Enough of mourning friends and playing catch-up when thousands are needlessly infected and endangered, at great cost to society. On this World AIDS Day, let us pledge to take a brave, open and truly global approach to eradicating this disease.
28 years ago, I lost my dear friend Greg Witcher to HIV/AIDS. That was before we had the drug cocktails that keep people alive and well. Greg wasted away before my eyes. He wasn’t 35 years old.
In the early years of AIDS, President Reagan wouldn’t even say the word. Since then, leaders as disparate as Rep. Barbara Lee and President George W. Bush helped save millions of lives through government-funded science, education and prevention programs.
But we have so far to go. Too many poor people around the world still die for lack of treatment. Many continue to be infected because they lack access to education and prevention. We need to redouble our efforts to find a workable vaccine.
And we have an administration in Washington that for two years running has not even mentioned the LGBT community, despite the disproportionate burden it has borne from HIV.
