AIDS Action Now released a video tonight, on the eve of World AIDS Day, calling for the federal government to recommit to the fight against AIDS and hepatitis C in Canada. In the new video, the group condemns the Harper government for "refusing to address this national healthcare crisis."

 

 

 

 

  

There was word from Vienna today that a group of about 50 activists staged a die-in and shut down the Canadian booth in the exhibition hall at the International AIDS Conference yesterday.

The protest came in response to the Harper government's ongoing refusal to support safe injection sites and other harm reduction measures adopted by the Vienna Declaration. Harper's delegates refused to sign the declaration on Monday.

"Given that some of the recommendations outlined in the Vienna Declaration are inconsistent with Canada's National Anti-Drug Strategy and current federal drug policy, Canada will not support the document," Charlene Wiles, of the Public Health Agency of Canada, wrote in an email, according to the CBC.

Chanting, "The war on drugs is a war on us! Support harm reduction now," the activists wrapped the Canadian booth in tape and covered it in signs and copies of the Vienna Declaration. 

"Canada has missed an important opportunity to show leadership in the struggle against HIV and AIDS," Canadian harm reduction activist Zoe Dodd said in a press release. "There is overwhelming evidence that harm reduction strategies are effective in combatting HIV transmission. Canadian criminalization of drug use is fanning the flames of the AIDS epidemic."

Xtra's correspondent at the conference, Phillip Banks, says a gay activist from Toronto was expelled from the conference for destroying the Canadian booth's banners.

(Photo by Daniel Grace)  

Rob Ford offered a staged an emotional apology to PWAs May 10, at the home of an Etobicoke gay man, Dieter Doneit-Henderson.

In 2006, Ford opposed funding for AIDS service organizations in Toronto on the basis that “If you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn’t get AIDS probably.” Ford made the comments as a city councillor; now, he is a candidate in the 2010 Toronto mayoralty race.

A Toronto Star writer and photographer were on hand. The Star described the scene as “bizarre.”

Doneit-Henderson was once touted to be the first openly HIV-positive candidate to run in the province. The Star reports that he ran provincially for the NDP in 2007. We took a look at the provincial and federal election results in Carleton Mississippi Mills and haven’t found his name on the ballot.

Photo CC Road Dog, courtesy of Flickr
 

 

The press release plugging events being held today to "inspire youth activism" reads, "Youth Celebrate World AIDS Day at Sold Out Event."  This is lovely to see, so we'll ignore the awkwardness of the word "celebrate."

But World AIDS Day has always been a clumsy affair.  How do you honour a day so dishonourable?  Today, the Queerty blog is snarking about the red ribbons on Twitter and Facebook ("nothing says grassroots activist like meaningless Internet gestures!") but people want to do something, however tiny, on a day that's all about awareness.

World AIDS Day is a bit like Christmas -- a day of hope for everyone to come together in a spirit of brotherhood and peace, combined with a lingering greasy distaste for why the hell we're so incapable of doing it the other 364 days of the year. So what's an appropriate response then?  Today, we have many options:

-- slash provincial government AIDS funding!

-- hang a big red ribbon from your house:

 

-- launch Positive Lite, a cheeky new webzine for HIV-positive people, in the hopes of getting them laid (how inappropriate!)

-- write a somber piece about the impact of AIDS on your own family

-- stage a protest in New York City at the mayor's "World AIDS Day bagel breakfast" (though you'll be arrested for your inappropriateness):

(I know, I'm as shocked as you are -- "World AIDS Day bagel breakfast???"  What the fuck?)

-- stage a protest at a Beijing train station (but be arrested for your inappropriateness)

-- pass along those saucy cellphone pics of baseball player Grady Sizemore (hey, you celebrate your way, I'll celebrate mine)

-- release a charity pop single

-- or, of course, the most appropriate and directly helpful way to mark World AIDS Day: please give generously to a charity that will help people living with AIDS in your community. It beats the hell out of Twitter!

Chances are, if you're reading this, you're not in the closet.  At least I hope not.  It's dark and cramped in there and the secrets smell like old socks left in the back corner.

But it's one thing to know that life is better without secrets and quite another thing to actually figure out when and how to let go of them.  That's where a guy like Howard Bragman comes in -- he's a publicist in LA who helps celebrities come out.  I traded emails with him a couple years back when basketball player John Amaechi made the brave decision to go public about being gay and Bragman made the process easy for everyone concerned.

For those not famous enough to need a PR guy or rich enough to afford one, however, we have True Love Lies, the new play from Edmonton-born Brad Fraser in which the sexual secrets of an entire family come spilling out in hilarious and poignant ways:

 

Debuting in the UK last year, now running in Toronto until Nov. 1 and hopefully being restaged elsewhere after that, this loose sequel to Fraser's classic Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love begins as a zippy post-nuclear-family sitcom before growing into something far stranger and sadder as the characters (beautifully played by the terrific ensemble) each wrestle with not only what secrets they're hiding from each other but also what secrets they're hiding from themselves.

We don't look at a lot of theatre here on the Roundup (preferring to leave that to the mighty Rob Salerno) but seeing this play after reading the big writeup on Bragman and his efforts to free Hollywood types from their own prisons only made its themes stand out even more -- the truth shall set you free...sort of.

We tend to believe that whether that truth is something unpleasant (like learning that the potential HIV vaccine is a dud) or something controversial (listen for the sound of shrieking girls as Esquire magazine insists that the Twilight vampires are gay) or something awkward (the British tabloids going to town on further details on the death of out singer Stephen Gately), one must reveal all, but one of the most provocative things about True Love Lies is right there in the title -- for the sake of those we love, some secrets are better kept.

Sex advice columnist Dan Savage riffed on this notion a while back and, just for kicks, I'm reprinting it here today because it's so valuable.  Savage is one of the gay community's great truth-tellers so it's weird to hear him argue on behalf of illusion:

Ultimately, all these men are asking the big questions:  who do we lie to, when do we tell the truth and how do we know the difference?