The War Room

DOSSIER # 19: AIDS, LOVE, TOLERANCE & RHETORIC

“HIV IS SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT, HEAR ABOUT, OR FACE”

Christina Aguilera

When I was in Britain I noticed the proliferation of a new advertising campaign. It was the ALDO FIGHTS AIDS campaign directed at fighting the spread of AIDS or HIV amongst youth. It was conceived and designed by the Kraftworks Advertising Agency which is based out of New York. After returning back home I noticed the posters everywhere. In bus shelters, inside subways, in shopping malls, virtually everywhere you looked this fall, the faces were omnipresent.

The campaign consists of several high profile celebrities posing with either their eyes, ears or mouth covered as a way of using the age old adage to ‘see no evil’, ‘hear no evil’ or ‘speak no evil’. Christina Aguilera, LL Cool J, Elijah Wood, Cindy Crawford and Ashley Judd are a few that I have seen on the posters. The goal of the campaign is to show young people that HIV can be caught by anyone and is a disease that does not discriminate against anyone due to age, race, gender or sexual orientation.

All of this is of course, true.

Yet, I find these ads not only an insult to my intelligence but indeed counter productive to the cause that they purport to be dealing with. In particular, the presence of Christina Aguilera in this campaign, a woman who has become a multi-millionaire out of promoting the type of promiscuous lifestyle that directly leads to HIV/AIDS, is particularly noxious. I do not believe Christina Aguilera really knows or cares one whit about the fact that AIDS is perhaps one of the greatest modern threats to the human species. I admit I could be wrong, but I do not think her actions would prove me so.

In the interest of full disclosure I will reveal something here now to you. In January 1993 my older brother, whom I loved dearly, died of AIDS. It was right after Christmas and I was about to begin my winter exams. He was a wonderful human being and I think about him a lot. He was also gay and a skater for the Ice Capades. I was in university in a different city at the time and it saddened me that I could not be closer to him during his death. It is one of the great regrets of my life. My mother, a nurse and my grandmother, also a former nurse went and took care of him in the last two months of his life in his small, cramped apartment in Toronto’s Yonge and Carlton district.

His death was not pleasant. It was not heroic. My brother was not a martyr. But he suffered. What bothers me about campaigns such as the ones above is that they do several things. They glamorize and heroicize the disease. By hiring beautiful young celebrities photographed in glossy B&W, these campaigns hurt more than they help. They create a visual romantic image of fighting HIV/AIDS that is just not true. These types of campaigns also traffic in rhetoric that is a staple of the fashion and entertainment industry. Let’s be blunt. HIV is predominantly (but not exclusively) spread by three factors:

1. Promiscuity
2. Anal sex
3. Dirty intravenous needles used for drug use

There are of course other factors such as blood transfusions that can also lead to the disease, but they are more rare.

Note the language I have used.

I said, ‘Promiscuity can lead to the spread of HIV’. I did not say ‘Unsafe sex can lead to the spread of HIV’. The term ‘unsafe sex’ is mere rhetoric.

That is what the entertainment and fashion industry has trafficked in with regards to this disease for almost two decades. Aguilera and LL Cool J in particular have made millions out of promoting promiscuity as a lifestyle. They sell it to teens and kids in videos, on disc and on many of the shows on which they appear. These campaigns send a message (like the ‘no glove, no love campaign’) that one should be responsible while one is being irresponsible.

It doesn’t work that way.

By using the language of rhetoric as opposed to the language of fact they sell a lie. The type of people who engage in irresponsible behavior are not the type to use condoms. I have taken stock of my friends lately and sadly, I realized that many of my friends, have been stricken with some sort of STD (sexually transmitted disease) in the past decade. They talk about it. They are also usually the ones who are the most morally liberal and the first to condemn moral conservatism. They fall for the lie perpetrated by television shows like Sex and the City and then wonder what happened and why they are depressed and alone as they enter into their thirties. They are not bad people. They are good people who have merely bought into a cultural lie.

Saying HIV is spread by ‘unsafe sex’ is like telling people that driving drunk is okay so long as you make sure not to hit other people when you do it. This is spin. It is the language of rhetoric that only serves to obfuscate the truth. No, driving drunk is what causes death!

The entertainment industry no longer has a legitimate place at the table when it comes to the discussion of HIV/AIDS…neither does the fashion industry. Both of these industries sell a lifestyle that thrives and makes money off the very promiscuity and lifestyles that are conducive to the spread of HIV. That is not to say that there are no exceptions. Bono and Bob Geldof, I believe have much to say about the issue and are very well informed about it. They have never politicized it and indeed Geldof has went out of his way to make sure celebrities who performed at Live 8 did not attack President Bush (who has done much for AIDS in Africa) and invited Pope Benedict to the event. Bono also had much time for the message of Pope John Paul II and virtually always wears a rosary around his neck given to him by the late pontiff. Bono and Geldof have earned their place at the table through actions.

