I’m writing this in the dark of 6 AM, contemplating the Winter Solstice to come on the weekend. I’ve always loved its long night lit with candles and then in the weeks that follow, the gentle and glorious return of longer afternoons. Even on the coldest days when I lived in Montreal, I liked to be outside to see the stretch of the red afternoon skies get longer and later. I worked in a bakery, and a co-worker and I would step from the steamy inside to stand in our long aprons on the snowy sidewalk and watch the sky change colour.

Those were the days when I was going to ACT UP meetings, and one World AIDS Day marched the streets with a mask on my face to symbolize the women that were dying too, in a time when people weren’t seeing women affected by this disease in Canada. Even now, women are understandably reluctant to name their status, lest they have to face discrimination because of it. 

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I’ve never had a head for space (although I can be spacey at times). I have a hard time imagining just how big the earth is, and how many people live here. If I threw a party and even a million of the earth’s 6.7 billion came, how many bags of chips would I need? How many bags of ice?  It’s amazing to think about all those people, all over the world, breathing, as natural as, well, sex. A big percentage of that 6.7 billion people has sex. Why is it then that sex can be such a problematic topic?

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December sky, December snow? This morning it looks possible. It’s a time of year that a hot meal fits into nicely. If you come down to the drop-in on a Tuesday, you’ll find just that. Members come for the food and more. Because really, having lunch with a bunch of people who know what it’s like to live with HIV can be a relief. You can eat, share info and insight, and even laugh. 

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December 1 is World AIDS Day,   an international day of hope, remembrance, and connection. It is a reminder that HIV reaches throughout the world and affects people of all races, ages, religions, economic situations and social privilege. Yet we can all work together to combat stigma and discrimination, and advocate for universal care. This year for World AIDS Day we will be doing just that. We’ll be at the Vancouver Public Library, crossing paths with anyone and everyone. Come on by.

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…one step back. So goes the flow of politics. While it is totally great that the people of the United States have elected their first African American president, there are some unfortunate clouds in an otherwise clear sky. Take California for example, where the November 4 elections included a vote on Proposition 8, which says that marriage can only be formed between a man and a woman. Proposition 8 was voted in by Californian voters, perhaps nullifying they legal gay marriages that have taken place since the summer, when a California Supreme Court ruled them legal. So what does all this mean for HIV/AIDS?

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Researchers have discovered that the origin of HIV in humans may go back even farther than we thought, perhaps as early as 1884. This origin and subsequent rise has been researched by many attempting to grasp where this virus has been and what its journey might imply for our future.  The research dating HIV’s emergence in humans much earlier than we thought has prompted some interesting reactions. Just looking at the comments on the Nature article, the challenges of discussing HIV are evident. Social, cultural and scientific interests collide and ignite. And as seen many times before, HIV hits a nerve because it is linked to taboos, passion and despair.

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24/10/08. Can you read this? You’re lucky. Literacy (reading and writing) and numeracy (working with numbers) are skills that will serve you all your life no matter what you do. But literacy also moves beyond reading and writing. Literacy about health (a.k.a. health literacy) is another area where practiced skills will serve you all your life. Yet almost 60% of Canadians don’t have them.

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The election is over and the Conservatives are in again. What now? Remember this is the government that is going to court with the hope of shutting down Insite, the supervised injection site. This is the government that is believes harm reduction isn’t a health strategy. This is the government that has so riled and hassled scientists that they’ve written a letter decrying the government’s effort to twist and distort scientific evidence for political ideology. Where do we go from here?

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The upcoming Federal election (October 14), shadowed as it is by the upcoming US election, is one that needs our attention. What does this election mean for HIV/AIDS? Over the last two years, 21 million of 84.4 promised funding dollars have not been delivered. There are a lot of things 21 million dollars can do, many people who could benefit, and numerous infections that could be prevented. But it’s gone undelivered to those who could do the work.

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(Phone rings)
“Positive Women’s Network, Janet speaking.”
“Hi. I’m working on paper on women and HIV for my class and am looking for a positive woman to interview….”

This request comes in often. Students want to know about the issues that affect women (there are many), and if HIV is a different for women than it is for men (in some ways, yes).  They want to hear it right from a woman herself- how she became positive, how it feels to have HIV, how her life has changed, whether or not she has children, and other intimate details. Research via a first person story can be incredibly powerful, but women would be asked to bare their souls every week if all students got their personal interview. 

So how to get information out there?

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