HIV Australia 2014

CHRIS WARD reflects on Altman’s account of the gay liberation movement, finding that it resonates with many of his own experiences.

Christy Newman, Asha Persson, John de Wit and Michael Kidd examine relationships between general practitioners and their patients and peers in HIV medicine

Liz Crock and John Hall look back on a 30 year partnership providing advocacy and support to people with HIV in Victoria.

PAUL VAN REYK documents the vital role played by nursing staff during the early years of Australia’s HIV epidemic.

JAYNE RUSSELL explains how personal networks can provide support opportunities for HIV-positive women.

JOHN WILLIAM JONES highlights almost 30 years of volunteer work providing emotional and social support to people with HIV.

ABIGAIL GROVES investigates gay men’s online relationships, and finds that HIV-stigma is alive and well.

AMANDA JONES and INDRAVEER CHATTERJEE examine the intersection between HIV, public health law and relationships, and conclude that privacy protections are lacking.

BENJAMIN BAVINTON reports on research into ‘treatment as prevention’ among gay male serodiscordant couples.

James May speaks with three HIV-positive people in rural NSW. They share very different stories about their relationships with sexual partners, family and the HIV community.

ANGELA MILLER, ASHA PERSSON and CHRISTY NEWMAN look at the relationship needs of HIV-positive young people.

MARILYN EDWARDS gives a heartfelt account of family support.

DEAN MURPHY presents an overview of research into gay men’s relationships, examining the way HIV has influenced these discussions.

ASHA PERSSON and JEANNE ELLARD shed light on the experiences of serodiscordant couples.

Dean Murphy profiles a resource designed to assist gay men negotiate successful relationship agreements.

Ian Down discusses HIV risk within gay and bisexual men’s relationships, drawing on findings from the Seroconversion Study.

Don Liriope died in Port Moresby General Hospital on 18 March 2014, due to tuberculosis of the liver.

Vivienne Munro was a pioneer of Australia’s early HIV response, much loved and admired for her contribution to Australia’s community response and support for HIV-positive women. Vivienne passed away in May 2014.

The National Association of People Living with HIV Australia (NAPWHA), the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) and Scarlet Alliance have conducted partnerships programs in Papua New Guinea (PNG). NAPWHA has worked with Igat Hope, PNG’s People Living With HIV (PLHIV) organisation for over a decade.

Experiences from the CHAIN, APCASO and AFAO Community Advocacy Initiative on the Investment Framework program in China.

Reflections on the 2014 AFAO National Gay Men’s HIV Health Promotion Conference.

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), sex between men is criminalised. Many people in the community hold strong views against homosexuality and acts of violence against sexually diverse men and transgender people are common.

This article reports on the experience of Igat Hope, the organisation representing people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Papua New Guinea (PNG), in furthering the understanding of HIVrelated stigma and discrimination in PNG.

While the march of gay rights continues across the West, in parts of the world they are going backwards, with states hardening their repression of people on the basis of their sexuality, writes DENNIS ALTMAN.

There has been a lot of buzz around the Global Fund’s New Funding Model (NFM), an important outcome of the Global Fund Strategy Framework 2012–16: Investing for Impact 1, launched in March 2014.

Lessons learned from the Community Advocacy Initiative on Investment Framework (CAI-IF) program in Vietnam

A program to strengthen the HIV/ AIDS response in Myanmar was recently undertaken by Monash University under the Australian Government’s Australia Awards Fellowships (AAF) program.

The Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) International Program is working to enhance partnerships across Asia and the Pacific.

In countless countries around the world law enforcement officials continue to be at the forefront of the failing war on drugs and can be a major obstacle when it comes to implementing evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment interventions.

The Pacific Sexual Diversity Network (PSDN) is a network that has been representing the interests of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people (TG) in the Pacific region since 2007.

This article presents some case studies of successful partnerships between the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) and networks of people who use drugs in Asia, reflecting on some challenges experienced by these networks, both in Australia and across the region.

Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association, is the national peak body representing sex workers and sex worker organisations in Australia.

Partnerships of mutual benefit are often forged to confront a common challenge. One such challenge is how to address HIV in Australia’s nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Matthew Vaughan looks at an innovative pilot project that aims to increase demand for HIV counselling and testing among regional networks of men who have sex with men.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender (TG) people are two populations disproportionately affected by HIV across Asia and the Pacific.

Challenges and approaches for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Community organisations and networks are essential to achieving effective HIV responses, and a diverse, strong and active civil society is leading the way in Asia and the Pacific.

