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 TIME FOR REFLECTION
While the GLBT community’s experience and response to HIV has changed over the years, the challenges it faces are as critical as ever, writes Mark Orr. When I arrived in Sydney in 1994, the paper was full of obituaries of people who had died from an AIDS-related illness and thousands of people marched down Oxford Street for the Candlelight Memorial. As you looked back up Oxford Street from Whitlam Square, you saw a sea of candles glowing in memory of those who had been taken from us. The Candlelight Memorial was part of my induction into the Sydney GLBT community, it also showed me the strength of our community – coming together to remember, to support, to celebrate and to encourage each other to continue the fight, even when it felt like we couldn’t go on. All these years later HIV is still with us. Anti-retroviral medications and other medical advances have changed the experience of many living with HIV. For others the advances have come too late and their experience of HIV will always consist of many drugs, debilitating side-effects and a lifetime of poverty. At the same time stigma and discrimination remain ever present both within our community and in broader society. Last year, similarly to previous years, NSW reported 403 HIV notifications. It is due to the hard work of many people that we have maintained such a result in the face of rising notifications across Australia and internationally. That result has been the product of a close partnership between ACON, Positive Life, researchers, doctors and other health care providers, NSW Health and the government. Most importantly it is because of the choices that gay men and especially HIV-positive gay men in NSW make and the responsibility they take, for stopping the spread of HIV. It is because individual gay men choose to use condoms and lube when they have sex, to protect their own health and that of their sexual partners. Despite some reports about increases in unsafe sex, the fact is that most gay men in NSW still report using condoms most of the time. Over 25 years into this epidemic, this is an amazing achievement in terms of health promotion. It’s an achievement of which gay men should be proud but also one that we cannot afford to let slip. The Australian theme for World AIDS Day this year is Enjoy Life. Take Control. Stop HIV/AIDS. It is a call to individuals to continue to make decisions that will prevent the spread of HIV. This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day and with each year, the number of people living with HIV continues to grow. The flow-on effect is that we need to provide more and more services in an environment where government funding is not increasing – and may decrease at any time. World AIDS Day and AIDS Awareness Week are an important time for HIV organisations to raise money to provide those services. Whether you buy a red ribbon, attend a fundraiser at one of the venues on Oxford Street or donate through the AIDS Trust of Australia campaign, please consider giving your financial support. HIV is still with us and World AIDS Day 2008 provides us with an opportunity to reflect on what HIV means for us today, to recommit to HIV prevention, to remember those we have lost to AIDS and to support the organisations our community created to tackle HIV. Mark Orr is the President of ACON.
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Opinion 
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