On August 28th, 2011 on Pride Day in the Nations Capital, I had the honour of speaking at Queer Ontario’s  We (Still) Demand Rally on Parliament Hill about HIV and AIDS.

40 years ago to the day, the first large scale gay rights rally was held on a similarly dark and rainy day by queer men and women who demanded changes to the discriminatory laws that were then restricting their lives. We commemorated the anniversary by making new demands of our Government for further equality and social justice and observed a moment of silence in remembrance of our ally Jack Layton, and those we‘ve lost over the last 40 years. Below I share with you my speech.  

“Hello Everyone, welcome. I’d like to thank Queer Ontario and Casey for making this rally happen and allowing me the privilege to speak to all of you today about a subject that I am passionate about.

Men who have sex with men accounted for 44% of estimated new HIV infections in 2008. In 2011 we have seen a spike in new HIV infections. I have a single demand to make of our Government in response to these statistics. I demand evidence trump ideology. I want to see a Public Health response to HIV and AIDS that isn’t about politics, but about doing what is in the best interest of our community’s health and well-being. Because all the information is there, the sociological studies, the epi-data, the testimonials and science, to dictate what course of action to take against HIV and AIDS in Canada. Prevention efforts have failed, and rates have grown to ’beginning of the epidemic’ numbers not because we haven’t learned from our mistakes as Health Care Providers, AIDS Service Workers, Volunteers, and Social Justice Advocates, but because we are not allowed to adopt the changes that need to be made to successfully curb our transmission rates!

Such as comprehensive, sex-positive, pleasure-centric, sex education in schools. Challenging sex-negative societal views and embracing STI and HIV/AIDS campaign materials that are sexually explicit and on point. Allowing AIDS Service Organizations to do more than just 10% advocacy work within a year without threat of losing their Government funding. Creating safer injection sites in Ottawa and removing red zones. Having our Community Centres, Police, Health Care and Service Providers work from an anti-oppression/anti-racist framework. Allowing prison tattoo programs and ending the Criminalization of HIV-non disclosure (You’ll hear more about that from my friend and college Brent Bauer but I‘d like to encourage everyone here to continue to press the Attorney General to draft prosecutorial guidelines as quickly as possible. We are asking community members to contact the Attorney General, the Honourable Chris Bentley, and urge him to draft prosecutorial guidelines by the end of August! He needs to be challenged on what constitutes significant risk and be reminded that HIV stigma and discrimination is bullshit!)

I have a long list of changes that the Government has repeatedly failed to champion, of programs they have repeatedly failed to allow, that truly WOULD make a direct impact on HIV rates in Canada.

I want people gathered here today to know, that it is not so-called irresponsible, sexually reckless youth, promiscuous back room barebacking homo’s, or men on the ‘down low’ who are driving our rates of HIV infection, it’s the fucking Government and our social determinates of health! Did you know, if everyone in the world had access to shelter, nutrition, health care, and treatment, we would see a 75% decrees in HIV transmission in 3 to 5 years? Sounds like the Government has its work cut out for them, huh!

We are all capable of demanding more from our Government, Leaders, Public Figures, and Police. This year Ottawa’s Dyke March made a powerful statement when they refused to give community money to the Ottawa Police Services to marshal their walk. Amongst cases of sexual abuse against women, the labelling of an HIV+ man as a sexual predator and releasing his name, sexual-orientation, and status to the media, police arresting demonstrators at the Trans Day of Remembrance, conducting monthly sweeps of street-based sex workers, police brutality, and their hostility toward harm reduction, the Dyke March made a strong declaration that we are a criminalized community and that the Police have long not been our friend. No revisionist history on the part of the media or Police should blind us to our persecution.

As a result perhaps of their stand, the cops were aggressive yesterday at the Dyke March, yelling at marchers, making fun of the marshals, charging someone, harassed homeless people in Dundonald Park and just generally being jerks.

Our LGBTQ Police Liaison committee has failed to improve our relations with law enforcement. I encourage everyone here to contact the Ottawa Police Chief directly and share with him your concerns about the direction and actions of our Police. I also encourage everyone to write to our Pride Committee and ask that our Police are not included in our Pride. We do not have to work with, or support our Police when they do not represent the ideals of Pride and continue to harasses queer, poor, non-status, trans, racialized, sex-workers, indigenous, disabled and the homeless.

