AIDS Action Committee’s Blog

Was anybody else bombarded with email alerting us to the uncomfortable truth that our mothers are having sex and our daughters will someday soon? If nothing else, my inbox last week reminded me of what many people work to deny - that our mothers are sexual beings. Take that one logical step further and we see why HIV preventionists and reproductive rights advocates are taking this opportunity to talk about sexual health and safety.

In case your inbox was neglected: Planned Parenthood reminded us to “Protect Her Future. Protect Her Health.” by (HPV) vaccinating our daughters. The Global Campaign for Microbicides didn’t miss a beat in taking Mother’s Day as an occasion to remind our legislators that mothers, and all women, around the world need new prevention methods like microbicides to protect themselves, their partners, their children, and future generations.

Though it was a couple degrees of separation to get there, I commend these groups for creatively drawing attention to that fact that mothers and daughters are also women who have sex – and are thus vulnerable to HIV and HPV - and that they deserve access to current and future technologies that give them the power to keep themselves healthy.

Ellen Goodman hits the nail squarely and eloquently on the head today in her editorial in the Boston Globe today. As we’ve been discussing, Randall Tobias’ recent resignation in the wake of the discovery that he was a regular client of the now infamous “D.C. Madam” is only the latest blow to the Bush administration’s failed abstinence-only policies.  Goodman connects the issues beautifully –

“Well, Tobias was not just your everyday CEO-turned bureaucrat.  This is one time that “private life” and “public record” are as tightly wedded as a pizza and its toppings.  As the first global AIDS czar, Tobias oversaw American public policy for foreign private lives.  He was in charge of doling out sexual morality with the money.” 

Why the pizza reference?  Tobias has publicly likened calling the escort company to “calling out for pizza.”  So now the man who has personally been responsible for exporting not only the failed abstinence-only, anti-condom rules with American funds for countries struggling to contain exploding HIV crises but also the anti-prostitution and trafficking rulings tied to the funds (for a good summary, see OSI’s report)  is a self-described consumer of those services?  The very services he has condemned and forced developing, impoverished countries with sky-high HIV epidemics partly driven through sex work to renounce in order to receive US funds?  Like ordering PIZZA? 

Bravo, Ellen Goodman!