“The law can seem remote, arcane, the stuff of specialists. But it isn’t, because for those of us who live in democracies, the law begins with us,” says Shereen El-Feki, vice-chair of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, in this TED talk.
The talk is a very fine summary of the issues around HIV criminalisation and its unintended effects. The comments below the video, alas, show how far we have to go.
Video from Lamda Legal in the US highlighting some of the egregious garbage being spewed by hyperconservatives in that country.
I already shared this on Facebook and Twitter but it’s worth re-sharing on the blog. A short video showing the progress of the food garden here at Buggery Acres, from the overgrown wilderness we inherited when we bought the place to the orderly green oasis of today. Makes me happy, hope it’s good for you too.
Yesterday I was on TV. Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall institute in Melbourne made a significant breakthrough on HIV, and the media needed someone to be the voice of positive people. In my PLWHA Victoria role, this duty falls to me.
It’s not often that the Australian news media take this much interest in HIV issues at all, and when they do it’s typically bad news, so it was refreshing to see this much interest in a ‘good news’ story. The fact that the news release had the words ‘HIV’ and ‘cure’ in it probably helped (the last time the commercial TV news became interested in HIV science, that news release had the ‘C’ word in it too, so I’m seeing a pattern; from now on all my news releases will have ‘HIV cure’ in the headline).
So I scrubbed up, borrowed a clean shirt (thanks Nathan), and choofed off to WEHI to do my bit for the cause. Here’s the resulting ABC TV News item. Read on over the page for the horrifying truth.
(The Channel 10 version is also available, on YouTube, if you’re really keen.)
Nathan got his nipples pierced yesterday. I documented the event for him on video. Enjoy!
I love this sassy (but NSFW – lots of F-bombs) promo for FCKH8, a fundraising initiative supporting the campaign against California’s Proposition 8 anti gay marriage bill.
Julia Gillard, last night on the 7 PM Project:
The night before on Q&A:
At a press conference on 2 August:
At least she’s consistent – consistently useless. Interesting to see how similar the answers were on the last two nights: she’s well drilled.
Gillard’s repeated argument that “there are a variety of community views on this topic” doesn’t hold water – the fact that some troglodytes in the Labor Party aren’t in favour of gay marriage does not justify perpetuating discrimination and unequal treatment. The ALP should discover some conviction about this issue and at least open the issue up for debate instead of constantly closing it down with this unsustainable, empty, unimaginative nonsense.
Until Gillard finds a way of answering this question in a more inclusive and open way, she will continue to fall in respect within the LGBT community.
I made an attack ad.
Julia had a press conference today. Julia said she’d decided it was time for us to see the “real” Julia, instead of the fake Julia the campaign managers have been forcing her to be. Julia wants us to see the differences between her and Tony Abbott. A journalist asked Julia her views on same-sex marriage. Julia – the “real” Julia, the Julia that wants us to know she’s different to Tony Abbott – said she has exactly the same point of view and the same party policy as Tony Abbott.
http://www.youtube.com/v/o7h15h6P370