José F. Colón and Anselmo Fonseca

Pacientes de SIDA pro Política Sana, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the eighties a transformation has occurred in different parts of the World and the different cultures where it has affected.

At the start of the epidemic the virus was related to mainly hemophiliacs, Haitians and homosexuals. The gay community had to get fiercely attract the attention of the citizens of the US of A and the World so the Reagan and Bush administrations would start mentioning the word AIDS. Not until the death of star Rock Hudson did the Reagan administration start making references to the illness. Many had already died.

Activism was based in courage, love but most of all in anger. These elements made the people all over the World to start addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS. Politicians had to face the problem and destine funds to investigations regarding the search for medicines, treatments and ways of controlling the epidemic.

Ryan White, a small, ten year old child who was turned down and rejected in his school because he had contracted HIV through a blood transfusion had an important role in activism. He gave a good fight for his rights and the Supreme Court of the US of A decided that he could go back to school. Approximately four years later Ryan died and Congress made a law called the Ryan White Care Act, which every five years stipulates the amount of money destined for the treatment and care of PLWHIV/AIDS.

Nevertheless, stigma, discrimination, prejudice and criminalization continue.

The gay community was and still is pointed out as the cause of the illness supposedly due to our sins and lifestyles. Fundamentalist groups and churches deny that condom use, distribution of clean syringes to IDU’s and safe sex measures are, together with abstinence, the most cost efficient tools for the eradication of HIV.

During the opening of XIV International AIDS, Conference, Barcelona 2002, Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, asked the community of HIV/AIDS advocates and activists to take our struggle to the political arena, one of the most responsible standpoints taken by any high standing official since the start of the epidemic. Only Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton have taken such empowering positions.

Our presentation will focus in the history of the epidemic, important moments such as 1993, the year when the mortality rate due to AIDS was highest in the USA, 1996 when AIDS Related Treatments appeared, (commonly called AIDS cocktails), which lead parts of the population to acquire a false sense of complacency, international situations regarding the epidemic, laws and HIV/AIDS, corruption, embezzlements, AIDS, Inc. and the backlash that some unsafe practices such as barebacking, bug chasers, bug givers and crystal meth have Recental caused.

It will present a clear picture of the changes that activism has encountered and evolved into, the causes for these changes, and the position where it stands now in 2005, twenty five years since the start of HIV/AIDS...