HIV/AIDS
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Obama's Best Gay Week Ever
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Uganda Wants to Kill and Imprison Gay People
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Homophobia Made AIDS a Caribbean Crisis
Can Hitler, Stalin and Saddam Hussein Prevent AIDS?
Published September 17, 2009 @ 06:18AM PT
What do Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein and AIDS all have in common? According to one new advertising campaign, launched in the lead up to World AIDS Day on December 1, it's the fact that all four are mass murderers. And each time someone engages in unsafe sex, it's like getting down and dirty in the bedroom with the likes of the Third Reich.
Provocative? Check. Certain to attract attention? Check. An edgy new way of looking at HIV/AIDS? Yup, that too.
But as the summer of "Let's compare everything to Hitler" ends, does this type of advertising take things a little too far?
The "AIDS is a Mass Murderer Campaign" points out that the world needs new, edgy ways of looking at AIDS in order to avoid complacency. They point out that more than 28 million people worldwide have died of AIDS, with another person dying every 15 seconds from the disease. Certainly tragic numbers, especially in the wake of reports that suggest apathy about HIV/AIDS is causing higher contraction rates among certain populations, like young adults and adolescents.
The ads are trying to nail home a message of prevention - that unsafe sex could be as risky as living in Nazi Germany, or Stalin's Russia, or Saddam's Iraq. But they might be serving a negative, unintended purpose as well: demonizing people with AIDS. That's what Shawn Syms with Canada's Xtra.ca argues.
"Did the campaigners not think twice about wrongly comparing human sexual behaviour to the Holocaust, and inappropriately demonizing people with HIV in the process?" Syms asks. "The insistence on seeing HIV transmission as villainy obscures the most stubborn fact about the epidemic -- far from being the realm of malevolent or sociopathic people, HIV is transmitted through behaviours that are otherwise completely natural and normal, such as penetrative intercourse -- or behaviours that may often be hard to control rather than 'intentional,' such as needle sharing in the context of addiction."
Syms has a point there. Catchy public relations slogans or graphic images may grab one's attention, but if the underlying message is people with AIDS are on par with Hitler, is it even worth running the campaign at all?
More education on AIDS is definitely needed. We need public relations campaigns that get people thinking about AIDS in new ways. And we certainly should be concerned with rising rates of HIV/AIDS in all parts of the globe, from the First World to the global South. As Syms from Xtra.ca says, instead of scare tactics, let's focus on what we really need: realistic and comprehensive sex education, and not abstinence-only b.s.; and access to medicines so that people who have HIV/AIDS get the treatment they need.
If only those things could get turned into a sexy public relations campaign, we might just be golden.
It's Time to End the Federal Ban on Gay Blood Donations
Published September 09, 2009 @ 03:52PM PT
In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) instituted a discriminatory rule on blood donations that prohibited sexually active gay men from donating blood. The thinking at the time, which was far more rooted in homophobia than medical fact, was that the majority of gay men were diseased and their blood contaminated with HIV.
Twenty-six years later, the U.S. still operates under this outdated and discriminatory policy, which leaves countless numbers of patients stuck without a blood or bone marrow donor. That's why it's welcome news that states like California are taking up the call to push the FDA to end the ban on gay blood and bone marrow donations.
In California this week, the State Assembly passed a bill called the U.S. Blood Donor Nondiscrimination Resolution, which (while symbolic) would urge the federal government to do away with the 1980s ban on gay blood and bone marrow donors. Equality California (EQCA), among other groups, have been helping to champion this bill all along, arguing that the fears about HIV transmission that resulted in the prohibition are no longer warranted.
"Today, a better understanding of the disease and significant innovations in blood screening technology make the fear of HIV/AIDS spreading through the blood supply nearly nonexistent," EQCA says. "The three major U.S. blood donation agencies, the American Red Cross, the American Association for Blood Banks, and America’s Blood Centers have found that the lifetime blood donation ban on men who have had sex with men is medically and scientifically unwarranted."
That's the key point, right? Banning gay men from donating blood is not preventing HIV transmission, it's just fostering discrimination. And this comes at a time when blood supplies continue to dip to dangerously low levels. As EQCA notes, this year alone California had a record low four-hour supply left of Type-O negative blood, while in January some hospitals in New York had to ration their blood supplies for fear of running out.
