Activists Call Prez's AIDS Council Comments Racist
Several HIV/AIDS organizations—including the Campaign to End AIDS, the National Minority AIDS Council and the National Association of People With AIDS—are calling on the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) to formally denounce racially insensitive comments that were made by PACHA members at the group’s 33rd annual meeting on Tuesday. When speaking about the disproportionate rates of incarceration of black men, one doctor said that there are “more blacks in jail because they commit more crimes”; other members debated the significance of education, poverty, access to care and racism on rising HIV infections and AIDS deaths. Housing Works National Field Organizer Larry Bryant said in a public statement that he is “dismayed and disappointed” by the comments. In addition to calling on PACHA to condemn the remarks, activists are asking PACHA to take steps to increase the diversity of the councils’ members in order to accurately represent the diverse face of the AIDS epidemic.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
