Thirty years ago on June 5 ... There are so many references in the media to the anniversary of the first report of AIDS in the United States. It's a strange usage of the word "anniversary." To me, it implies celebration. It makes me uneasy and it feels unbefitting here -- unless perhaps we celebrate the tenacity of the gay community in forcing a more than reluctant government to respond to the epidemic, or the memory of the many we lost to AIDS, or the cadres of caregivers that formed to provide compassionate care to the dying, or the irreversible transformation of our communities. And we celebrate the survivors and their extraordinary feat of survival.
Thirty years and 30 million AIDS-related deaths across the globe, according to United Nations statistics - -and counting. Celebrate, perhaps, the fact that new medications have given longer lives to many who are HIV positive, a chronic condition rather than a fatal disease.
Whether chronic disease or death knoll, HIV/AIDS is still with us. We need to begin a fresh conversation and re-embrace the reality, work to end the stigma that fuels the disease, face up to the impact HIV is having on our young gay black men, recognize the needs of women and girls who worldwide represent the group with the fastest growing rate of new infections and develop the means of prevention that can rest in their own hands.
Today, too often the response to AIDS is a shrug of the shoulders and a "Isn't that over now?" or "But what can I do?" Dismissed as "AIDS fatigue," it is left to others to deal with.
Well, time to get over it. If HIV is a chronic disease, then certainly it is not over. It is with us, always, every day. So while we in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community and our allies and friends demand our equality, the right to marry, the end to discrimination in employment, recognition of our families, the right to serve openly in the military and protection from hate crimes -- let's not take AIDS off the table.
Our work regarding HIV/AIDS is not over, and there is much we can do. We can and need to demand a commitment of our government to fulfill the National HIV/AIDS Strategy that has come into existence this year for the first time in 30 years -- thanks to the work of AIDS activists. We need to demand a scientific approach to prevention that puts an end to abstinence-only education and provides and requires real, science-based prevention education in every school and medical facility in the country. We need to demand that research seek a cure for HIV/AIDS, which is still taking the lives of so many across the globe. A cure: no more, but no less.
Now, in the 21st century, on the 30th anniversary, we cannot leave it to the AIDS activists, unless once again, we join them.
30 Years, 30 Million Deaths From AIDS ... And Counting
Today, too often the response to AIDS is a shrug of the shoulders and a "Isn't that over now?" or "But what can I do?" Dismissed as "AIDS fatigue," it is left to others to deal with. Well, time to get over it.
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