California's State Assembly took the right step here. It's a step that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- who oversees the FDA -- should be paying attention to. If not for equal rights, then for the greater good of public health.
(Photo courtesy of Garrett Albright's photostream on Flickr.)
The Catholic Church Knows No Depths in Fighting Against LGBT Rights
Published September 02, 2009 @ 04:29PM PT
Seriously, if it wasn't for their efforts to advocate discrimination against gays and lesbians, I'm not sure what the Catholic Church would be doing nowadays.
We've got efforts by the Catholic Church in Maine to spend boatloads of money taking away civil rights from gays and lesbians, despite the fact that the Church is closing parishes. We've got Catholic bishops in New Jersey saying that gay people are a threat to the public good. And now we've got the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Donald Wuerl, circulating a letter to 300 local priests telling them that LGBT people and same-sex marriage pose a danger to children and families.
Archbishop Wuerl wants D.C. to put the question of same-sex marriage on a ballot, so that voters can decide whether gays and lesbians ought to have equal rights. There's some of that good-ole religious compassion for ya'. According to Wuerl, only straight people getting hitched can provide the type of loving relationships that keep families and children stable.
To that, here's a big cry of bullshit. Why? Because as Massachusetts has shown in their state, gay marriage has simply no detrimental impact on marriage or the family. In fact, five years after Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, the state has some of the lowest divorce rates. And by low, we mean as low as they were 80 freakin' years ago.
You'd think the Church would stop for a moment and recognize that. Or you'd think the Church would look up from it's navel and see that in Washington, D.C., one out of three children live in poverty; the District has some of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country; or that high school graduation rates in some areas of Washington stagger around the 55-60 percent mark. Surely those issues have to be more important that whether gays and lesbians have the right to marry, right?
Not if your faith runs as hollow as Archbishop Wuerl's.
Resurrecting Angels in America
Published September 02, 2009 @ 05:02AM PT
There's no cast put in place yet, nor any plans behind how to mount a performance of one of Broadway's epic shows in an intimate, off-Broadway theater, but Angels in America, one of the first plays to deal exclusively with the subject of HIV/AIDS and its onslaught within the gay (especially gay male) population is staged for a comeback in 2010.
The show, written by Tony Kushner, is set in 1985-1986 during the height of the Reagan administration and nearly five years into the HIV/AIDS crisis. Technically, Angels is two shows - “Part 1: Millennium Approaches” and “Part 2: Perestroika”. And it interweaves stories from those dealing with HIV/AIDS - a gay male couple, real right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn - as well as a story involving coming out amidst a heaping helping of religious indoctrination (a closeted Mormon lawyer, and his sedated wife).
The show is expected to open in late Fall or Winter 2010. Interestingly enough, the show comes back to life at a time when HIV/AIDS numbers are back on the rise. Perhaps a tie-in educational/advocacy campaign is in order?
We'll leave with one of the best quotes from Angels, from the protagonist, Prior. It's all about being addicted to life. Take it away:
But still. Still bless me anyway. I want more life. I can't help myself. I do. I've lived through such terrible times and there are people who live through much worse. But you see them living anyway. When they're more spirit than body, more sores than skin, when they're burned and in agony, when flies lay eggs in the corners of the eyes of their children - they live. Death usually has to take life away. I don't know if that's just the animal. I don't know if it's not braver to die, but I recognize the habit; the addiction to being alive. So we live past hope. If I can find hope anywhere, that's it, that's the best I can do. It's so much not enough. It's so inadequate. But still bless me anyway. I want more life.
Blogging Positively: A Citizen Media 101 on HIV/AIDS
Published August 27, 2009 @ 03:09PM PT
What do you get when you combine a network of bloggers seeking to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic in a meaningful way online? The answer is Blogging Positively, a collection of case studies, interviews, and tips about citizen media related to HIV/AIDS.
Blogging Positively links together over 200 different bloggers from around the world - from India to Argentina to Burma, the United States, Australia and Canada - blogging about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and the role that online writers and netroots activists can play in mobilizing around public health efforts to combat the disease.
