From There to Queer to Here

As one of the speakers on the first day of the MSM Global Forum,  David Wilson spoke passionately about the need to focus funding, research and programming on MSM. He cited as an example the strides the AIDS community has made in lowering new infection rates among sex workers and intravenous drug users.

Over lunch, a global south AIDS hero could be heard saying to his colleagues, ´Oh great´ he began sarcastically ¨Now we are back where we started with them (global south governments). To this, they will  say LET THEM DIE, THEY SHOULD CONTROL THEMSELVES.¨

At the heart of his statement is the concern that, by isolating a group such as MSM that is considered by some as immoral or at the least on the fringe of society, we will be taking a step back in our collective response to normalize and personalize HIV/AIDS.

For me this is an interesting point. I entered into the AIDS world as a way of dealing with my homosexuality, connecting with those that came before me that I would never meet. As much as Jack Tripper (from TV´s THREEs COMPANY) was a quasi role model, it was the faces of ACT UP on Wall Street that began to awaken my sexual and political queer beings. I was disheartened that by the time I got involved with HIV/AIDS it was still in the throws of being de-gayed.

In gay culture, we are seeing a return to the early days of HIV as a point of conversation and inspiration.

The Newfest, New York's LGBT film festival had an EARLY DAYS of AIDS stream in their programming. Inside Out, Toronto's LGBT film festival not only showed some great films about AIDS including a doc on GENERAL IDEA but with Vtape -- they also hosted a 2 day conference called Queer Here Queer Now where much of the conversation seemed to go back to the heady early days of the MIX fest in NY where AIDS was being dealt with in a personal and political way.

2 months ago in New York Dr. Paul Sendiuk along with CLAGS and Visual AIDS hosted a conference called ART/AIDS/WORK that attempted to answer the question, Can Art Save Lives? Panelists and audiences alike seemed to turn around to see their past in order to answer the question.

At the same time as this cultural movement is happening conferences like the MSM GF are encouraging us to think about AIDS in the gay context once again.

Yesterday UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said it best before lunch, Let us not forget that in the early 80s it was the gay community that responded. We need to see that again.

So while I see the AIDS superstar's point, I am more inclined to lean towards Wilson's suggestions of focusing more on MSM. I think the only way that we as gay men are going to find ourselves once again responding to AIDS as a community is to once again realize that we are still affected by HIV/AIDS.