The US Senate voted to lift the long standing travel ban that prevented HIV Positive and AIDS Diagnosed individuals from entering the US without informing officials of their status and receiving special waivers for entry. The ban came into law in 1993 and has been a constant reminder of the ignorance and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. Follow the link to find out more about this important and long overdue decision.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIhMPqDtUc33IcguVjOgN-ZyJRuA
Chastity Pariah as captured by the Burlington Free Press
Vermont CARES’ prevention team was at the Vermont Pride Festival on Saturday July 12th on the waterfront. Vermont CARES’ table featured potential Anti-stigma campaign ideas and asked for input from the crowd. Resident drag queen, Chastity Pariah strutted her stuff and offered free condoms, dental dams, female condoms and lube to the festival goers.
The day was a huge success and Vermont CARES was proud to be a part of it. Check back to www.vtcares.org for more information about Vermont CARES and the upcoming anti-stigma campaign!
In this fascinating roller-coaster of a candidate race we haven’t heard terribly much about public health, especially about HIV/AIDS. Granted, much of the focus on issues like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy and who said what about whom is salient to the large-font headlines that most people glance at in the morning. But whichever candidate ends up in the White House in 2009 will have to face the looming presence of HIV/AIDS both in this country and around the world. Democrats Clinton and Obama have both put forward plans to address the epidemic in every locale. These plans, as well as a multitude of other information about their views and plans. To this blogger’s ear they both seem to be saying the same things: all good things too as it turns out. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a great site to compare the candidates views and plans, click HERE to check it out.
The presumptive Republican candidate McCain has yet to issue a plan for HIV/AIDS and seems to be lacking in general knowledge about responses to the epidemic as evidenced in this blog post from the New York Times. He also has a spot on the Kaiser Family Foundation page.
I’ve no doubt that this will continue to be an interesting race and hope to be able to get a clearer picture of their views and plans for confronting this epidemic head-on. Each of the candidates’ web pages has the opportunity for you to voice your concerns and advocate for specific issue:
Barack Obama: Click here
Hilary Clinton: Click here
John McCain: Click here
MTV, purveyor of the good, the bad and the truly ugly when it comes to music has historically been right on when it comes to social justice issues. The same is still true when it comes to sexual health. Their “it’s your (sex) life” campaign (click here for the site) is a well-targeted effort to encourage young people (or anyone who’s on the website) to learn more about their sexual health and how to stay healthy. A cool new addition to the campaign is the A:Minute contest: contestants from 13-25 years old are invited to submit their lyrics about HIV testing. The winning lyrics will be performed by the artist Common on an ad for MTV’s campaign. If you or someone you know wants to submit some lyrics click here to go to the contest’s website. Thanks to organizations like MTV who take the time to let young people know how to take care of themselves and still be “cool” doing it.
The snazziest (in this blogger’s opinion) Vermont CARES’ event is coming up on March 15th! The live and silent auction promises to be better than ever with food graciously donated by NECI, an open wine bar, and the best selection of art, travel and luxury items up for auction.
Dress code ranges from casual to fancy: a great excuse to get out that ballgown with the plunging neckline or your oft-neglected “dress” carharts.
There will be more posts as the auction comes closer as the staff gets quite excited about this event…
Click the image of the invitation for more info, see you there!
Vermont CARES has decided that a blog would offer a way for us to present news about the agency and HIV/AIDS-related current events. Posts will be written as the staff finds inspiration. We’re a bit new at this blog thing so we appreciate your patience as we get under way!
vermontcares
