Category — HIV/AIDS

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid! No, Seriously. I Mean It.

(Some Thoughts on the HIV Epidemic, Social Problems, and Capital)

Deric Shannon

I picked up a copy of the International Herald Tribune recently on a flight from Madrid to Paris. My friend and co-conspirator, Abbey, and I have been doing a lot of traveling lately and a free copy of an English-language newspaper is a hot commodity for an hour and a half plane ride, particularly this one since I left the “Marx for Beginners” book I was reading at home! I nestled into my seat, prepared for being a little unsettled—what counts for “news” is usually disturbing as all hell, after all. [Read more →]

The following video was compiled for World AIDS Day 2007 by TransAdvocacy. Collage from Flames in the Looking Glass and some other HIV/AIDS trans related clips.

Click here to view video in higher quality

Hartford’s World AIDS Day event will take place on December 1st, 11 AM - 12, at the Connections Drop-in Center, located at the Institute for Community Research, 146 Wyllys St, Hartford.

Hartford City Councilman Luis Cotto, will be the keynote speaker, with Connecticut’s Health Advocate, Kevin Lembo following Councilman Cottoand ending with two people living with HIV/AIDS.

At 1 PM, there will be a showing of the video “Love in a Time of HIV” one-hour documentary that takes a walk in the shoes of several people around the world living with the disease and how it impacts their relationships. “Love in a Time of HIV” reaffirms that the scourge is alive and well, but that people can maintain day-to-day normalcy with friends and family and even find love. Although there is still no cure, recent drug breakthroughs have extended the lives of many and a diagnosis is no longer necessarily a death sentence. Even in the face of the illness and an early demise, love can prevail.

Click here for a PDF flyer with additional details. For more information please call me at 860.761.6699 or (cell) 860.543.9113.

Marvelyn Brown~ Emmy Award Winning Author and AIDS Activist

Presented by Trinity College Black Women’s Organization
Monday, Feb 16 at 7 PM
300 Summit Street, Hartford, Ct
Mather Hall, The Washington Room

Men’s Health screen Day

Services for Men, Saturday,

January 10, 2009, 9:00am-2:00pm

Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective
1841 Broad Street, Hartford

Latest HIV Updates by Dr. Abriola

Continental Breakfast and Lunch will be served!

STD Screening and Treatment
HEP A & B Vaccines
HIV Counseling and Testing

FREE!

Raffle Door Prizes

Acupuncture

Chair Massage

http://hglhc.org

A few years ago I sat in on a Rhetoric of Gender Activism class. Among the assigned texts was David Wojnarowicz’s book Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration. This should be mandatory reading for all people who identify as queer, particularly those who find politics to be less relevant in their lives than cruising/chasing skirts. Published in 1991, this piece of writing reflects life during the earlier years of AIDS, when it was a more immediate death sentence; when the fear was tangible. In it, he critiques the local and national governments’ policies on AIDS:

A former city government official concerned with administering AIDS policy, in a private city meeting on housing for poor people with AIDS, said, ‘What you want is a little place; an island where you can isolate these people so they can bang each other up with this AIDS virus…’ Statements like this are not uncommon in government meetings and the city of New York is dragging its feet on this disease just like every other city and federal agency in the country–they simply don’t care

[Read more →]

The following video was developed for World AIDS Day 2007 by TransAdvocacy.  Collage from Flames in the Looking Glass and some other HIV/AIDS trans related clips.

Download link

STOP THE $3 MILLION PROPOSED CUT TO AIDS SERVICES!!

The AIDS LIFE Campaign is calling on all people living with HIV/AIDS, advocates, providers, activists and friends to do three things:

1. Take 2 minutes out of your day to make one phone call to Governor Rell;
2. Get everyone in your agency, church, community, circle of friends and home to do the same; and
3. Use your area’s World AIDS Day event to publicize these cuts and get others to make the phone call, too!!

 
For a full listing of Ct events see CARC’s event page.

Participate in your area’s World AIDS Event. Make signs and posters with this message.  Encourage everyone to make the phone call to the [Read more →]

The 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City commences today and runs from 3-8 August 2008. Some key links:

• Official conference website can be found at AIDS2008.org
• Program at glance (with roadmap search) can be found at AIDS2008.org/Pag/PAG.aspx
• Extensive online coverage can be found at Kaisernetwork.org/aids2008/
• Community Voices (real time blogging) from the AIDS 2008 conference can be found at AIDS2008.com

As the conference moved towards its opening day, the Joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS released their new report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. Some highlights from the report are:

• Number of people newly infected with HIV has fallen from 3 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2007
• Total number of AIDS-related deaths worldwide has decreased slightly in the last two years-from 2.2 million to 2 million
• Ten-fold increase in the number of people receiving antiretroviral medicines in these countries. In terms of HIV prevalence, declines exceeded 25% in seven African countries
• The number of people becoming newly infected with the disease each day-7,500-remains unacceptably high
• Sub-Saharan Africa remained the most heavily impacted region by AIDS in 2007, accounting for 67 percent of all people infected with HIV and 72 percent of all AIDS-related deaths
• The AIDS epidemic is certainly not over in any part of the world.

Some select trans relevant sessions are:

• Roadmap ‘Female, Male, and Transgender Sex Workers’
• Transchallenges: An Insider View of Obstacles, Challenges and Problems Faced by Transgender People for Access to HIV Prevention, Care, Treatment
• Sexuality, Body Image and the Meanings of Gender
• HIV/AIDS In Prisons and Pre-trial Detention Centers:A Public Health and Human Rights Disaster
  
• Male and Transgender Sex Workers: Identities and Vulnerabilities
• HIV Risk among Transgender People: The Social and Cultural Context from a Global Perspective
• Mobilizing, Building the Capacity and Researching on Gay, Transgender and MSM Issue
• Gender and HIV: Emerging Issues
• HIV/AIDS Epidemiology among hard to reach populations
• Intervening with Marginalized Communities: Successes and Challenges
• Programmes and Research on HIV and Prisons
• Trends in HIV in Different Geographical Regions: Estimates and Risk Factor

Harking back to the dark days of Reagan and Clinton’s AIDS denial and betrayals, legislation has been raised in the US Senate to lift this horrific and stigmatizing ban. Clinton signed the original US HIV Immigration Ban into law in 1993!  In addition to the United States, only Armenia, Brunei, China, Iraq, South Korea, Moldavia, Russia, and Saudi Arabia practice this particular form of discrimination. Click here for an ACTUP piece on this travel ban. Below is the AP article on this legislative effort.

The Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective sent us this notice. For anyone living with HIV/AIDS please take the time and fill out the survey.

CAEAR Coalition and the National Association of People with AIDS are sponsoring a survey to gather information about access to medical care and support services for people living with HIV and AIDS. This survey is one part of a coordinated effort (surveys, town hall meetings, etc.) with some of our national partners to ensure that the voices of people living with HIV/AIDS guide advocacy efforts on behalf of the Ryan White Program. [Read more →]

First, I would like to offer the following video I created from two great sources: TransHouston and Shona’s Flames in the Looking Glass: I presented this video at a panel this morning on Trans & HIV/AIDS that I shared with Mucha, Mucha Pleasure and Lola.

Download link

Each year World AIDS Day is remembered on December 1st. World AIDS Day originated [Read more →]