Elton John: A call to action on AIDS

May 23, 2014

Written by my friend "Normal Heart" , a brilliant playwright Larry Kramer , and based on their history during the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic , many of us experienced, and tells a story that many do not survive . When it premiered in 1985 in New York City as the stage is as relevant today as an HBO movie .
Then , the New York Times , "Gay" and New York City Mayor Ed Koch refused to print the word phenomenon was painfully slow to respond to the epidemic. Fear was everywhere. Around the country , let alone treat them as family members, doctors were afraid to touch AIDS patients infected relatives shunned , and the hospital ward , dying a painful death , covered with sores filled with young men. I went around that year , I have lost count of how many funerals. My friends are dying around me - I was lucky to survive somehow .
ACT UP, Larry founded the Alliance to deal with the crisis , as its battle cry of the phrase " silence equals death" was coined , and that is no exaggeration . At the end of 1983, AIDS claimed 2100 lives, but the government rarely admit that some of the skew . I can not help , but they do more before it starts to go around the world by surprise , had the care of those in power , maybe we can end this epidemic. But they do not work , do not care , and 36 million people have died because of AIDS.Sir Elton JohnSir Elton John
Across the world , more than 1.6 million people die of AIDS this year.
In the United States , approximately 50,000 new infections over .
Normal heart is a product of a particular time , it is not an artifact. Sub-Saharan Africa , not only in America , but right here , in your state , in your community - until now is still an AIDS crisis . And , just in 1985, is the silence that continues to drive the epidemic , fear and stigmatization.
Today , African-Americans make up 12% of the country's population , but they are , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , accounting for 44 % of Americans living with HIV . Gay and bisexual men account for only 2% of the U.S. population, but they represent 30% of HIV infections in the country in 2010.
Injection drug use is the cause of nearly 4,000 Americans are infected with HIV every year , and every year one of the seven HIV - positive Americans suffer a penal institution . The crisis is the rampant homophobia in South America , is particularly acute .
I'm "Normal Heart" HBO's production of the new generation will be forced to work up to . Still to do, so there's a lot of work, but there is so much potential too. "Normal Heart" , which they did in 1980 is still alive , the characters do not know that they or their friends are dying , and they were not treated for disease management . They did little to protect themselves.
Today we know how to defend , and we have the ability to treat every single person living with HIV . Yet AIDS continues to live on the most vulnerable in our society : the poor, the imprisoned , prostitutes , drug users and those who live in areas where cases of intolerance and stigmatization. Today , as always, as quiet death.
Use the Elton John AIDS war photography
Larry learned so powerful that almost 30 years ago - and he and Ryan Murphy , director of the new HBO movie , today, as we continue to remind - we must speak out against injustice , compassion, work , and fight for equality .
Enough of us raise our voices , we can finally begin to put an end to this epidemic