>>
Today — December 1, 2012 — is World AIDS Day.  Let us use this day to remember the lives of the individuals we have lost to HIV and AIDS, be it because of a lack of access to HIV and AIDS-related information, testing procedures, prevention methods, or treatment options; or because of the ongoing stigmatization, criminalization, scapegoating, and mistreatment (including  the serophobic harassment, assault, and murder) of people living with HIV/AIDS (or, for that case, of people presumed to be living with HIV/AIDS).
.
This includes:

• People who are unable to access:
  • HIV/AIDS-related information
  • public or private insurance coverage, especially due to
    • insufficient funds (regardless of income) and/or
    • ineligible residency status, and/or
    • a lack of access to employment health benefits
  • health care centres and/or health care professionals — particularly ones that are knowledgeable, respectful, and non-stigmatizing
    .
    
• People who are not given timely HIV/AIDS-related information (if at all) because they are presumed to not be at risk of transmission and/or to not be living with HIV/AIDS. Case in point: people who are straight-identified and/or who are currently in a heterosexual relationship
  .
  
• Sex workers, especially sex workers who engage clients outdoors
• Transpeople, particularly transwomen who are sex workers
• Racialized people, particularly: Black men; Black men presumed to be from Africa; Aboriginal women (both cis and trans); and East and South Asian transwomen
• First Nations people, especially First Nations women (both cis and trans) and two-spirited people who are sex workers and/or intravenous drug consumers
• Men who have sex with other men, especially older gay men and men who engage in ‘public’ sex
• Intravenous drug consumers, particularly individuals who consume heroin.
• And anyone who lives or embodies any combination of these and other unlisted social positions. (Feel free to contribute to our list).

.
For more information about World AIDS Day, and the prevention, transmission, and treatment of HIV (including treatment-as-prevention), we recommend a visit to CATIE’s website at http://www.catie.ca/en/world-aids-day
.
Sincerely,
.
The Queer Ontario Steering Committee
.
.