I want to believe, above all else, that I’m invincible. 1982: 618 dead But that would require distorting the reality of our times. 1983: 2,118 dead As I go through and begin cataloging dead bodies, I start wondering why I’m still alive. 1984: 5,596 dead What are some of the names of these men? I don’t really know, except that Foucault died this year, but he’s not American. 1985: 12,529 dead These unnamed men, aberrations like me, but not quite, because I’m still alive. My body isn’t killing itself.
AIDS Crisis
It is with considerable excitement that I am announcing the new logo for Our Viral Lives. The process took a considerable amount of time, but it was necessary in order to get a logo that captured the multiple dimensions of this project, namely that it would represent the historical legacies of the HIV/AIDS crisis while taking a contemporary take on the activism that would show strength and good design. Christopher Desrosiers, based out of Montreal, worked on several design mock-ups before we settled on the following:
I’m excited where 2015 is heading for the project and this is a great way to get it going. Thanks for all of the support thus far.
In an action on World AIDS Day December 1st, ACT UP London fought back against comments by a prominent UK political party leader whose remarks against people living with HIV/AIDS highlighted just how much stigma is fueling the epidemic. This was their “gift” to UKIP, which was coordinated with a #ukipstinks campaign.
Change, as we all well know, is not easy and it is not cheap. Our Viral Lives may have just started as an idea, but we’re ready to rapidly expand by the middle of 2015, if we can secure two important things: 1) fiscal sponsorship & 2) outside grant or sponsorship money. The first allows us to be affiliated with a 501(c)(3) organization, making us eligible for a lot more grants & for individual donors to create donations that could be written off on their taxes. The second would allow us to expand considerably. This budget and potential sponsorship avenues are highlighted at Our Viral Lives Budget Plan.
I don’t think there is a whole lot more that I can say about Ferguson that hasn’t been articulated before. I do, however, think that the disregard for black lives extends to another arena: HIV prevention and treatment. A 2010 study from the CDC yielded shocking results. Among men who have sex with men (MSM), black men accounted for 39% of all new infections, and those ages 13-24 accounted for a particularly high percentage of the new cases. In 2011, the CDC launched a “Testing Makes Us Stronger” campaign that I interviewed a then-director about. Despite progress at the federal level, locally and statewide, there has been a disregard for more diversity in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and education.
Our Viral Lives 