Finally! A plenary on MSM.

Finally! A plenary on MSM.

This exclamation, followed by thunderous applause opened Jorge Saavedra's plenary session titled Sex between Men. Activist friends the previous day had said that the IAC in Mexico City was going to be to MSM issues what the 2000 conference in Durban was to the African epidemic. Saavedra's lecture was far and away the most exciting of all the lectures I saw at the conference. But how is it that we are 27 years into the epidemic and only this year at the 17th International AIDS Conference was there a plenary lecture on MSM? Only now, when in 1981 Larry Kramer founded Gay Mens Health Crisis (GMHC) and in 1987 AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP)? Only now, when the leadership of these organizations along with other LGBT activists began public discourse and challenged governments at the very start of this global crisis? Among gay men in the United States, HIV incidence fell by 75% during the 1980s. This was in large part because of the tireless and extraordinary leadership in the gay community. During a meeting of the LGBTA Caucus (A = Allies) at the Ecumenical Pre-Conference on HIV and AIDS, a concern that was voiced over and over was that the shifting nature of the pandemic (the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children, the "feminization" of the pandemic, etc.) has forced gay and lesbian activists back into the closet. Hard won battles have escaped the attention of history. This cannot stand and Dr. Saavedra's plenary lecture was a step in the right direction.