Action Wednesday: World AIDS Day, Health Care Activism
Posted on: December 2, 2009
- In: Feminism | Gay Rights | Healthcare | Human Rights | Morning Widdershins | Open Thread | Women
- 25 Comments
Yesterday was World AIDS Day. I can’t believe how long we have been dealing with this disease. I remember the first time I heard about it was when I was a sophomore in college in 1986 (yes, I’m 42, let’s just move on, shall we?). The ignorance was so palpable at that time that the one ”out” gay man in our small school got a cautionary pamphlet in his mailbox, as if only he would be susceptible to the virus.
One of the ways I believe that progress towards social justice occurs is through a powerful artistic statement. For my age group, the AIDS quilt was that statement.
The AIDS quilt
The sight of that vast carpet of squares stretching in front of the Washington Monument was heartbreaking and unforgettable, and truly brought home the scope of the crisis to so many of us.
Now, the AIDS epidemic has spread to Africa, where more than 20 million people are currently infected with the disease.
Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22.4 million people are living with HIV in the region – around two thirds of the global total. In 2008 around 1.4 million people died from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.9 million people became infected with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic more than 14 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.1
In the absence of massively expanded prevention, treatment and care efforts, it is expected that the AIDS death toll in sub-Saharan Africa will continue to rise. This means the impact of the AIDS epidemic on these societies will be felt most strongly in the course of the next ten years and beyond. Its social and economic consequences are already widely felt, not only in the health sector but also in education, industry, agriculture, transport, human resources and the economy in general. The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa threatens to devastate whole communities, rolling back decades of development progress.
There are many organizations which could use your $$$ if you have a few to spare. Here are some links for you to check out.
As we know, the health care disaster has been extremely difficult for those of us on the left side of the aisle. Many had supported the so-called “public option,” only to be disappointed and horrified by the way the House and Senate have implemented it. As HealthJustice, a formerly-Obama-supporting organization, put it,
Does Sanders’ S. 703 (or its state single payer cousin) have any legs? Probably not in the face of opposition from Obama. Opposition from Obama, you say?? Yes, I am afraid that Obama is not much better than McCain or any other Republican, and on health care, he is even to the right of some of the most ignorant tea-baggers. (MB Here: I hate that whole “tea-bagger” thing. It’s icky.)
So here is where HealthJustice stands: we do not like either bill in congress. We do not like the versions of the public option or of the health care legislation being proposed, or anything likely to replace them. We consider Obama to have betrayed those who voted from him. We support Medicare For All. Whether the current legislation does or does not pass does not matter. The health insurance industry will be coming down and will bring down this legislation with it. The more real power we can show now, by uniting, the more likely that Medicare For All will happen sooner rather than later.
Yes, let’s unite for single payer and against Stupak-Pitts and its evil twin in the Senate, shall we? Who knows, maybe we can make those corrupt schmucks in the Senate and House start over again and do it right this time! Here’s some stuff you can do.
Call your Senators to tell them to take a pledge against ANY abortion ban
Lobby for Health Care Reform in Washington D.C. Today
Find Many Single-Payer Actions Here
Support Single-Payer Sit-Ins Here
This is an open thread.
25 Responses to "Action Wednesday: World AIDS Day, Health Care Activism"
December 2, 2009 at 9:47 am
Chat – almost every gay person I know especially hates Raygun for that very reason. It was against his “Christian conscience” to help teh gayz with a disease caused by their “sinning.”
December 2, 2009 at 10:37 am
He engineered the greatest public health debacle known to man.
December 2, 2009 at 10:51 am
But chat, he said “There you go again,” which made him Teh Great Communicator!11!!!
December 2, 2009 at 11:03 am
That was probably the high water mark for Ronald Reagan’s accomplishments.
December 2, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I remember when it was going through the gay community and no one really knew what it was. They were calling it GRID for Gay-related Immunity Deficiency. No one knew for sure what was going on with it. Then we found out it had something to do with sex and then bodily fluids. Not knowing exactly what was happening, it was a difficult time to come out and I really didn’t know what to do when it came to having sex. I spent time just having drinks and talking at the bars but wasn’t going home with anyone or having sex.
Even after the discovered what was causing the disease I was very uncomfortable and afraid of going to bed with someone. I knew it could take a long time after going to bed with someone before anything might “show up”.
One of my friends from college ended up teaching school in Cali. and was in a school near Palm Springs. He was a real slut. I asked him once or twice about things and he said he didn’t care about any of that. If something good happened, he just wanted to go to the bars in P.S. hook up and go have sex out in the bushes around the bar. He would have multiple anonymous partners and never give it a thought. We sort of drifted apart but I found out later from other college friends that he did die of AIDS. Silly, silly man. 
