 2C: Silence & Guilt. You must then choose between providing emotional support (comforting but solving nothing), distancing yourself for safety (leading to the loss of your friend), or breaking your silence late (gaining urgency but perhaps too late).
- Leading to 3G: If you choose emotional support, you face Decision 3G: Comfort but No Cure as your friend’s health worsens. This forces a choice: quietly rally others for care (leading to a fragile collective), pushing him toward risky black-market medication, or finally deciding to speak out yourself (re-entering public advocacy late). If you rallied others, you reach Decision 4G: Fragile Collective Care, where thin resources compel you to either expand the network (growing community strength) or accept the limits (stagnation and lost hope), or push for government attention (risking exposure). Expanding the network leads to Decision 5G: Community Strength, where the community begins organizing, and you must decide whether to lead the effort (inspiring large-scale change), step back for safety (slowing progress), or balance leadership with anonymity (effective but draining).

The Final Outcomes ✨

The ultimate paths branch from the Decision 5 points:

6A, 6B, 6C: Focus on the outcome of a Deportation Fight (living in fear vs. legal safety vs. fleeing).
6D, 6E, 6F: Focus on the outcome of Shelter/Health Degradation (bare survival vs. internal resistance vs. unstable freedom).
6G, 6H, 6I: Focus on the outcome of Community Strength (leading large-scale change vs. slow progress vs. effective but draining anonymity).

This is me, Jesus Guillen, celebrating the 40th anniversary of my HIV journey. I live day by day, so any FUNDING CUTS might hugely affect me, as they will affect many. I live with chronic pain, so it has been very difficult to get an extra job here and there; I just can't right now. I wish. And the ones checking on me from the agencies, ah! No luck.

FUNDING CUTS affected me immediately with the cuts to the INTENSIVE CARE MANAGEMENT at SHANTI.

I just have a question for anyone out there: WHO WILL BE CHECKING on those of us who are finally aging with HIV, and who have more and more mental and physical mobility issues? Most LGBTQ people have no family that supports them, no kids, etc. Who is checking that we're even alive? And who will be checking on the abuse, under this administration, at senior centers and disability centers, for people who are aging and disabled but with HIV?

The stigma and discrimination are still HUGE, so the cuts are a lot more than the money… they are a lifeline.