Anyone can be affected by AIDS; gay, straight, old, young, male, female etc. But, AIDS has been a worldwide phenomenon for over two decades now with Africa being ravaged hardest. With few exceptions, the entertainment/fashion industry came to the table very late in the day and then only when they realized that in North America, white gay males were unfortunately being hit hardest. By fortifying the image of the noble gay man dying as a martyr for the cause of AIDS in movies such as Philadelphia or productions such as Rent, the entertainment community has politicized the issue and made it impossible to discuss without one having to couch their language so as to not offend. As long as the primary concern is ‘not to offend’, people will continue to die.

Regrettably, many activist organizations in the gay community have also added to this politicization with their attempts to vilify organizations such as the Red Cross when they ask potential donors about their sexual practices. Some went so far as to try to have the Red Cross banned on certain university campuses last year because they considered the questions ‘homophobic’. Who is it that wants to ‘hear no evil’? All that matters with AIDS is that people live. Gay people, straight people, men and women.

Now on the flip side, religious groups can also no longer stay silent. Too many Christians or conservatives believe that this is only a gay issue and avoid the topic altogether. They either fail to properly educate themselves or believe that as long as they stay in their own enclave it will not affect them. They too must get engaged on the issue. HIV is not political; it is a human issue and the voice of compassion must be heard from religious groups. They must actively campaign for issues such as AIDS in Africa and must not deny compassion and love to those in their own community who might have it. They must show love to people whether or not they are gay, straight, white, black etc. This is how they will become living examples of Christ on earth. Too often I think religious people believe that to care about the issue of AIDS is a way of saying they affirm homosexuality; as a result they do not get involved. This could not be further from the truth. To be a truly religious being they cannot let this issue pass them by.

It must also be stated clearly that I do not believe AIDS is God’s punishment and I have no time whatsoever for the Fred Phelps’ of the world and his rhetoric of intolerance and hate.

As far as AIDS in Africa it is easily one of the most important issues facing humanity right now. In some ways, it is truly a test for mankind. People with AIDS, be they gay, straight, Western, European, African etc. should all be treated with love, compassion and dignity. One cannot acquire HIV by coming in casual contact with someone who has it.

AIDS must be talked about if we as humanity are to combat it, but talking about it does not mean a fashion party hosted by Elton John with a bunch of buff dancers dressed as lions while he croons his hits; talking about it is not having Fashion Cares with a bunch of drag queens preening on stage while industry execs who normally preach promiscuity look serious and preach to us about the crisis they have helped to create through their culture; talking about it is not church groups staying silent because only 'those' people get AIDS; talking about it is not looking down on people who are afflicted with it.

Until we can truly talk about AIDS it will continue to inflict mankind and will not go away. Recently, the United Nations estimated that approximately 40 million people in the world are affected with HIV/AIDS.

We need to talk about it. But we need to talk about it in terms that are real. Not in terms that are merely couched in glamorized politically correct jargon that cover up truth so that we can all feel ‘evolved’ and not hurt the feelings of those we should love enough to speak the truth to.

When my brother died, he did not look like Tom Hanks, or the dancing, enlightened, bohemian artists in Rent. There were no witty drag queens by his side and there were no ad agency execs telling him he was a martyr for the cause.

In his last weeks, he went in and out of blindness and struggled with mild forms of
dementia. He vomited profusely and his skin was covered in sores filled with puss. He went from being a muscular, handsome well built man to someone who was perhaps little more than 100 lbs. He bled out of various bodily cavities. There was no last minute cry and hug from a series of quirky artist types and Hollywood did not come to the rescue. In his last hours he was with my mother and grandmother. Both were Catholic and did not affirm his lifestyle but were there to the bitter end. They wiped his vomit from the floor, cradled him to sleep at night and when necessary helped him relieve himself in the bathroom. They ran to him when he moaned in the middle of the night. They were the only people with him in the hospital the night that he died. To this day my mother is haunted by the experience. It was her son. She would have died to save him. It is an experience very few will ever know.

That is love.

That is tolerance.

All else is rhetoric.

For the past four decades the West has been selling a lie to itself about the culture of promiscuity and sexuality. A lie about what the human body can take and what it is and is not designed to do. Until we quit lying to ourselves millions more will die.

I wonder if Mrs. Aguilera thinks about it in those terms?

posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 12:23 PM