Jenna Bush tells 'Ana's Story'

Talk at Meredith draws about 400

RALEIGH -- Audience members gave Jenna Bush a standing ovation when she took the stage Wednesday at Meredith College and hugged a man best known around the Triangle for hosting drag bingo parties.

"I am a gay man ... [and] have been living with HIV for 14 years," John Paul Womble told the audience moments before he introduced President George W. Bush's daughter. Womble leads fundraisers for Alliance of AIDS Services Carolina, including popular monthly bingo games at the Durham Armory featuring drag queens.

"Wow!" Bush said thanking Womble for his introduction. "The fact that he had the courage to tell his story should make us feel very grateful."

Bush, 25, was in town Wednesday for a Quail Ridge bookstore event to tell "Ana's Story," which draws from Bush's experience as an intern for UNICEF in Latin America. She documented stories there of young people such as Ana living with HIV.

Despite Ana being "abused, beaten and abandoned," her life gave Bush hope. Through UNICEF, Ana is fulfilling her dream of going to school and improving her circumstances.

Ana taught Bush how to dance bachata. Ana likes to listen to Latin pop star Shakira.

"She reminded me of myself when I was her age," Bush said.

Bush's talk drew a crowd of about 400 -- Republicans, Democrats, college students and AIDS activists. Security was tight. The Secret Service banned audience members from carrying items including knitting needles, water bottles, whistles and unopened envelopes. And some people waited up to two hours to hear her speak.

Martha Bomar, 27, a Duke biochemistry grad student, came out with friends. They were interested in seeing someone go from having a reputation as an underage-drinking party girl to someone raising global awareness about AIDS, Bomar said.

"She was more in the news for what she did wrong than what she's done right," Bomar said.

Lynne Bresler, a Democrat, brought her teenage daughter from Chapel Hill because she wanted her daughter to hear a young person speak candidly about the HIV epidemic.

"We thought it was interesting she was an advocate for [condoms], which may be contradictory to the current administration's views of how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases [abstinence]," Bresler said.

But Katelyn Holshouser, 17, of Sanford, said she thought Bush's book transcended politics. She came with her mother and grandmother, three generations of Republicans.

"She's not trying to gain a demographic for an election," Holshouser said.

Womble said he was ecstatic that Bush chose to give the talk in North Carolina, where 30,000 people live with HIV.

"It shines the light of the issue of AIDS in the South," he said. "We often fail to see the similarities between Third World regions and rural parts of North Carolina. The similarities are endless -- the stigma, discrimination, poor access to health care."