vulnerable communities

The last thing I expected to be doing at the World AIDS Conference was standing on a stage at the Zocalo, the central square of Mexico City, making a speech about justice and HIV treatment access for gay men/MSM in the global South, and accepting a large banner from a group of rainbow-suited Mexican gay activists in front of a cheering crowd.

I’m a reporter, not a presenter, for godsake. Let alone a celeb (two reporters wanted to interview me). The way it happened was this.

I’m on the steering committee of the Global Forum for MSM and HIV, the folks who put on the pre-conference satellite meeting (in fact a miniconference of about 450 gay activists from around the world). The conference was a great success and afterwards we went on the march against homophobia and stigma, a rainbow-bedecked celebration of gayness and general non-family-oriented sexuality (the sex workers’ satellite attended too).  read more »