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Toronto Quotes
Spoken and written words from the International AIDS Conference
Compiled by Jeff Berry and Enid Vázquez |
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“We need to put the power to prevent HIV in the hands of women…A woman should not need her partner’s permission to save her own life.”—Melinda Gates
“AIDS brought with it a shame that could not be named.”—Michelle Jean of Haiti
“Humanity is not divided among those who matter and those who can’t be counted.”
“Those of us who live in affluent countries have an obligation to do something to work together. Defeating AIDS must be a shared global and non-partisan agenda.”
“Preaching ‘abstinence only’ is to be woefully blind to human nature.”—Mark A. Weinberg, M.D., Conference Co-chair
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“Treatment without prevention is simply unsustainable. We have to do better.”—Bill Gates
“Testing without prevention, it’s not an intervention!”—Activist chant
“Condoms, needles and the rest—we need more than just a test!”—Activist chant
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“Open your purses, we need more nurses!”—Activist chant
“Prisons have become the petri dish of HIV.”—Deborah Small, Break the Chains, New York City
“We can’t treat our way out of this epidemic.”—Kevin DeCock
“It I wanted to be an undertaker, I wouldn’t have become a nurse.”—South African nurse quoted by Alta VanDyke
“History will judge us not by our scientific advances, but by what we do with our scientific advances.”—Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
“Say no to the pharmaceutical companies—they should not be deciding the price of our lives!”—Russian activist
“Abstinence-only programs do not work. That approach has a name: Neo-colonialism.”—Stephen Lewis, United Nations Envoy on AIDS
“It is inexcusable that in Africa we use single-dose nevirapine [Viramune, for prevention of mother-to-child transmission]. Where is it that the life of an African child or an Asian child is worth so much less?”—Stephen Lewis
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“Drug users said they were identified for arrest based on their efforts to obtain information and sterile needles from legal needle exchange sites, in direct contradiction to Ukrainian policies supporting needle exchange, and despite state support for this from high-level police officials. Drug users and service providers gave accounts of police harassing, arresting, and severely beating drug users merely for possessing syringes at or near the syringe exchange sites. Police interfered with outreach workers’ efforts to provide HIV/AIDS information to drug users, sometimes by detaining or beating them. … Human Rights Watch also found that health care providers widely discriminated against people living with and at high risk of HIV/AIDS in Ukraine. People living with HIV/AIDS and injection drug users were turned away from hospitals, summarily discharged when their HIV status became known, or provided poor quality care that was both dehumanizing and debilitating to their already fragile health status.”—“Ukraine: Rhetoric and Risk—Human Rights Abuses Impeding Ukraine’s Fight against HIV/AIDS,” www.hrw.org
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“Christian Aid has found ABC [Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms] to be dogmatic and unequivocal and has decided to adopt a more comprehensive and pragmatic approach. HIV is a virus, not a moral issue. HIV prevention should be based on public health measures and human rights principles.”—Christian Aid, www.christianaid.org.uk
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“The behavioral patterns that make people susceptible to HIV may have moral implications. Strengthening the value systems in communities without simplistic moralization is vital to enhancing prevention strategies. However, working against scientifically proven preventive measures is both unethical and detrimental to life.”—Dr. Manoj Kurian, Programme Executive, Health and Healing Programme, World Council of Churches, in contact magazine, August 2006
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“I am Muslim. I am HIV-positive. … Sometimes I wonder what people would think if they knew. … It was only when I joined the Positive Muslims support group that I was able to talk about my feelings with other Muslims like me. I found out that AIDS was not a curse from Allah but that it was a disease I could live with. … I went to a wedding one time where a Sheikh was giving a talk about marriage. He said that people who get married will be protected from diseases like AIDS and that only people who were immoral would get it. I wanted to stand up and shout at him and tell him that my husband infected me with this virus. I wanted to tell him that anyone can get it, even those who are married, even those who make salaah five times a day.”—Miriam’s Story, from The Positive Muslim newsletter in Capetown, www.positivemuslims.org.za
“For over 200 years, Black churches have cast a beacon of light upon a seemingly endless path of despair for many African Americans. Through the darkest nights of slavery, segregation, church bombings, police brutality, and now HIV/AIDS, Black churches continue to shine a light of hope, empowerment, education and inner strength upon the path of life’s journey.” Our Church Lights the Way: The Black Church in HIV Testing Campaign, www.balmingilead.org. |
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