Tuesday started off with a performance presented by Ms. Owoola-Adeojo Goldmark, a Nigerian who became an HIV/AIDS activist at the age of 7 and by the age of 15 was running her own foundation. The performance was comprised of a poetry session followed by African dance and drama. The main questions Ms. Goldmark asked us to think about were: (1) Who has the right to access art? 2) Who has the right to be educated after losing both parents to AIDS? and 3) Who has a right to be loved and not to be stigmatized?
The next session I attended had to do with: “Sex and Sexuality – Youth Perspectives on Pleasure and Prevention: What Do We Need in 2010?” The five presenters were a gay man from Jamaica, an HIV-positive heterosexual man from Romania, an LGBT activist from Paraguay, a Namibian transgender woman, and a young heterosexual woman from Lebanon.
The Jamaican man noted that sex and sexuality need to be dealt with on a day-to-day basis. One cannot think that sex is around health, but it’s also around responsibility. He also noted that LGBT youth are under-represented in Caribbean ad campaigns about sex, sexuality, and pleasure. How can LGBTs relate if they cannot see themselves in these ads?
In Romania, life isn’t easy. There is no option for failure. Living with HIV/AIDS is not easy because there is a huge shortage of drugs, funding, and there is a fear of those with HIV/AIDS being found out.
The LGBT activist said that each person will express his or her sexual orientations and pleasure preferences, with or without everyone’s involvement. He also appealed for more inter-generational discussion among youths and elders.
In Namibia, the health care institutions and the people working for them do not understand transgender people. It is a struggle everyday because people beat up transgender people and steal their things. When they go to the police for assistance, the police ridicule them and refuse to help. When they seek treatment for their injuries at the hospital, the nurses will not touch them.
The young woman from Lebanon called for more interventions that are tailored to certain groups, namely those having sex and those not having sex. She said organizations need to help women voice their ideas more openly about what they want sexually.
The day ended with a march on the streets of Vienna, passing the Parliament building all the way to the imperial palace. Led and organized by the artist Annie Lennox, the march was a beautiful sight of orange, red, black, while, and green t-shirts along with hand-held signs advocating human rights for all, MSM rights, and “Fight the disease, not the person”. There was a strong presence and energy at the march, with marchers and spectators alike dancing and celebrating with the drummers, dancers, and singers.
At the palace, various speakers spoke about HIV/AIDS and what the government should be doing to better prevent its spread. [It was interesting to note that out of the 10 or so speakers, only two were African]. One called out the Austrian government for donating only $1 million dollars when the Vienna Conference had already produced about $4 million dollars. Annie Lennox then sang a few songs and presented two videos highlighting the difficulties and stories people in Africa face with the epidemic.
