Over the weekend I was sent an artical from the Advocate from my friends over at POZPlanet on Facebook it read:
Global AIDS Prevention Gives Short Shrift to Gays
"Fewer people are dying from AIDS, but rates of new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men in many countries are rising at alarming rates.
Yet less than 1% of the $669 million reported in global prevention spending targets men who have sex with men, according to UNAIDS figures from 2006, the latest available data."
This comment has had me thinking about a statistic that I recently heard about Canada and the uneven prevention dollar distribution. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada in Canada of all the People living with HIV / AIDS 51% of the population are gay men. (Stats as of 2005 new stats available in 2009) In Canada Gay men currently receive 23% of funding dollars.
At what point did we de-gay AIDS? I mean I have heard several of my friends say that at one point the government de-gayed the AIDS Service Organizations. Apparently this was done in an obvious way. I hope to dig into this a little further in this blog. Perhaps you have memories of this and would like to share. Please drop me a line. Here
So what's wrong with having a gay related services after all in Toronto every other demographic has an AIDS Service Organization that promotes the health and well-being of their population. I remember taking Jack to Toronto People with AIDS Foundation he wanted to see what it was all about seeing that they just moved to their new location. I was permitted to give him the tour. in the middle of the hall way he innocently pipes up "It lovely to be in a real Gay AIDS Service Organization" I wince in expectation and all we see are Gay boy heads pop out of doors and promptly correct "We are not a Gay Organization. We service all communities" LOL it has been so well rehearsed seems Murray (Executive Director) is keeping everyone on message.