Brian Finch from Canada's "Acid Reflux" blog/blog reality show sums up the significance of Blogging Positively pretty concisely.
"The Internet facilitates technological activism. It gives control and voice to the individual, to express onself in the way he or she deems fit. It is taking back power, creating a voice that is not defined by others. Personally, it is a way to define myself outside of the small box of HIV, to exist outside of the disease paradigm," writes Finch. "The more people are writing openly about their status, the more other people will see that they too can take risks. An online, 'open' presence serves as a role model for others."
Blogging Positively is a role model. It's a unique capacity building resource that draws together blogs, podcasts, and online photo and video sites to create new powerful opportunities for activists aiming to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS, and end the social stigma all too often associated with the disease.
Activism, Art, and the HIV/AIDS Crisis
Published August 20, 2009 @ 05:23PM PT
How do you commemorate the fear, anger, hope, challenges, activism, and organizing that occurred at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the U.S. more than twenty years ago? If you're the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, you host a whole semester's worth of programming and exhibits looking at the impact that groups like ACT UP had, and the vivid images that captured the country's attention and changed the way that HIV/AIDS was viewed.
Before there was social networking, there was guerilla marketing. And as the Carpenter Center points out, that tactic was deployed quite effectively by ACT UP, as well as artist collectives like Gran Fury, the Silence = Death Project, and Fierce Pussy (to name a few). These groups used the power of art to fight against HIV/AIDS, and specifically to fight against government inaction and stereotypes that made up the early history of the disease in this country. Whether it was explaining that kissing doesn't cause HIV/AIDS, or whether it was telling the Catholic Church that condoms protect against sexually-transmitted diseases, these orgs put their artwork where their politics were, so to speak.
"ACT UP’s demonstrations in the late 1980s and early 1990s reflected the group’s outrage against a governing establishment that ignored HIV/AIDS as a national health crisis; that failed to secure funding for medical research, treatment, and education; that profited from inflated costs for therapeutic drugs; and that perpetuated homophobic misrepresentations of HIV and AIDS," writes the Carpenter Center.
The exhibit itself? Well, it'll feature classic ACT UP advertising campaign posters, as well as a suite of over 100 video interviews with surviving members of ACT UP New York. Those interviews form the crux of an oral history project that captures a diverse movement birthed during the darkest days of HIV/AIDS. These are the organizers and activists who "transformed entrenched cultural ideas about homosexuality, sexuality, illness, health care, civil rights, art, media, and the rights of patients," and made the world a little - scratch that, a lot - better for everyone fighting against the disease.
In other words, the exhibit at the Carpenter Center will pull together some of the best social artwork of the last thirty years: the artwork and ad campaigns that helped end misinformation about HIV/AIDS, that brought about new strategies of political organizing, and that helped give voice to those living with HIV/AIDS. Better yet, it should help draw the connections between the organizing and activism at the height of the 1980s, and how lessons learned during that movement can be applicable now.
Transgender Rights on the Local Level
Published August 14, 2009 @ 11:23AM PT
History has been made in West Hollywood, with the city voting to create the first ever municipal advisory body focusing on the rights of transgender people. The goal? To provide a resource for the city to deal with the unique political issues - from discrimination to public health to housing equality - faced by transgender people in the city.
Bold step. Refreshing vision. Smart political decision. Yup, those are just a few adjectives to describe this move. Here's what West Hollywood City Council member Jeffrey Prang had to say about the city's decision to create the Advisory Board.
As one of the nation’s leaders, focused on fighting discrimination of any kind, the City of West Hollywood recognizes the issues and concerns facing our transgender community.
We created the first Transgender Task Force to provide valuable insight to our City’s leaders and our community. In formalizing our Transgender Task Force into a permanent board in our government structure, we are leading what I hope will be a national model advocating for the rights of transgender Americans.
As mentioned, the Advisory Board will deal with a range of issues facing transgender folks in West Hollywood. Primary concerns will be increasing employment opportunities in the transgender community; HIV/AIDS prevention; housing equality and community education of City resources available to the transgender community.
Now that sounds like a national model that other cities should eagerly get behind.
