Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
79<br />
the fight against AIDS cannot be overstated and it<br />
was often the groups who suffered most who had to<br />
fight hardest for progress.<br />
In the modern world, AIDS remains a serious<br />
threat: over 38 million people have HIV while there<br />
is no cure for HIV, only retroviral medication that<br />
helps to control it. Marginalised groups continue to<br />
suffer disproportionately due to the continuing history<br />
of stigma and discrimination linked with HIV;<br />
in Africa, the continent most affected by HIV today,<br />
history is repeating itself and the same pattern<br />
of homophobia enabling HIV to spread ever more<br />
Hidden Voices<br />
rapidly has devastated a region struggling with<br />
its health infrastructure. Writing in 1983 on the<br />
impact of the virus on the queer community, Larry<br />
Kramer said that ‘our continued existence depends<br />
on just how angry you can get.’ This remains true<br />
in many parts of the world, and it is only through<br />
understanding the history of HIV and homophobia,<br />
challenging stigma and discrimination, and educating<br />
people about the importance of safe sex and<br />
testing for HIV that this can begin to change.<br />
Jonathan Baddon L6DMY
Change language