World AIDS Day will be marked with a book launch and a candlelight vigil in Kelowna.
Every year on December 1st communities around world gather together in the fight against HIV. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day, which was first held in 1988.
The Kelowna Art Gallery will be hosting a book launch starting at 7:00 p.m. Annals of Gay Sexuality 2015 The Contemporary HIV ZeitGeist is the book written by several different authors that’s being launched.
Clare MacDonald, Executive Director of Living Positive Resource Centre Okanagan, said Michael V. Smith, a local author will be doing the book launch. Writing by Smith is included in the book.
Following the launch there will be candlelight vigil for those who have lost the HIV/AIDS fight and for those who are still fighting.
“When HIV/AIDS first came on the scene in the 1980’s there was a lot of noise, talk, and stigma about it. A lot of people seem to think the disease has disappeared and that’s not true. There are a lot of people in our community, province, and country that still are living with HIV,” MacDonald said.
Transmission happens every single day and MacDonald said to combat the risk of getting the disease people should practice safe sex, have open conversations about their status, get tested regularly, and always use clean needles if doing drugs.
HIV/AIDS has recently been in the media following Charlie Sheen announcing he is HIV positive. MacDonald said that his announcement was eye opening.
“The Charlie Steen incident was a really good reminder to us of the stigma still in place. When we saw a lot of the headlines referring to Charlie Sheen there was a lot of blame. We had past sexual partners of his coming out saying “I can’t believe he did this to me,” “I can’t believe he almost killed me.” In a way it’s great we had the conversation happening again but it did serve for us doing the work the level of stigma we still have to combat.”
Living Positive provides individual and group education sessions on AIDS. For more information visit their website.
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