World AIDS Day Shoutout
It mindboggles me beyond words when I read opinions along the lines of “HIV/AIDS is not a feminist issue”. I could go into this at some length, but I’m posting this from work, where my department and I are in the middle of running a World AIDS Day stall, so this is a fly-by post.
I’ve got ribbons, button badges, and a massive pile of red and white iced cupcakes. “No ribbon for me, thanks” is a surprisingly common response, though people seem happy to take a cake without publicising their interest in WAD too openly – but almost equally prevalent are the people like the woman who murmurs, “I wear one of these every year, for my aunt”. HIV carries an incredible amount of stigma even in this country, and it is hugely important that we do everything we can to move the public consciousness on from this.
Abstinence-only sex-ed programs aren’t just ineffective on a basic level – they’re no good for helping people understand the need to be aware of the risks around HIV prevention. Check out this article for an interesting spotlight on how actually, yes, this is your problem too.
I told an otherwise-pretty-liberally-minded acquaintance of mine this year that I would be working on this stall. He burst into nervous, playground lurgy-fear laughter. 
Many countries around the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, have limited or negligible access to up-to-date antiretroviral medication for the management of HIV infection, which Europe and the US have a monopoly on. This needs to change. And you know what? Properly managed, with people properly informed and risk-aware, the infection is, you see, comparable in its day-to-day living impact with diabetes. But you don’t see people being suspended from their jobs, bullied by their neighbours, and ostracised at work for being diabetic.
Stephen Fry may have pissed a load of feminists off the other month, but I’ve never been so pleased to see someone so heavily retweeted.
Let’s get the record straight. Wear a ribbon, and wear it with pride and solidarity.