The DPP Blog

Excerpt from yesterday's AIDS.gov blog entry...

Earlier this week, Michelle Samplin-Salgado and I gave a workshop on using new media in response to HIV/AIDS at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) annual Skills Building Institute for HIV Testing and Awareness Day Events and Campaigns. The Institute is part of NAPWA's "Mobilized to Succeed" initiative.

It was an honor to be with NAPWA, and with our colleagues from POZ Magazine, to learn alongside people who are living with HIV/AIDS and the organizations that advocate for them. There is no better voice in the response to AIDS than those who are living with HIV/AIDS themselves.

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It was exciting to see how quickly participants adopted the technologies during the training -- using new media to embrace the values of NAPWA's Denver Principles , a manifesto of self-empowerment written in 1983 by a group of people living with AIDS. The Denver Principles "demanded that the voices of people living with HIV be heard. It asserted the right of people living with HIV to participate in the decision-making processes--at all levels--that would fundamentally affect their lives."

What I love about new media is the way it parallels the Denver Principles. It involves peer-to-peer communication and networking, and asserts the importance of individual voices. New media, like the Denver Principles Project, uses the collective wisdom of the HIV/AIDS community to best respond to the epidemic.

Click here to read the full blog entry and see some of the videos made during the workshop.

The signup form is now available in Spanish!

We also have Spanish-language banner ads available to help promote DPP on the support page.

ProHealth Magazine is communicating this message to all readers on behalf of NAPWA's President, Mr. Frank J, Oldham Jr., in an effort to bring general awareness about the coalition of NAPWA organization and the Denver Principles Project.  Mr. Oldham is an activist and talented leader in HIV/AIDS and public health. He is currently serving on HIV Health and Human Planning Council of New York, New York City Commission on AIDS, AIDS Action Council CAEAR Coalition, NMAC, CDC five year strategic planning committee, LAMBDA Legal Defense Education, Lesbian and Gay Community Services, AIDS Action Council Washington, DC.

Click here to read the full issue.

I suppose I should come right out and say that I am one of the lucky ones; I'm still here. I was one of those gay guys running around having unlimited sex way back in the '80s, when it was cool to be part of the sexual revolution. I mean, I was young, skinny, kinda cute, and I was what they call today, "versatile." I'd left my hometown of Dallas in 1975 to pursue the world, ended up in Los Angeles and thought I was on top of the world. Gay Pride was a new term and was taking off across the country. West Hollywood, also known as Boys' Town, was on track to becoming its very own city. Bars were springing up everywhere, bathhouses and backroom sex were common, and if you were unfortunate to catch a little bug or two, you went to the VD clinic, got your shot of penicillin, and soon it'd be off to the races--again.

Fast forward a few years, 1985, and the landscape had changed. I'd moved to New York City, where the partying was even more fabulous and Christopher Street was all the rage. But there was something new in the air. Friends were starting to get sick. And die. One by one. There was this gay disease thing going around that made you sicker than sick. I started to visit hospitals on a more frequent basis and witnessed some of the horror stories that people today only hear about. Like how hospital personnel would cover themselves from head to toe to deliver a patient's dinner, only to leave the tray outside the room for fear of catching something deadly. Like guys walking around in heavy flesh-colored makeup to cover the purple splotches on their skin. Like how the only medicine available to sick people, AZT, actually made people sicker. Like how if you were g-a-y, it stood for "Got AIDS Yet?"

I'm lucky because I'm still here. I'm still here after burying friend after friend after friend after friend. And yet, as a Black Gay Man, the stigma that I faced then still exists. HIV awareness is still an uphill battle, even though there was a period when everyone wanted to get on the AIDS prevention bandwagon. When did Hollywood stop wearing red ribbons at the Oscars? When did it become unpopular to be just plain ol' openly gay? When did the right to marry supersede the right to live HIV-free?

I support The Denver Principles Project because it takes the fight against HIV and AIDS back to its roots. Because those early pioneers in this fight had a vision that we need today, despite the advances in technology we've witnessed. I support the DPP because half my staff are HIV positive. I support The Denver Principles Project because I can. Thank you.

Gary Paul Wright
Executive Director
African American Office of Gay Concerns
Newark, New Jersey

I am promoting these [Denver] Principles and fighting against the state of North Carolina where our voices are not heard. We have no parity, inclusion or representation in any of the planning process in the state. I am so glad that NAPWA is reorganizing and, in partnership with POZ magazine, re-committing our leaders and communities to these principles. It seems to me that the CDC and HRSA [Health Resources and Services Administration] need to recommit themselves to these principles that they have abandoned.

