World AIDS Day 2007

Today is World AIDS Day 2007. Twenty-five years after the HIV/AIDS pandemic began, approximately 25 million people have died from AIDS. An estimated 33.2 million people are living with the virus.

An over-sized AIDS ribbon hangs from the North Portico of the White House in honor of World AIDS Day. President George W. Bush urges Congress "to approve an additional $30 billion for the global fight against AIDS over the next five years, and announced he would visit Africa early next year to further highlight the need and his administration's efforts."

However, HIV/AIDS activists are not impressed with the Bush Administration's record on the pandemic. At least 40 people were arrested outside the White House and the protesters are "calling for increased funding and an end to abstinence-only sex education requirements for U.S.-funded programs abroad." More Rod 2.0 coverage on the Bush Administration's abstinence only programs HERE and HERE.

The United States government’s estimate of annual new HIV infections is likely to rise by as much as 50 percent. The Centers for Disease Control says "new technologies and statistical analyses show that 50,000 to 60,000 people were infected with the virus in 2005." The CDC has used an estimate of about 40,000 annual infections since 2001.

Black gay HIV/.AIDS activists are not surprised by the new statistics. Ron Simmons, who leads Washington DC-based Us Helping Us, an organization for black gay men with AIDS, tells the Washington Blade his organization has long suspected that the CDC’s numbers were inaccurate and "we had a feeling the numbers they were passing out a few years ago weren’t quite right."

Darian Aaron interviews Larry Bryant, a 21-year survivor of HIV/AIDS and a community activist, who offers some advice to the newly seroconverted. "Take a deep breath and don't allow yourself to die spiritually when you hear the news. HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence. Get into a support group, if you're not strong enough to handle the diagnosis on your own then surround yourself with people who are strong. Plan for the future and get on with life."

Patrik-Ian Polk, the executive producer of the ground-breaking Noah's Arc television series, writes an op-ed on the challenges of introducing an HIV/AIDS-related plot in his series (HERE and HERE) to the audience. "I'm always concerned about being too heavy-handed or being preachy. But I think as long as story lines are presented in a realistic and interesting way, in a way that we don't expect, then we avoid the dangers of people being turned off. It's usually when people feel like they're being preached to or talked down to that they get turned off."

Comments

[Jennifer Esposito]

That's so hawt! LOL

Jennifer Esposito

[seanndc]

I'm glad that Pres. Bush wants to do something about AIDS in Africa, they are deserving! But, he doesn't have to go all the way to Africa to do something about HIV/AIDS, he free up some resources to launch and all out war of HIV/AIDS in DC, FLA, GA, NJ, & NYC! That would really impress the hell out of me !

[Andy Niable]

Well, you'll recall it was his George Bush Sr. who referred to infants with HIV as the "innocent victims" of the disease. To paraphrase Kanye, George W. Bush doesn't care about gay Black Americans. (And, all that "HIV prevention in Africa" is mostly a lot of Abstinence hooey and Xtian Fundamentalist missionarying cloaked in charity.)

[Luther]

Its not just Bush, Charles Blake the leader of COGIC is trotting all over Africa with good intentions and deeds for HIV infected and those living with AIDS, and, seldom will the black church "leaders" here do anything about it, other than condemn gay men.