The Time Is Now

In all the planning leading up to World AIDS Day (December 1st) this year, I've noticed a certain positive, proactive feeling among all the people I've been working with. It feels like hope. And I think I know why. 

The theme for this year's World AIDS Day is "leadership," which I find fitting. First, we have experienced a change of leadership in Washington that I think has given those of us in the reproductive health community a reason to hope. Second, this change in leadership also gives us a new reason to adopt the mantel of leadership ourselves as we fight HIV and AIDS worldwide.   

For the last eight years, we have lived in an environment where our sexual lives were treated as a political issue, rather than as an issue of health and wellness.  This is not only ridiculous, it hinders efforts to encourage all people to understand their sexuality, their behaviors and the risks they are taking. Globally, young people, ages 15-24, make up nearly half of all new HIV infections. It's time to change the political game where ideology determines policy rather than science. President-elect Obama has promised to remove harmful obstacles that hinder science-based HIV prevention efforts. He has committed to enact policies that give people the tools they need to protect themselves and their partners from HIV infection, including supporting comprehensive sex education both here and abroad. 

The reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) this past summer presents some major obstacles for President-elect Obama. The current plan still includes problematic restrictions such mandating that "any country with a generalized epidemic uses more than 50 percent of its PEPFAR funding for prevention against sexual transmission to promote anything other than abstaining from sex or being faithful, it must be justified to the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator who then has to justify it to Congress." While a new Administration has the potential to implement these provisions in a positive way through the policy's guidance, the U.S. must also ensure that funded countries know they have more freedom to develop strategies that specifically address the HIV epidemic among their citizens.  I am looking to this new administration to work with the global health community to do just that. 

The change in our government has brought all of us in the reproductive and sexual health community renewed hope. We have been on the defensive for so long, forced to make do with the ineffective tools we were given to fight a pandemic, that we are almost desperate for changes. Now, with new leadership in the United States, we have renewed motivation as we to take leadership in our communities and in the policy arena.  

But, with this hope comes responsibility.  We no longer have a non-receptive administration as an excuse to not get things done.   It is no longer acceptable (was it ever?) to play it safe for fear of getting attacked on issues such as access to condoms or needle exchange. We cannot afford to think small when working on U.S. policy because of a bad political climate.  

Instead, for World AIDS Day this year, I see people thinking big and taking the lead. I see plans for an international "blog-a-thon" taking shape because everyone is willing to commit and bring others on board. At George Washington University where I attend school, I see a larger coalition of activists putting together a full week of programming to raise awareness around the disease. 

So - my question for you - - how will you take the lead next Monday and in the future in fighting the global HIV pandemic? 

For more information or to participate in the blog-a-thon hosted by Advocates for Youth from December 1-7, 2008, go to:     www.AmplifyYourVoice.org/WorldAIDSDay