World AIDS Day, Liberation, and Increased Attacks on LGBTQ People.
Today is World AIDS Day, a day we set aside every year to honor those whose lives were taken by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and hopefully recommit ourselves to the work of ending this disease.
So why would I sit down to write about World AIDS Day, Liberation, and the increased and ongoing attacks against LGBTQ people all at once? Well, because the three are not inseparable. From the Denver Principles and “Stop Killing Us” demands of the mid-80s to the current movement for better access to PrEP and PEP, Treatment as Prevention, and still fighting for honest, authentic Sexuality Education - HIV/AIDS activism has always been about liberation.
Activists fighting for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention have always been fighting for bodily autonomy. And Bodily Autonomy is Liberation.
I’m not talking about the basic “it’s my body, my choice” framework of the past. I am talking about Bodily Autonomy as the ability, without political or policy restrictions, without shame or stigma, without cultural or societal expectations - to make all of the decisions about what we do with our bodies, how we experience them, how we live in them, and the genuinely accessible ability to care for and heal them when needed. This is our liberation, the liberation we are fighting for every day.
It is abundantly clear to me that we at EQNM, and we as Queer and Trans people owe so many of our victories to the work of these liberation fighters from the early AIDS epidemic. Demands for universal health care and the original call for marriage equality top the list. Still, it is a long list of successes in culture, policy shifts, and unfinished business.
I recently told a journalist on the record that I believe we are living in the most dangerous time for LGBTQ people since the beginning of the “modern LGBTQ Rights Movement.” At the onset of the epidemic, “GRIDS,” “Gay Cancer,” etc., were used to stoke the flames of hatred, fear, and violence against LGBTQ people. Violence against gay men especially was justified by the perpetrators, with the idea that they were “saving” their communities from the disease “We” were spreading. With hateful, bigoted, right-wing Pastors, Elected Officials, and even Pop Culture “Icons” blaming Gay people for this disease, we cannot be surprised by the increase in violence against LGBTQ people in the 80s. Just as we cannot claim shock or surprise when armed people enter Queer spaces during a drag show and murder our siblings in cold blood after hearing countless claims that we are abusing and grooming children - simply by giving them an opportunity to see fabulousness, fun, and joy in a setting where gender rules are bent or broken.
And so again, in this nation, we see the hateful rhetoric and attacks on us, bearing themselves out in physical manifestations of violence. I believe strongly in the Free Speech concept, and we know, especially as LGBTQ people, that words lead to actions, and those actions are often dangerous and misguided.
So what, then, are we indeed called to do on this World AIDS Day? How do we celebrate the victories, honor the victims and survivors, find the resilience to keep fighting for our liberation, and manage to eat, breathe, drink, and sleep?
With the heaviness of this World AIDS Day sitting on my heart and mind, I find myself converting anger and frustration into productive energy to move forward in this fight for liberation. I find myself breathing and eating in the spaces of grieving - because, like so many New Mexicans, what is grief if not shared over a meal with family and friends? And I make sense of the confusion by celebrating the victories with salt grains of the not-yet-won. I refuse to say lost. Nothing is truly lost just yet; there is time, there is work, and there is hope.
We have made great strides in achieving healthcare, treatment, and prevention mechanisms that limit the number of us dying of HIV/AIDS in 2022. We live in a state and nation that (currently, anyway) does not criminalize our sexual relationships and is on track to ensure the loving, long-term committed relationships we are in are continuously recognized moving forward. We must constantly remind our communities, siblings, neighbors, and friends that we are not harming children, we do not have a “radical gay-genda,” and that abortion care and gender-affirming medical care are healthcare and healthcare is a human right-not a crime.
Our fight is one for liberation - Bodily Autonomy in the truest sense. We owe it to those who died of AIDS and those living with the disease today to keep fighting for liberation for us all. So today, take a moment to grieve and remember, spend some time celebrating and rejoicing, and center yourself - for the work of the afternoon.