Antigeist

How much money would we spend if it were England and France instead of Africa and Peru?

Today is world AIDS day. If you're not familiar with the severity of this pandemic, or why the continued spread of this disease is a disgrace to all human-kind, go read Dana's post. Get caught up.

Before I left for Amsterdam in 1987, AIDS wasn't yet an epidemic the states. It wasn't even a leading news story. A few sailors in San Francisco had caught an unknown virus that shut down their immune system and caused them to die of normally treatable illnesses, like pneumonia, nearly overnight. Nobody knew what it was. They assumed it was a rare, tropical viral strain someone picked up on a tour of duty and unwittingly brought here. When it started to spread through the gay male community, and appeared to be restricted to the gay male community, the bigoted and fearful called it "The Gay Cancer," breathed a long, Christian, heterosexual sigh of relief, and did nothing.

When I arrived in Holland, a single trip to the Dam Square proved it sure as Hell wasn't any Gay Cancer. Adults, teens, male, female, straight, gay, black, white, asian; people were dying. Lots of people. Too many people. Heroin addicts and the prostitutes who chose to work outside of legal sex shops first, and then those they shared a needle with or had unprotected sex with after, and then whoever THEY slept with after that. But unlike here in the states, the Netherlands didn't wait until it became an epidemic. During my short six months in the country, I watched the creation of a country-wide education effort--literature in five languages sent to every home, PSA's on nightly television, and outreach volunteers sent to the areas frequented by the most at-risk. I saw the expansion (they had already existed) of free condom distribution and needle exchange programs. And thanks to socialized medicine, whole departments created in hospitals designated specifically for those battling the disease. People were mobilized, determined--at the very least--to contain the spread of the virus, and care for its victims. Even me, someone who was not fluent in Dutch, was made to clearly understand how the virus is contracted, how it is spread, how you can eliminate the risks, and where to go for more information, testing, and if need be, counseling and treatment.

When I got home, I was ready to enlist my help in the battle...but there wasn't an army assembled. We're talking Reagan era here. So some disease was killing the queers and prostitutes and drug addicts, so what? God's wrath. Serves them right. Or in Reagan's own words, "Maybe the Lord brought down this plague" because "illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments."

See here in America, according to our leaders, our decision makers... the people who deserved it were dying. It was then I knew, and predicted, that until famous movie stars, and innocent children, and the daughters of rich white men came traipsing home HIV positive, it wouldn't be an epidemic, it wouldn't even be an issue in this country--and not a fucking penny would be spent on education or research. (Not an amount of pennies that would matter, anyway). I'm ashamed and disgusted that my country proved me right.

So here we are, twenty years later--same nimrod, different day. All of the common sense post-Reagan education and prevention programs that succeeded, inarguably, to dramatically reduce (and by the mid-nineties nearly eliminate in America) the rise of HIV transmission and AIDS related disease, are to be replaced with a bible and a condemnation...worldwide.

``The Bush Administration is spending millions of dollars on abstinence-only programs that mislead people at risk of HIV/AIDS about the effectiveness of condoms,'' said Rebecca Schleifer, another Human Rights Watch researcher. ``Exporting these programs to countries facing even more serious epidemics will only make the situation worse.''...

Tony Jewell, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the U.S. government does fund condom distribution through some of its HIV/AIDS programs, but he defended the philosophy behind other programs which espouse the abstinence-only approach. ``It's a scientific fact that you will not get a sexually transmitted disease if you do not have sex,'' he said.

It's also a scientific fact that if you do not leave your house, you will never be injured outdoors. So let's talk about reducing the risk of injury for the six billion of us who leave the house, hmmm?

The world has come to us asking for help. Obviously we cannot expect a nationally based assistance program from an administration only interested in helping non-sinners (in their opinion) or anyone whose culture or lifestyle falls outside of a clear Christian construct. We will never get them to understand that it is not the wrath of God but a lack of education, information, and outreach that has caused this pandemic to spread so wide, and take the lives so many, and that this disease affects ALL OF US--so we've got to do it ourselves. Which you can do here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or through your church, your synagogue, your library, on line, on the phone, in person, or with one...damn...dollar.

Posted by Antigeist at December 1, 2004 01:40 AM