Queer men and women are resilient. We are gathered here today because we recognize that Pride is political, and not just a corporate kegger, and we want to see change. We have come a long way in the last thirty years fighting HIV and AIDS, and we have even longer to go, but if we start to speak openly and honestly about sex and HIV, and hold our Government accountable, we can truly bring change to our community and make our futures healthier. Thank you.”

North American comics have long been the domain of men. Statistically so far this year for Marvel and D.C. Comics, an average of 88% of comic book content is produced by men, from writers, inkers, and pencillers, to editors and letterers. The comic book business’s short sightedness about maintaining it’s ‘boy’s club’ when it comes to collaborators has tellingly resulted in the alienation of it’s female readers and D.C. Comics in particular doesn’t seem to care about fixing it . In September, D.C. Comics will launch/reboot 52 titles, only 7 of which star a solo, or an all female group.

In one month the women of the D.C. Universe will find themselves regressed in age, the only disabled woman in a D.C. comic will be made to walk, marriages will be dissolved , children will be erased, others will be de-powered, and some queer characters (and the only HIV+ one) will go missing, yet  D.C. Comics has called it’s “new direction”, “accessible”, “diverse”, and questions “whether we're being bold enough".

I can answer that question for them; D.C. your not. Japan’s Manga Comics long ago sought out female talent to attract female readership and now boosts an impressive amount of female and queer fans from all over the world. Women writing for women produced characters that were sexy,  relatable, authentic, and smart. Male writers in North America never made it past sexy.

Ok, maybe that’s harsh. I love comic books, and theirs no denying the talent of some of my favorite male writers and artists, but the lack of diversity behind the scenes has definitely shown itself on the pages of Marvel and D.C. Comics. Does D.C. really think they’ll capture new readers by simply dressing up their hero’s in new threads?  Will this stunt really translate into increased sales and longevity even as cover prices rise and piracy grows? Or could they truly bring about change by  addressing a larger audience and speaking more to women.

Maybe they're afraid women and their gay best friends will ruin one of the last bastions of male heterosexuality if there invited to participate in the medium?  Witness the gay panic that erupts when the hyper-sexualisation of women starts to influence artists renderings of male characters , and the comic industry’s hetero-normative, misogynistic, and homophobic  response. For instance, what happens when the hyper-sexualisation of female characters starts to influence and spread to bastions of  hyper-masculinity like the male super hero Citizen Steel? Well there’s a moral panic from male fans and industry vets alike of course!

When the male hero in tights was drawn by Alex Ross sporting a true to life basket, D.C. comics neutered him by print time, rendering the character a Ken doll on the cover of Justice Society of America #7. Now years later, another D.C. male hero is set to grace the cover of his title sporting a crotch rocket  and blogs are once again speculating if the cover will see print. God forbid women and queer men get turned on! Of course empowered women and sexualized male heroes aren’t the only thing the men over at D.C. Comics are scared of. There also deathly afraid of Muslims and pissing off Fox News. 

Women, queers, and other minorities in comics, both on the page and behind the scenes, are definitely having a rough go of it. 70 years ago, Wonder Woman’s male creator William Moulton Marston thought that by creating a female super hero, he could influence boys relationships and opinions of women, and help create equality between the sexes. He believed comics could be a tool for social change and social justice. And yet, all this time later, women are still struggling to break into the business,  female characters continue to be written almost exclusively by men, and despite introducing dozens of new characters during D.C.’s “The New 52” campaign, there are no new queer characters to speak of. There is no question in my mind, D.C. Comics, and the industry at large, is in much need of a women's touch to save it.

The discovery of HIV 30 years ago this June, the unjust vilification of ‘patient zero’ as a result, and the often ignored contribution that colonialism and colonial abuse played in helping HIV spread;  it’s hard to know what to do with such a complicated, and painful anniversary.

 In the last 30 years, almost 30 million people have lost their lives due to AIDS-related illnesses and 34 million are infected.  (That death toll is a lot higher when you remember that HIV is a lot older than 30. HIV most likely came to North America in the 1970’s, and is thought to have originated in sub-Saharan Africa, where it transferred to humans in the late 19th, or early in the 20th, century.)