The African Diaspora Networking Zone at AIDS 2014 in Melbourne has been organised by the Multicultural Health and Support Service (MHSS) in collaboration with the African Black Diaspora Global Network on HIV/AIDS (ABDGN) and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisation’s (AFAO’s) African Reference Group.

The prognosis and progress for people living with HIV (PLHIV) have been extraordinary over the last two decades.

In 2014 the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) will be held for the first time in Australia, in the city of Melbourne. As a prelude to AIDS 2014, Sydney will host the International Indigenous Pre-conference on HIV & AIDS, on the land and home of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.

Australia is a signatory to the 2011 United Nations Political Declaration (UNPD) on HIV and AIDS. By signing the declaration, Planning for AIDS 2014 in Melbourne, Australia, has focused attention on how people with HIV navigate Australia’s complex migration system.

Australia is a signatory to the 2011 United Nations Political Declaration (UNPD) on HIV and AIDS. By signing the declaration, Australia has committed to protecting and promoting human rights and the elimination of stigma and discrimination for people living with HIV and prioritised communities (including sex workers) as a ‘critical element in combating the global HIV epidemic’1 and achieving the UNPD targets.

The trajectory of social values is not linear … progress is not assured.

Films like Dallas Buyers Club, which won Matthew McConaughey an Oscar®, and United in Anger, a history of ACT UP, have turned HIV activists into heroes.

Nineteen eighty-four was a pivotal year for Melbourne’s AIDS response.

For those who have attended an international AIDS conference in the past, understand that this is a conference unlike many others.

It is fitting in many ways, that after three decades of the HIV epidemic, the International AIDS Conference is finally coming to Australia. Fitting because Australia has punched way above its weight on a global level in response to HIV – from the very beginning.

Welcome to this special edition of HIV Australia, published to coincide with the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) in Melbourne, Australia.

‘In this life, I pick up stones wanting explanations about their enigmas …
‘Do stones dream? Stones wait patiently for children to pick them up, throw them into the air and return them to the earth, becoming falling grains of sand in another life.’

Sex workers are creative. We create environments and services which provide enjoyment, pleasure and hospitality to people from many different walks of life.The ability to do this is a gift … a learned talent … a performance … an art form.

One sunny Friday afternoon in the early 90s I was on a tram going from St Kilda Road to the city. A tall gaudily dressed transgender woman on the opposite seat was on the nod, peaceful enough, occasionally opening a single eye, and clutching a small overstuffed handbag.

Today, Lyle Chan is an acclaimed composer, whose works have been commissioned and performed by major artists including soprano Taryn Fiebig, pianist Simon Tedeschi and the Sydney Philharmonia Choir, and the even former Foreign Minister, Bob Carr.

My name is Arone Meeks, I am a Kuku Midiji man from Laura, Cape York, Far North Queensland. Here I’m going to talk about my creative pathway and journey through the visual arts, and how this work interconnects with health promotion, HIV, and working with communities.

In July this year, I had the good fortune to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference and to stage an exhibition at the Brunswick Street Gallery, entitled A Decade of HIV-Related Stigma.

During AIDS 2014, Living Positive Victoria’s ENUF project was involved in a range of artistic collaborations to raise the profile of issues affecting people living with HIV.

Paul Woodward explores the experience of HIV disclosure through a performative lens.

In May 2014, the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) premiered two new theatre productions that hoped to help end stigma and raise awareness around HIV and AIDS by taking the lived experiences of Victorians living with HIV and responding to them theatrically.

Earlier this year, I was involved in a public installation project as part of the AIDS 2014 Conference.

I first met Kim Davis (or rather, her alter ego, Ma’Dam Kim, pictured), surrounded by a camera crew at ICAAP11 (the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific) in Bangkok.

TRANSMISSIONS was an exhibition, mounted at the George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne, in July 2014.

The International AIDS Conference in Melbourne earlier this year featured a strong artistic component, with the National Gallery of Victoria hosting a retrospective of work by gay artist David McDiarmid attracting thousands of visitors.

At the end of July, Melbourne hosted the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014). A huge red AIDS 2014 sign perched on the Swanston Street Bridge between Flinders Street Station and the Melbourne Concert Hall.

‘Art is not a mirror to reflect society, but a hammer with which to shape it.’ — Bertolt Brecht

L. K. Chan and Raymond Donovan present a retrospective of Australian health promotion materials.

The Australian response to AIDS has been widely hailed as the best in the world and it provided a model that was adopted and adapted in a variety of countries and societies.