World AIDS Day 2009

Today is World AIDS Day. The world wide theme of World AIDS Day is: “I am living my rights” Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise. This is a call to raise your voice today. I have decided to use mine to talk a little bit about this disease.

In 1981, our brothers and sisters began to hear about the “Gay Cancer” or “GRID” (Gay Related Immune Deficiency”. A panic set in, Public Health scrambled to contain the outbreak. They whispered about this disease in hallways and discussed actions behind closed doors. It would take five years before President Reagan spoke the word “AIDS” in public.

In 1983, we were made promises that we would have a vaccine, or even a cure. Instead we held candlelight memorials and sewed quilt panels to honor those we have lost. The war had begun.

In 1987, AZT was the first medication approved by the FDA for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, “America Responds to AIDS”, and activists began to “Act Up”. Hope and action became the new moniker of the movement. In 1989, World AIDS Day was established to bring focus on this Pandemic and in 1991 the Red Ribbon became the symbol of the movement.

Stigma and ignorance have fueled this disease far too long. The widespread believe that this was a “Gay Disease” and that those who were infected were “Dirty” swept the United States and even the World. People like Ryan White and Ricky Ray were treated like outcasts in their own schools, they were assaulted with words, and their homes vandalized and even set afire. Those are just two of the millions of people world wide who have experienced hate and violence.

However, the violence does not just come from the public; it comes from government and other institutions of service. We in the United States are fortunate enough to have laws to protect people living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. This year President Barack Obama lifted the ban on people traveling and immigrating with HIV/AIDS. The fight is not over yet.

Injustice abounds world wide. Our brothers in Uganda live in fear that their sexual orientation and HIV status may lead them to imprisonment and even death. We have come so far to be pulled back.
I am both confused and saddened by such hate. I am grateful that I have a voice, and that I can use my voice to speak out against this injustice both foreign and domestic.

Join me today, use your voice. Stand up and make a promise to talk about HIV to anyone who will listen. Stand with me and honor our ancestors, celebrate our elders, and educate our youth.