Omar Perez
Lexington, North Carolina

On the weekend of March 22-23, 2009, my enthusiasm for the Denver Principles Project (DPP) propelled me to the Pride South Florida Fest in Ft. Lauderdale, a few miles from where I live. After promoting the DPP to a variety of organizations throughout the country for the past several weeks, I wanted to go to Pride Fest to promote the DPP on a personal level. I'm in this project for all those living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

Attending the Fest was a last minute decision and I did not have a display booth--meaning I had no systematic way to distribute the DPP cards I had designed. So I contacted the Sunshine Cathedral, a local Metropolitan Community Church affiliate, which had already pledged their support for the Principles Project. Ed Johnson, their Executive Director, didn't hesitate when I told him what I wanted to do. He agreed to let me be part of their booth at the Fest to hand out my materials. Reverend Michael Diaz was in charge of the booth and was also gracious in letting me join their display. The guys staffing the booth were great to work with as well.

The reaction to the cards was wonderful, fuelling my own enthusiasm about the DPP. I handed out 500 cards and would have handed out more if I hadn't run out of supplies. Here's the card design:

  

Join the effort to be part of a powerful step forward

in the fight to stop AIDS!

The Denver Principles Project is about self-empowerment, respect and dignity. It is inspired by the Denver Principles created 25 years ago by AIDS activists. The power of the individual -- multiplied -- allows our collective voice to be truly heard and effectively represented in determining government policy and treatment practices.

Support the Denver Principles Project!

www.napwa.org/dpp

 

As people went by, they would see my t-shirt (see pic). Then I seized the moment to hand them a card. Some folks walked on, but others read the card and stopped to learn more. A few reactions:

"Wow, thanks--this needs to be done."
"You are doing great work."
"I will definitely check it out."
Many just said, thanks! And a few gave me hugs along with those thanks.
Several people said they were already aware of the project and on board.
One said he was around when the original Denver Principles were created.

One person said: "Oh, I'm not HIV positive." I told him that the Project was not just for people living with HIV but for everyone concerned with HIV. He then kept the card and promised to check out the DPP.

Most of the people I spoke to agreed that we need to return to the AIDS activism of the past and stop playing the politically correct game where everyone just dances around the subjects, not really taking stands for fear of losing funding or offending someone. All agreed that AIDS is not over and that we continue to need to work hard in stopping the epidemic.

Even if I'd met with less enthusiasm at Pride South Florida, I would have continued to help build the DPP. But the weekend gave my own work a jumpstart. Did I mention that the women I met were especially excited about the DPP contribution to reigniting AIDS activism? The experience of working to promote the DPP on a personal level has left me even more inspired about the need to create a strong voice for those affected by HIV/AIDS.

As Peter Staley put it so well in his blog, "A POZ Army":

"Imagine if we could turn NAPWA into the MoveOn.org of people with AIDS. Imagine if NAPWA could sit down with a senator or president and say, 'we represent 100,000 Americans living with HIV - all NAPWA members - and we demand to be heard.' Imagine if tens of thousands of us participated in anonymous surveys and an ongoing database that could finally provide a true picture of the issues we face.

"Imagine if 100,000 of us could be called to action when important legislation is up for a vote or when someone attacks PWAs with stigmatizing falsehoods. All of this could happen if everyone was willing to join together, stand up and be counted again."

So let's stop imagining and start doing!

Gary Petonke
HIV Community Advocate

Click here for more individual pledges.

As a black female living with this disease, I feel that people have forgotten that this disease still exists, especially with the media and the medication that helps us to live longer. I also believe that something should be added concerning how the disease affects certain populations.

Gabrielle Linton

We at AIDS Info Duluth and Nanaandaw'Ikwe Program want the world to know, The Denver Principles Project supports the dignity of everyone living with HIV. We want dignity for all!

Maggie, Renee, Melissa, Nancy
The Nanaandaw'Ikwe and AIDS Info Duluth Staff
Duluth, Iowa

How could anyone working in the HIV arena not be in support of The Denver Principles? Common sense tells you that the people impacted by the disease should be the ones who decide how resources are spent and how policy should be shaped. While HIV disease may be my calling or my passion, I don't live with it day in and day out. The voices of the persons living with HIV or AIDS can tell the truest, strongest story.

Kathie Hiers
Chief Executive Officer
AIDS Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama