HIV/AIDS Summit at the UN

[Andy Velez]

Reporting in after marshalling at the demo this afternoon. It went from the United Nations to African & Indian legations nearby and ended in front of U.S. mission to the UN. There I resurrected an oldie but a goodie chant: "Dump Bush."

This was a legal march so it was mostly a matter of crowd control and for a happy change the cops were not hassling us at all. At one point a group of uhmm impressive sisters started chanting, "Make it hard and make it squirt." Hmmmm. Gee. What did that mean? Uh, yah well, moving right along....

Was great to see lots of new faces and many, many young people. Housing Works provided everyone attending with t-shirts that said HIV POSITIVE. Great idea and one of the speakers, Rosie Perez, emphasized about how everyone is living with HIV. Chatted briefly with some HIV+ Scandinavian delegates to the UN meeting, who reported on how specific the disgusting limitations are on their travel while in the city for the meeting. They are specifically limited to NYC only. (See because otherwise they might run around infecting the whole country!)

Lots of press in evidence, including international, so maybe we'll see some worthwhile coverage.

Great to have people showing up with so much spirit. ...And now I need to take a quick little nap.

My favorite poster of the day was a stark red, white and black: CURE AIDS: CLEAN NEEDLES NOW, but there were other good ones too.

Cheers,

[Dachshund]

Dear Andy,

I saw the protest briefly reported on Cspan and CNN. I believe Cspan will show more on the conference later in the week. I think the HIV protest giant is beginning to awaken after a long sleep. I pray so.

Keep us posted.

Peace,
Hal