is a candidate education and voter education project working to make sure that candidates for public office know what it takes to end AIDS and that voters who care about ending AIDS know where the candidates stand on our issues.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

AIDS Housing is Healthcare—Latest Research Proves It

Dozens of the nation’s top academic researchers are presenting paper after paper this weekend at the National AIDS Housing Coalition’s research summit at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore—and they’re all reinforcing the same message: housing is healthcare. The latest research shows that homeless people with AIDS are six times more likely to be on ARVs when they get housing; they’re five times more likely to get regular primary care visits; and they’re 50% less likely to have high-risk sex. Housing makes all the difference. NAHC’s second annual research summit has brought together 163 participants from all over the US and Canada for two days of presentations and discussions with academic and policy researchers from top universities and government agencies. Each presentation and each discussion has clarified the powerful impact housing has on HIV care and prevention—an impact that could be even greater with more public and private investment. And these investments will pay off: studies presented at the conference have dramatically demonstrated the cost savings and cost effectiveness of AIDS housing initiatives. In New York City, researchers and service providers showed it’s possible to provide housing plus in-home visits from a multidisciplinary… (more)

Friday, October 20, 2006

96 Candidates Respond to AIDS Survey

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago sent a survey to a total of 343 registered candidates for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois Senate, Illinois House of Representatives, constitutional office, and Cook County office. AFC received 96 responses for a return rate of 30%. Nine candidates vying for statewide office responded to AFC’s survey, including incumbent Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) who is seeking a second term. His opponents, Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka (R) and Rich Whitney (G), did not return AFC’s questionnaire. Blagojevich and five other statewide candidates and Ald. Todd Stroger, candidate for Cook County Board President, submitted written statements on their HIV/AIDS positions.



Read the full report at www.aidschicago.org.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Bird-dogging Obama in NYC

Five of us spoke to Senator Barack Obama today about health care workers, universal access and the Ryan White CARE Act at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on Union Square in New York City. We all got there early to get wristbands to be in the signed-book section of the standing-room-only audience, which was loving them some Barack Obama. Dude was treated like a total rock star, but each AIDSVote bird-dogger had the opportunity to have a detailed, quick conversation of substance with the Senator and future Presidential candidate. Jeanne Bergman (pictured) talked about the need for $8B for healthcare workers and gave him the one-pager with all the details. Derrick Chandler talked about his personal experience as a 50-year old Black man living with AIDS and the need to get universal access to treatment and care on the political agenda. I talked for a second about my growing up on the South Side and then gave him the rap about ‘no one should die on a waiting lists for AIDS drugs in South Africa OR in South Carolina.’ Jose Cruz got him to autograph the book for his daughter Marisol… (more)

Hundreds Rally for AIDSVote in NYC, Westchester

Our visits to four campaign HQs today—those of the major-party candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate in New York—went smashingly well. About 125 people living with HIV/AIDS and activists gathered in Bryant Park for a kick-off rally, marched to Eliot Spitzer HQ at 43rd & Madison led by an American flag and chants of “If Spitzer had AIDS what would he do? Find a cure! Find a cure!” Spitzer operations/media staff gracefully accepted a stack of 5000+ petitions after a brief talk by activists from AIDS Center of Queens County. The group marched through midtown to John Faso HQ at 47th & 2nd for a vigorous rally, talk by activists from Citiwide Harm Reduction and a petition handoff. Then it was off to Hillary Clinton HQ at 420 Lex for a crowded-sidewalk picket outside Grand Central Station, a talk by folks from Housing Works, and a petition drop off to policy and media staff for Senator Clinton’s re-election campaign. We then trekked to Westchester where we met up with a crew from Living Together and dropped off petitions at the John Spencer bunker on the Hudson. Some of the formerly homeless… (more)

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

C2EA/RI Nabs Candidates in High-Profile Senate Race

Chafee and Whitehouse pre-debate “rally” in East Providence Zac and Heath and Emily and I and met up a bit early to quickly bang out a plan and some questions, then schlepped out through some very confusing directions and bad mapquesting efforts to what had been advertised as pre-debate rally outside of a radio studio. Had it been a real rally, we would have been pretty late, and would have had a lot of trouble getting up to the front. In reality, the “rally” was actually just two groups of about 15 people holding signs for the RI senate candidates. As it turned out, the candidates pretty much just swept in and did not give a rally speech to their small bands of supporters. HOWEVER, this was a *great* opportunity for a quick handshake though! We also had a nice time talking with reporters about how the candidates really need to do more for people with AIDS if they are going to mobilize the base / mobilize voters that are not motivated etc. it is an interesting Senate race in RI, since both candidates are working hard to distance themselves from President Bush. When the candidates cars showed up, we… (more)

C2EA/RI & Med Students Chat with Obama at Brown

1. Obama on Brown Campus, Friday Oct Pat and Emily and took off on a relatively spontaneous post-teach effort to get to Senator Obama. Sadly, the line stretched about a kilometer by the time we got there, and that was only for the overflow room! Efforts to slink into the proper room did not pan out, so Pat and I went to Thayer Street to, umm, see the sights for a while. Returning to Pat’s car, we saw a couple dozen people bunched up around a shiny car. We went over and saw the Senator! He was trying to leave, and had been mobbed for hours at this point, but I tapped him on the should and said “thank you for your efforts to remove that awful South Africa Health Minister this summer.” This *really* caught his attention—it didn’t seem like he had been hearing much from Americans about this on his extensive campaign tours. He swung around and said, “yes Manto is a real knucklehead.” We talked about that for a couple seconds, but I forgot to grab his hand, so he jumped in the car before I got anything out about $8 billion over five years for health… (more)