So much has already been written about the 30th anniversary of HIV, the topic explored heavily here on PositiveLite.com by Viral Load Warrior  and others, that I debated writing nothing. But to not make note of it seemed amiss.  So for every person that has lived through the last 30 years, for every care-giver, and activist, to a generation of queer men I’ll never know, and to every HIV+ queer man that I do, thank you. I can keep going because of all of you.

Now, to mention the 70th anniversary of Wonder Woman’s creation in the same post as mourning the 30th anniversary of the HIV epidemic may seem distasteful to some, but given the choice between the two, I know which one I‘d rather celebrate. And while HIV has taken much from me over the years, it’s Wonder Woman who has helped to give me the tools to fight it. Her colourful comics helped me learn how to read as a child, her quest for equality helped make me a feminist, her athleticism and skill inspired my first forays into gym culture, and the dichotomy of a warrior diplomat no doubt subconsciously influenced my activism. I had other role-models as a kid, but none fought as hard, or won as often, as the Amazon Princess.

Role models who inspire you to persevere and to be a better person can come from unexpected places. Her creator, William Moulton Marston, was the inventor of the polygraph (the predecessor to the magic lasso) and was moved by his wife, and Olive Byrne, who lived with the couple in a polyamorous relationship, to create a “superhero who would triumph not with fists or firepower, but with love.” It’s said the jewellery worn by both women inspired Wonder Woman’s tiara, and bracelets. One suspects the two beautiful, intelligent, and unorthodox women may have also inspired the repeated bondage themes found in Wonder Woman’s earliest comics.

There is no word yet about how, or if, D.C. Comics will celebrate Wonder Woman’s 70th birthday (which technically is in December) but I hope we’ll see the milestone saluted and discussed in the coming months.

As for the 30th anniversary of HIV, let’s hope it does not exist long enough to see it’s 70th anniversary as Wonder Woman has. Perhaps one day instead, we can celebrate the anniversary of a cure, and perhaps somewhere out there is a little boy or girl moved by the example of heroism set by Wonder Woman who will find it.   

P.S. “Hello Daddy!/ Hello Mom!/ I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!” Check out Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Batwoman, and Black Canary re-imagined as the 1970’s all girl rock band The Runaways below!

It’s usually the sign that the person who is asking is one of the 76% of Canadian’s who are not tattooed. A cultural tourist. And yet, I’ve started to ask my poz friends with tattoos a similar question. What does it mean that the HIV+ are over represented in tattoo culture?

For many, the tattoo is a metaphor of difference, and history and popular culture have long associated  the tattoo with danger, two concepts familiar to any HIV+ person.  The permanence of tattoos and the permanence of HIV are certainly parallel. Could these shared characteristics be at the core of why HIV+ people are participating in tattoo culture?  My own experiences as an HIV+ person are certainly reflected in the narrative of some of my tattoos, and my first tattoo did come about after having tested positive. Getting tattooed back then was about cementing and broadcasting my own outsider status within my queer community, and less about the art.     

Local business owner Tim Fillion believes that the prevalence of tattoos among his HIV+ peers is about “recognizing that things can change, while tattoos do not” and is directly related to mortality.  My friend Garrett Rubin has a tattoo of the AIDS ribbon on his upper right arm, and has been HIV+ for over 3 years but sees no connection (besides the obvious) between being tattooed and having HIV “unless you’re in jail.”

In Canada, HIV is seven times more common in penitentiaries then in the general population. Despite this alarming statistic, access to clean needles for the purpose of tattooing was removed by the Conservative Government in 2009.  However, the connection between HIV and prison is only a small part of the story.  

I think the real reason HIV+ people are over represented in tattoo culture is connected to one of the major motivations of becoming tattooed in the first place: the commemoration of a life event or journey. HIV is definitely a game changer, and as a result, many of us are seeking help in adjusting to our new realities. While it may have sounded absurd 40 years ago to suggest that getting tattooed was about self help and self care, tattooing today for many people is about working out personal and emotional issues on their bodies.

The scars of HIV can be very deep; why not cover them up with something beautiful?

Tattoo, Ink, Ed Hardy, HIV