AIDS Taskforce T-shirt aims to spread stigma of HIV too thin to hurt

Photo: Allison Carey, The Plain Dealer HIV Positive T-shirt handed out Thursday by the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland to be worn Friday for AIDS awareness.

By Tony Brown,

The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- People are looking at me funny. Funnier than usual. Some sneer or laugh derisively. Some have a kind smile. Most just stare.

Maybe it's because a red T-shirt makes me look pallid. More pallid than usual.

Or maybe it's the bold, black-and-white lettering on the shirt:

HIV POSITIVE

My shirt identifies me as having the human immunodeficiency virus, the sneaky bug that can reverse-transcribe itself into my DNA and cause AIDS, which has infected 65 million worldwide and killed at least 25 million since the late 1970s.

On Friday, several hundred other people in Greater Cleveland -- where 4,000 people live with AIDS -- will do the same thing, coming out of the closet about HIV.

It's a "stunt" by the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, a bit of street-theater activism aimed at defusing HIV stigmas.

On Friday, we won't block intersections or yell. We'll just wear the shirt as we go about our routines -- doing our jobs, grocery shopping, hitting a sports bar for March Madness.

And we'll document it all in real time with words, photos and videos on Facebook and Twitter.

The plan is to get everybody -- ourselves included -- thinking about all the things we think of when we think about HIV/AIDS.

"We're out to challenge the silence, the mantle of shame that descends, the stigmas associated with HIV," AIDS Taskforce executive director Earl Pike said. "We don't stigmatize people who have prostate cancer. Why HIV?"

Pike is the guy who came up with the idea for Friday's guerilla action after British singer Annie Lennox caused a fan panic by wearing an "HIV Positive" T-shirt on national TV.

"It's about secrets -- sexual histories, who uses drugs," Pike said. "When you ask those questions, you find it's not just people in the inner cities. It's also people in Solon and Orange and Medina. How awesome it would be if everybody told everybody the truth about who we are and what we do."

Read the Entire Article: AIDS Taskforce T-shirt

AIDS Task Force launches "HIV Positive" tees

President Obama's Winning (Yet, Controversial) Week

With less than 200 days into his presidency, President Barack Obama's role has already seen many triumphant landmark events since his inauguration as America's first Black president. However, each of those milestones face much criticism, and often times controversy. From his influence in having Chicago as the last U.S. city consider for the 2016 Olympics to the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor as America's first Supreme Court Judge, each successful move has been largely scrutinized.

Count his two most achievements below as acts that have garnered much criticism. While there are only a few who are hesitant to his recent appointment of an openly gay ambassador due to his slowness in reaching to the gay and lesbian community, it is his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize that has sparked worldwide opposition who has seen Obama as a new leader who has yet to prove his worth. Read the two story excerpts below to catch Obama's recent milestones.

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President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

Many observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline and has yet to yield concrete achievements in peacemaking.

Some around the world objected to the choice of Obama, who still oversees wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has launched deadly counter-terror strikes in Pakistan and Somalia.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee countered that it was trying "to promote what he stands for and the positive processes that have started now." It lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change.

The peace prize was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts but Obama's efforts are at far earlier stages than past winners'. The Nobel committee acknowledged that they may not bear fruit at all.

"He got the prize because he has been able to change the international climate," Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "Some people say, and I understand it, isn't it premature? Too early? Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now. It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us."

read the entire story here

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President Barack Obama said Wednesday he planned to nominate an openly gay lawyer as the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. If confirmed by the Senate, David Huebner would become the third openly gay ambassador in U.S. history and the first pick by this administration. In a statement released from the White House, Obama said he looked forward to working with Huebner and is confident he will represent the United States well in the Pacific region.

Huebner is based in Shanghai, where he handles international arbitration and mediation cases for a U.S. firm. A graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, he is also the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s general counsel and previously served on the group’s board.

He also has chaired the California Law Revision Commission, served as president of the Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission and taught at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law.

Obama’s announcement is a gesture just days before he speaks to a gay rights fundraising dinner on Saturday and gay activists march on Washington on Sunday.

read the entire story here