Complacency about HIV and AIDS will prove deadly.

Wednesday December 1 is World AIDS Day and Pittsburgh groups are banding together to ensure the region does not take a sigh of relief on this issue.  People are still dying.  People are living with medical advancements, but face barriers to the lives we take for granted. People are engaging in risky behavior because of stigmas, stereotypes, and social pressure. 

One interesting event is the film screening of TAPOLOGO by New Voices Pittsburgh.

Here's a message from PERSAD Executive Director, Betty Hill.  She speaks to the issue with eloquence ...

Taking Up the Cause - A Message from Betty Hill

 

As World AIDS Day, December 1, approaches again this year, I have had the occasion to be talking even more than usual to folks about HIV/AIDS. In the wake of this virus are so many stories of loss. I am struck by how common the loss is and how wide spread the impact. Nearly everyone I talk to has a story of someone they know who has been affected by this disease. Yet, it is clear that this disease is not the darling of our imaginations and that it gets so little attention compared to other causes. We have a not so funny joke at our house that if we see one more thing draped in pink we are going to scream!! Perhaps we have disease envy? With so many diseases, so many ribbons, how do we prevent new infections, find those that are infected but don?t know, and provide care to those that need it?  

 

When my mother died of cancer years ago, I remember that one neighbor sent a donation in my mother?s honor to an agency that treated a disease which I had never heard of. I remember thinking, ?What does that have anything to do with my mother???and it didn?t, but it was my neighbor?s cause. Not to quibble in an Ann Landers kind of way about whether it was really ok to donate to a cause that wasn?t one suggested by the family in the obituary, this cause was what mattered to my neighbor and around which he focused his energy and resources. He cared enough about his cause to think everyone else should.

 

While I?m convinced that HIV/AIDS affects us all, I know that it won?t be the ribbon that everyone wears. Maybe it?s your ribbon. If you have a loss that you need to honor, or an infection that you need to prevent, or someone who needs information, or someone who needs care, maybe HIV/AIDS is your cause.

 

The World AIDS Day commemorations (information on World AIDS Day events are listed below or can be found at www.pittsburghred.org) provide a number of great ways to get involved and take up the cause ? because it?s your cause.

 

Betty Hill

bhill@persadcenter.org

412-441-9786 x212

Here's a list of other local activities.

Press Conference with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl
Wednesday ? December 1, 2010 ? 10:30am

City-County Building

Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force 25^th Anniversary Luncheon

Wednesday ? December 1, 2010 ? 11am-1pm

Rivers Club, One-Oxford Centre
Contact: 412-973-7456 or sorr@patf.org

Candlelight Vigil
Wednesday ? December 1, 2010 ? 5:30pm

Starts at CMU, down Forbes Avenue to the lawn outside Heinz memorial Chapel

23^rd Annual World AIDS Day Memorial Service

Wednesday ? December 1, 2010 ? 7pm

Heinz Memorial Chapel
Contact: 412-624-2008

See you might expect me to make a comment about Luke's participation.  I think he should be doing things like this more frequently.  I can't attend because I have 8 million work meetings this week, but I'm glad so many groups are coalescing around this moment in the holiday calendar, this moment to remember.  For those of us who don't remember, we need to stop and realize what is happening around us today. 

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Our Thanksgiving is pretty nice. We all have small families so we all gather together (my parents, Ledcat's mother, her brother and his family, our sister-in-law's mother) wherever dinner might be.  This year, we headed north to Mercer County.

There's no real huge lesbian element to the holiday.  We've been together for 7 years so no drama about us related to being gay. 

Except ... we are interchangeable aunts and I bet most heterosexual couples can't say that. When our niece was younger (she's almost 5 now), she would confuse our names but we just rolled with it.  If she's looking at you, she's talking to you sort of thing.  Yesterday, Jack (two and a half) called us both Aunt Sue for awhile until he switched to Aunt Sue and Aunt Yaya (his way of saying Ledcat) which cracked us up.  It doesn't matter in the least because we love them to pieces.  I got another chuckle when Ava said "Miss Aunt Sue" because she's so used to calling adult women Miss Something.  I guess from the perspective of a child "Aunt" is part of your name, not a title. 

A close friend told me her six year old recently asked what being partners meant, referencing us whom she's known since birth.  Amy told her what it meant and she had no trouble grasping the concept, but wanted to know if we were going to get married (you know 6 year old and brides -- here was a chance to have 2 of us).  Amy explained that we couldn't get married because of the law.  Her daughter thought about that and pronounced it "stupid."  She's not allowed to use that word, but this one time Amy said "yes, it is stupid."  How about that?  That's a future voter, Joe Markosek.  Watch out. 

So we came home and watched tv for a few hours, then we went to bed feeling very thankful for so many things. Especially for being aunties.  Now I've got to go on ebay and order stickers.