...a New York Times writer defending a racist joke about the racial disparities in AIDS cases when only weeks ago that same paper recently published a story highlighting how despite Black and Latino gay men becoming the face of HIV/AIDS in America, there’s little urgency to reach them. Yeah, the joke is even plainer now: [Justine Sacco is] White so AIDS is of no major concern to her. Ha ha…hell.
...of the more than a million Americans who are infected with HIV (there are fifty thousand new cases a year), many have no decent health care, and nearly a third are not even aware they are infected. Racism, homophobia, and poverty continue to drive much of the epidemic. Minorities have the highest infection levels and are least likely to have access to satisfactory medical attention or drug treatments. Obamacare will help, but how fast or how well, nobody yet knows. This should be repulsive to us all; those people need education immediately, but there is little public funding available to teach young gay African-American men how to have sex with each other safely. That’s the society we seem to have become.
Michael Specter, in response to this, about the rise in unprotected sex.
about...Ron Woodroof, who after being diagnosed with AIDS...in the late '80s, began illegally selling smuggled anti-viral medication as an alternative to those available in the U.S.
more, plus trailer, here.
The New-York Historical Society’s current exhibition “AIDS in New York: The First Five Years”...takes...New York City’s...homophobic, apathetic response to the early days of AIDS in the early 1980s—and transforms it into a moment of civic pride, when New Yorkers of all stripes came together to fight the disease. It’s a lovely story, if only it were true.
more.
...the story of the fight for access to life-saving medicines in the global south. The journey begins in South Africa and Uganda, countries arguably hardest hit in the early waves of the pandemic. The search for answers continues to the back rooms of Washington DC...
more.
'The FDA on Monday approved the first drug shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection...'
The agency approved [the] pill Truvada as a preventive measure for healthy people who are at high risk of acquiring HIV through sexual activity, such as those who have HIV-infected partners. The decision comes less than two weeks after the agency approved another landmark product: the first over-the-counter HIV test that Americans can use in the privacy of their homes...
more.
...where were you on the night of Nov. 7, 1991? I was in Madison Square Garden, watching Pat Riley bring his Knicks and the visiting Orlando Magic together to say a pregame prayer for Magic Johnson on the day Johnson revealed that he had tested positive for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
more.
U.S Open, 1968.
Arthur Ashe died (of AIDS) on this day in 1993.
...time period covered will be ”the band’s formative years, leading up to Queen’s appearance at Live Aid in 1985"...Mercury’s death in 1991 won’t be addressed...GK Films has...cleared rights to...‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ and ‘You’re My Best Friend'...will Cohen sing, or will he mime to Mercury’s tracks? We don’t know. That’ll be worked out between the producers, Cohen and whoever gets the job to direct...the remaining members of Queen (Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon) are behind the film and formed a company to be part of the production team...Expect there to be...real attention paid to Mercury’s sexuality, and the fact that he became one of the most famous early victims of AIDS.