church

“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give thee rest.” What does this mean to the church? I know scripture isn’t the most common language one would find on a CHAMP blogspot :-) but there it is and here I am, a Christian and a proponent for social justice for all.  And I have some questions for my sistren and brethren in the church.

I spent the first 3 days of my time in Mexico City at the Ecumenical Pre-Conference where I appreciated some great dialogue with most of my time and energy engaging in discussions around gender, and specifically about patriarchy in the church and gender based violence. I was sad to note an absence of dedicated space on the program for LGBTQQI people and issues/dynamics particularly affecting queer folk, particularly given the early and continued epidemiology of HIV&AIDS as well as the continued proliferation of discrimination against queer communities and individuals.  read more »

Days 1-3 of this conference, I’ve been overwhelmed by the plethora of issues I could cover on this blog and thus paralyzed.

After attending the Ecumenical Pre-Conference, I handwrote a long diatribe about the hypocrisy of the church as it relates to showing the love that is supposed to be at the center of Christianity towards queer folk. (This is a bit of a generalization as certain groups are very much trying, as evidenced by some of the discussions at the conference.)

Then I felt driven to write about how the women’s rights movement (again, generalization) has also, to some extent, failed to be inclusive in its agenda. This was inspired after participating in the session “Where are the voices of lesbian women?” in the Women’s Networking Zone. In addition to omissions around lesbian and transgendered women, many of us also continue to observe a striking disregard for issues of race with the rather myopic focus on gender that doesn’t encompass intersectionality. One hopes that the movement will begin to truly live up to the slogan of today’s march, “All women, All rights!”  read more »

At the International AIDS Women's Caucus Challenges for Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS. 5 minutes to the hour, the audience starts shuffling in. Women wearing Blue Jeans, dresses, suits and saris fill in the audience.
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Click for Video Meet David Jenkins. Watch his testimony in church.

Faith-based involvement in the HIV epidemic continues to be critical. The courageous acts of people living with HIV/AIDS, like David, that speak truth to power where it counts need to be supported.

What do these support structure look like? Are they reports? Are they policies? How do you get people to tell the truth?

These are the questions I am thinking about as I prepare to meet the world in Mexico. I am a physician/filmmaker that is using media as a movement-building tool to bridge the silos of HIV prevention work. The questions posed are about the culture work that falls in between silos of HIV prevention and treatment. This missing dialogue and language is an obstacle to action and support.

Support is about solidarity and bridging pieces together. Media can serve as this congealing force in our interconnected cyber-world. This requires two things: listening and creating new forums for the resulting lessons to grow. I film community-based participant driven narratives on the frontlines of HIV prevention work in hopes of uniting a fragmented movement towards human rights.

As a physician, I have taken care of HIV infected and affected communities in the South Bronx, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Listening to the patients in all these settings has been a humbling lesson in solidarity and the profound obligation that comes with listening.

Those on the frontlines have been telling it like it is for a long time.
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