December 2, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Sorry, Fredster. A lot of people thought the same way as your friend.
I have a friend who lost almost all of his sight and hearing because he had so much unprotected sex and contracted HIV. Tragically, he is/was a musician – a singer and pianist.
December 2, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Even after all that time I don’t want to use a name, but “H” was a bottom and I tried and tried to talk to him but it wasn’t any use. He graduated with his BME and then went to Nebraska for a Masters and from there to Cali. and teaching at the h.s. level.
I think we all felt we lost a lot of friends needlessly during that time.
I had basically given up “dating” and although not content with it, just bought a bunch of vids and amused myself! 
December 2, 2009 at 4:07 pm
TMI Fredster! 
My friend was prone to having sex parties in his apartment. Seriously, no limits. A man of his age (he’s about 52 now I think) behaving that way when he knew full well what could happen…really, really stupid.
December 2, 2009 at 4:25 pm
MB@9: That’s why I got as angry with the community as I was with the situation in general. When it became known what was causing the disease so many guys refused to change their behavior.
Then later once the cocktail was discovered and that it helped, many guys had the attitude of “well if I get it I’ll just take the cocktail”. What they didn’t realize was that the virus mutated and there were different strains of it. I got to the point where I had the attitude that if anyone in the gay community developed the disease it was their fault through laziness or attitude or whatever. It was the wrong position for me to take but I really felt that way.
December 2, 2009 at 4:26 pm
One of my best friends still picks up random men from bars. I’m like, whiskey tango foxtrot! At 42, he should be kinda over that sh*t by now. I wish he’d find a nice guy and settle down. Oy, I’m such a Jewish mother!
December 2, 2009 at 5:07 pm
MB@12: Yeah! In NYC he should be able to find a decent guy and get into a steady relationship if that’s what he wants. Dating is one thing; the casual pick ups completely different (and for me-dangerous type of thing to do.
Chat: Got her on cipro 100 mg x2 and she goes to the doc tomorrow. She’s sounding a bit better.
December 2, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Good to hear it, Fredster. Sounds like my ‘Dawgs may be off to Shreveport for a bowl game.
December 2, 2009 at 7:40 pm
MB & Chat: Yes that’s good news. I’m sure the doc will go ahead and do a chest x-ray to be sure and it’s time also for her PT/INR test.
She did have a little fall or more like a slide off the side of the bed. Skinned a place on her arm but hey I’m getting good at this. Washed it with peroxide and cleaned with sterile saline and then put the tegaderm on there and dated it. The mattress isn’t a pillow top but it’s got kind of a rolled edge on it and she was too close to the edge.
December 2, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Not to mention massive bruising if she’s on anticoagulents.
December 2, 2009 at 9:42 pm
It’s only appropriate that on this day the New York State Assembly gave the gay community the middle finger!
On an unrelated note, less than 24 hours after Obama promised that the war in Afghanistan would end in 3 years (and the kool-aid drinkers online insisted Obama was a man of his word and he knew what he was doing and no way was Obama’s plan like Bush’s), his minions (including Hillary) were out and about telling everyone not to quote them on that 3 year time limit thing. Ha!
December 2, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Also, it’s astonishing how many young gay men today are specifically looking for UNPROTECTED (they call it “ININHIBITED” – cute!) sex online. It really boggles the mind.
December 2, 2009 at 10:19 pm
DYB – Did they vote down same-sex marriage?! Those P)(*&!)%(*&!!!
Oh no they di-uh retract that deadline ALREADY!!!
December 2, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Yes, the gay marriage vote was no; and yes, the Obamites are stressing that he did say something to the effect of “conditions on the ground permitting”. Maxine Waters is livid, and says that she won’t vote for the $$$ for the war, and Carl Levin wants to levy a war tax. This should be interesting.
December 2, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Chatblu – It SHOULD be interesting, but it won’t be. The Dems will cave as they always do.
Sorry to be so cynical.
December 3, 2009 at 12:57 am
DYB said
December 2, 2009 at 9:46 PM
Also, it’s astonishing how many young gay men today are specifically looking for UNPROTECTED (they call it “ININHIBITED” – cute!) sex online. It really boggles the mind.
They think if they become poz, the cocktail will take care of it. Stoopid!!!
Comments are closed.
December 2, 2009 at 9:33 am
I first encountered AIDS in the early 80′s as Gay Bowel Syndrome. We also were seeing PCP pneumonia then, knowing only when someone had this peculiar ground glass effect in their chest x-ray, that we would loode them. By trial and error, we found that Bactrim worked. Had St. Ronald of Reagan not decided that this was isolated to gays and therefore unworthy of funding, we might have made a difference much, much earlier. Anti-viral cocktails have made a huge dent, but they are expensive.