Subscribe to this blog's feedDay one at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City
Yesterday there was a satellite session dedicated to the Swiss statement. A panel of 7 dissected and debated many aspects of the report, from the calculations used in studies to the applicability of its findings to resource poor countries. The discussion was full and robust. However, if it weren’t for the one panelist living with HIV, the reality of sex would have barely been mentioned.
Isn’t it interesting that in all the rancor elicited by the Swiss Statement, so little has been mentioned about sexual intimacy or pleasure. Virtually lost in the back and forth has been the very real, (if uncomfortable to some) fact that people with HIV want to have uninhibited intimacy and full sexual pleasure.
Thank god for Nicos- the ‘community’ (read positive) member of yesterday’s panel. He fearlessly broached the subjects of intimacy and pleasure, seemingly unafraid of the judgments of others.
This reinforced the importance of community. HIV activism created a new paradigm where people living with the disease demanded, and were granted a seat at the proverbial table. Our perspectives, while not always welcomed have managed to play a central role in shaping the myriad responses to the epidemic, from drug development to social marketing campaigns to biomedical prevention initiatives.
No matter how smart, compassionate or well meaning a researcher is, they can not know what it like to live with HIV, unless they are themselves living with HIV. I am careful here to point out that no one person, or group of people can speak for all people living with HIV. Nonetheless, our perspectives are invaluable to crafting successful responses to the epidemic.
As a person with HIV, I know full well what it is like to carry the burdens of this virus. I want to both protect my HIV negative sex partners, and fully enjoy sex. I know the anxiety that disclosure brings with it. At least I know these things for me, which is more than anyone not living with this damn virus can say.
As I walked around the Global Village yesterday, I was continuously struck by the humanity of AIDS- the faces, the stories, the lives that it touches. Sex is part of life. Sex is part of the response to the AIDS epidemic. As people living with HIV we should strive to be as brave as Nikos, and speak our truths.
to read more from Mexico, please check into Project Inform's online coverage at http://www.projectinform.org/news/08_ica/index.shtml
You can go way too far with this line of thinking. Yes we must have a place at the table but not all or even most of it. I have never broken my arm but I know I do not want to break it. There are people other than us that understand the issue. They evidently just were not on that panel. I have lived in three decades as POZ so don't tell me I do not understand. If we truly want to be intimate, a little latex will not get in the way.
simple, repetitive propaganda will not make significant impact on condom usage over the long term. much of the heterosexual community has abandoned condoms, and many gay men desire that same level of direct physical intimacy. some have successfully conditioned their sexual response toward easy condom usage, but most haven't and may never do so.
gay male sexuality is consistently lectured at and pathologized, and as a consequence many have simply tuned out the message and the messengers. condoms were NEVER meant to be the solution to hiv, they only work as one of many stopgap measures. furthermore, their efficacy is overstated, as condom-breakage is often much more frequent than the purported 2% failure rate many claim...in many settings the failure rate is tens times that.
a less intrusive means of prevention should have been a research priority for decades, yet many activists seem to think that condoms could simply be argued and propagandized into the 'new normal'...the failure of that hope requires direct confrontation with homophobia and sexphobia if new, more appealing strategies at prevention are to ever materialize.
whether thru improved barrier protections like MUCh more sensitive condoms, or thru efficacious microbicidal gels, or thru Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis rendered easy and economical, future prevention efforts will require a more direct appreciation of the ingrained human desire for intimate sensation, a desire *most* people feel is thwarted by condoms.
as we wait and hope (and hopefully agitate) for a CURE, we need more realistic longterm prevention options.
oh, one more critical element to HIV-prevention, which derives directly from the Swiss statement and the science behind it:
full availability of HAART drugs to an hiv-positive population that practices compliant medication adherence, along with universal testing, AND LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR ALL.
THAT is a critical aspect of hiv-prevention. making the sick less infectious requires both substantial government/industry services, and a population that trusts the government enough to participate in those services.
Some people actually don't confuse intimacy with sex.
Mr. Garrett If you have lived with this virus and gone through HALF what I've had to deal with during the course of 25+ years being HIV positive, how could you possibly believe that anyone who is NOT living with this virus could possibly even begin to fathom what we have to endure? That just doesn't even begin to make sense. Someone who's ever had to deal with 15 different opportunistic infections someone who's never been hospitalized and told they wouldn't make it through the next 72 hours can not POSSIBLY have a clue what it's like. So get off your high horse and think about this rationally. I mean come on let's get real about this!
We can at least try to feel or sympathize with HIV positive patients. Of-course we may never know how much pain they feel. I can't even imagine some one being HIV positive. So absolutely lets get real about this...
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