Sunday, December 1, 2002

December 1, 2002—World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day, a worldwide observance dedicated to raising awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, what it has taken from us, what it has given us and what our responses to it mean for us as a global community.

On the web, hundreds of personal weblogs, diaries, journals and other sites are participating in Link and Think, a project that encourages a thoughtful, personal response to HIV/AIDS. Among the community sites participating are MetaFilter and {the fray}, where you can read and contribute your own thoughts and stories.

Stonefishspine: "On the way home from services I told my brunette companion, 'He was wrong.'

'Who?' she asked.

'The pastor,' I said. 'AIDS is like leprosy. The Pharisees shunned lepers as unclean, as sinners — but Jesus didn't. Christians have an obligation to ameliorate the suffering brought by AIDS, not exacerbate it.'"

Brothas Out on the Town: "I remember the days when we were considered golden. We. Black gay men. We seemed to be at that perfect place in time, a Camelot, where the world was ready to embrace us and we were poised to prove our own collective worth. It was a brand new day. It was the late '70's and the world was changing. Civil rights seemed a given: Blacks were moving into the mainstream, segregation was dead. People were becoming tolerant on matters of sexuality. Once we were invisible. Now we found the keys to locked doors and set ourselves free and told the world, "free your mind and the rest will follow.""

BJ: "We were hurrying up 2nd Avenue, trying to get home, and to the rooftop, in time. But as we walked along Stuyvesant Park, I could see the lights of the Empire State Building dim."

kriskane: "A friend of my roommate just returned from Nigeria where he was "unofficially" interviewing prostitutes about safe sex practices for a US-based health organization. Sex with a condom will cost a client 300 Naira—about $2.50 US. For 420 Naira—one US dollar, 40% more—a client can opt to have sex without a condom. Most clients opt to pay the higher price, and the prostitutes are happy to get the extra money."

e-schwa: "I not only got understanding but a lot of push. When I say push, I don't mean prodding pushing...I mean the good push. I'm talking about sensuous. She made me think about blogging about the little things I liked - how satisfying sensuality has less to do with climaxing and more to do with the setup, foreplay, and visualization. She encouraged me to write about what I considered sex to be - not what others placed upon me."

Jason Levine: "In the flash of a single broken test tube, a family learned that both parents are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, and that their daughter is still not out from under its shadow."

ThinkDink: "Then, this one seminar, we had a stereotypical football jock who was obviosly egged on by his friends raise his hand to ask a question. I was immediately worried. What in the world was this guy going to ask?"

Ultrasparky: "Frankly, I wish I had the luxury of taking just a day to think about them. I wish I had the luxury of being able to consider those issues abstractions that only intrude on my consciousness now and then. I wish I had the luxury of forgetting the rest of the time. "

THE QUILT: Since 1989, I've been involved with The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt — as a volunteer, organizer, panel maker, media activist and viewer. Composed of over 44,000 individual handmade 3'x6' panels containing nearly 90,000 names (and still representing only 19% of known AIDS deaths worldwide), The Quilt is the world's largest community art project and remains a powerful testament to friends and loved ones lost, and to the love they left behind.

If you're in the St. Louis area, you can see a large display of panels from The Quilt at the University of Missouri-St. Louis Millennium Student Center, December 2-4, presented by the Metro St. Louis chapter of The NAMES Project. Display hours are December 2 from noon-9 pm (opening reception at 7 pm); December 3 from 10 am-9 pm; and December 4 from 10 am-6 pm. I encourage you to see The Quilt and be moved. See The Quilt and remember. See The Quilt and understand.

DINING OUT FOR LIFE: On December 3, over 100 St. Louis area restaurants will donate a significant portion of their profits to St. Louis Effort for AIDS, one of the region's leading AIDS service organizations, as part of the annual Dining Out for Life event. (Although it seems always to fall in the middle of a production week for me, I usually manage to sneak away from the theatre for an hour or so to munch for a good cause.)