Saturday, October 14, 2006

National Latino AIDS Awareness Day

Tonight in Fort Lauderdale, FL we just celebrated National Latino AIDS Awareness Day in Wilton Manors. It was an awesome night to share with a community of infected and affected individuals often left behind as step-children in the fight to End AIDS and service to those in need. For many that attended, English was a second language. What an amazing experience it was to witness these people having the opportunity to celebrate their culture as a true community, being HIV+ and putting aside all the hatred that exists in this world. They embraced the true beauty that exists in one another realizing what united a community of individuals. It made me wish I had a better grasp on the Spanish language after having taken Spanish classes over 10 years ago! Stigma still delivers a mighty blow to the fight to End AIDS. As AIDS activists; often opinionated, when we attend events, that last thing we expect to do is say nothing and just sit back. Well, tonight I sort of did just that, I bartended for the event and watched and listened. It was humbling to watch as others celebrated the end of their struggle to find a safe environment… (more)

Friday, October 13, 2006

Pitt Students at PA Senate Debate - Bird-dogging Extraordinare!

Hi everyone, > > Three of us from Pitt’s Student Global AIDS Project (SGAP) were at the > Casey Santorum debate today. We watched the debate through the > newsroom window and got to talk to several campaign staff members from both sides. > We met Paul Begala (of CNN’s Crossfire and Casey’s campaign) and got > to talk about the debate and the issues we wanted to bring up. > > We grabbed Santorum as he left and used a tag team approach to telling > him about the 8 billion and adding in great facts from Kaytee’s fact > sheet (thank you for that!) > > Bonnie jumped in front of a cameraman filming Santorum supporters and > said that both candidates need to support the 8 billion over 5 years. > Not sure if they could use it though, because the Santorum people kind > of drowned her out. > She also came up with the creative chant “Grow a pair, support health > care!” However, use at your own risk due to its PG-13 nature. > > Casey was harder to find and after waiting outside in the cold for a > long time we wrote… (more)

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

BIRD-DOGGING SHERROD BROWN PART TWO

And then this! Hi all: Eva, Laura, Kathryn and I went to the Cleveland event. We got there about half hour early, and were pretty much the first ones there. We sat in the very front row. Anyway, Sherrod Brown came on, gave his rallying speech. As soon as he ended, we were up with hands fast, first, and high. He said “I was going to do handshakes, but I guess we could do questions instead.” I asked him about $8 bilion for 5 years, and asked if he would come out and be better than DeWine on this. He said he would of course “privately and publicly” support the $8 billion for 5 years, and he definitely took note of the mention that RESULTS was supportive of the number. He comes from the perspective of someone who is interested in TB issues (the result of a trip to Siberia, according to his wife, Connie Schultz). Eva did the handshake thing. She wouldn’t let go of his hand until she asked him about the Ryan White Act. Super. =) Oh, and Adam Brody was there (who?? something about the OC???). I think we’re nicely setup for the debates coming up.… (more)

BIRD-DOGGING SHERROD BROWN—PT 1

Here’s what happened first: I went to the rally for Sherrod Brown today at Kent State University. There was no question and answer session, but I was able to shake his hand and ask my question. Since he is running against Mike Dewine, I asked him if he supported the Durbin Bill which Dewine co sponsored and increasing healthcare workers in Africa. He said he supported global funding to Africa for health care and he always has supported this (He mentioned something about TB). I then asked if he supported 8 billion for 5 years and he said yes. The impression that I got was that he supported global health but he wanted to mention that Senator Dewine says he supports this but does not follow through and find ways to get the money for global health. I think that it might be important to ask him to formally commit to this number. I hope this helps, Pritha Dalal

Karens SC-c2ea Blog

To SC-C2EA Members and Supporters: As you may know, for the past couple of months the South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS (SC-c2ea) group has been collecting signatures on petitions designed to educate the candidates running for elected office in South Carolina. Our petition drive has been very successful and it’s almost time to deliver all the signed petitions to the candidates. If you have not already done so, it would be very helpful to me if you’d sign the AIDSVote petition now and mail it back to me. The more petitions we are able to deliver to the candidates, the more they will recognize that HIV/AIDS is still a serious issue and one that their constitutes (who are also voters!) are interested in. This will raise AIDS awareness. You can download the petition at www.aidsvote.org and mail it to me at the address below. In order to get all the petitions delivered to the candidates prior to the election, I really need send to receive your signed petition NOW. Thanks for your help. Karen Bates South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS (SC-c2ea) Vice-ChairNational Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA) Outreach Work Group Co-Chair1617 St. Michael RoadColumbia, SC 29210-6009Phone: 803-750-5259Email:… (more)

Karens SC-c2ea Blog

Karens SC-c2ea Blog

Monday, October 09, 2006

Microbicides

Mark Colvin, the host of PM, an Australian radio show, sat down with Dr. Susan Hillier, a US scientist and professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who is in Australia to attend the annual Australasian Society for HIV medicine conference and the Australian Sexual Health conference. She discusses the increased transmission of HIV/AIDS to women through their husbands where traditional prevention methods such abstinence and even condoms don’t work. She says: Whether you’re in Zimbabwe or you’re in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, women are thunderstruck when they learn that their husband or their boyfriend has actually infected them with HIV because they did not perceive themselves to be at risk. I think one of the great lessons of the HIV epidemic is that HIV goes to the unlucky, not to people who do wrong. That was actually said to me by young women in Malawi in Africa. It was said that for the first time she understood when her sister was infected that the virus, even though her sister was married and did not perceive herself to be at risk, the virus went to those who really had no way to see it… (more)