San Francisco AIDS Walk 2007

A throng of humanity, 25,000 strong, stretched out from the stage in Golden Gate Park as far as a person at ground level could see. This was the opening ceremony for the annual San Francisco AIDS Walk to raise funds for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, an organization at the vanguard of AIDS fundraising, outreach, support services, and the dissemination of evidence-based information for the worried, newly infected, and negative alike. These walkers raised over $4,000,000.00 this year.

It's a powerful experience to be in the presence of so many people who have such a singular goal: helping people with HIV/AIDS, keeping the negative people negative and comforting those newly infected and those left behind and those living with it everyday, and just being optimistic. I feel the same thing when I am engaged with Intactivists. But this is not to equate intactivism with the fight against AIDS -- or even to compare them. Yet, one is about life and death and the other is about dignity, quality of life, and human rights.

I understand the place each occupies on the ladder of worthy causes. It is because I understand what comes first that makes me sad that lives are being risked and gambled away because a few see an opening to promote circumcision in a fit of desperation or opportunism. We mustn't be desperate. We mustn't lose our cool at this stage. Too many positive developments are at hand for circumcision to distract us from the fight against AIDS or for AIDS to derail the progress made against male genital mutilation.

Imagine a world, to raise that famous line John Lennon sang for the first time so long ago. Except this time imagine a world without AIDS or circumcision. A place where we don't have to worry that a simple mistake could cost us our lives or the life of someone we love, or that the children of the world have to endure an indignity and mutilation yet again in the name of fear of disease.

More photos after the break.

Comments

[Adrienne]

Thanks for this wonderful report. The last sentence is especially moving. The sacrifice that a newborn facing circumcision is forced to make is often underappreciated. Your statement is a sobering implication of the seriousness of this anatomical alteration and also to the behavioral factor that plays a key in prevention.