Saying Goodbye

The Wish Tree in the Global Village.

As we wrap up our time in Vienna, we want to thank everyone who stopped by the Condoms4Life booth at AIDS 2010. We had visitors from across the globe, including, but not

limited to:

US

Ghana

Rwanda

Austria

Canada

Uzbekistan

Togo

Spain

Nigeria

Kenya

Thailand

Germany

Philippines

Indonesia

Malawi

Zambia

Moldova

France

Nepal

Uganda

China

South Africa

Ethiopia

Mexico

Spain

Portugal

Pakistan

Slovakia

Croatia

Czech Republic

Cameroon

Sudan

Dominican Republic

Belgium

Venezuela

Panama

Syria

Haiti

Argentina

The Netherlands

Ukraine

Trinidad & Tobago

Botswana

Bangladesh

Norway

Thank you all for supporting AIDS awareness. We'll see you in DC in 2012!

On AIDS and Abortion

On the morning of the last day of the International AIDS Conference 2010, one of the most important breakout sessions of the entire week made history just by taking place. It was the first time in the entire 18 years of the IAC for a workshop to focus entirely on abortion and unintended pregnancies among HIV+ women. In the slow movement to recognize the integration of reproductive rights and health in the fight against the epidemic, the conference took its first step in accepting the need for discourse over abortion and family planning.

In a panel session facilitated by Sofia Gruskin of the Harvard School of Public Health, presentations by panelists and conversations with the audience, via question and comment cards, spanned geography, ideals and culture. From Namibia, Jennifer Gatsi, spoke of forced sterilizations, sometimes known, sometimes not, of HIV+ women. She described the results of unintended pregnancies in a community lacking in abortion services, compelling women to "baby dumping." Ms. Gatsi ended with the recognition that advocacy to bring a stop to these violations is met with opposition by conservative religious forces, stating "The views of particular religions and religious leaders should not be imposed on the conscience of women."

Fellow panelists Promise Mthembu and Eugenia Lopez Uribe of South Africa and Mexico, respectively, went on to paint equally upsetting pictures HIV+ women face in their home countries, where a positive test result for HIV often means relinquishing control over your body and sexuality. In all cases, it is quite clear that women's rights are continuously compromised for the sake of religious and cultural rights.

Additionally, the combined stigmas of abortion and HIV is forcing women to attempt deadly means of terminating their pregnancies. Sadly, the stigma also means would-be advocates for change avoid addressing either issue for fear of being politically associated with abortion.

The session naturally raised more concerns than solutions and everyone appreciated the power there, even Ms. Gruskin. In closing our facilitator, stack of audience comment cards in hand, all but challenged the IAC to not convene more sessions on abortion in 2012.

-Kyle

Warm Thoughts, or, On The AIDS Memorial Quilt

After breaking down our home away from home last night (thanks to AVAC, our corner neighbors, for lending us some extra packing tape!) Kyle and I just had one session each to attend today. While he checked out "What's Faith Got to Do With It?," a discussion on reproductive health and faith, I attended the Global Youth Pavilion's closing ceremonies. The festivities concluded with a slideshow of youth journalists' photos from the conference, giving everyone a chance to see AIDS 2010 through young people's lenses.

On a more solemn note, the Vienna AIDS 2010 Memorial Quilt was on display in the Global

Village. As Lady GaGa blasted through the main stage's speakers and new friends embraced with promises to see each other in DC in 2012, the quilt was a stark reminder that AIDS still kills. Some squares memorialized those who had vowed to make it from AIDS 2008 in Mexico City to AIDS 2010 in Vienna but never got the chance. Many were dedicated to women, to the mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and activists who also didn't live to see 2010. Of course, the quilt was not without hope or humor.

High-five for using condoms!

Amongst the Sharpie'd- and fabric-painted collage, though, a single square seized my attention.

The stigma and isolation described by this anonymous quilter reminded me of why Catholics for Choice promotes Condoms4Life. When the bishops ban condoms and promote abstinence as the sole solution to HIV, they perpetuate the cycle of pain captured in this single quilt square. They leave good Catholics shamed and ostracized by their own communities, and they prevent people from accessing life-saving prevention education and tools. As our posters say, though, Catholics believe in caring for each other. We believe in compassion and choice. We believe, as this anonymous quilter seemed to, that people of faith should not feel stigmatized by their own. So, while we gear up to bid auf wiedersehen to Vienna, rest assured: Catholics for Choice has heard your stories, and we're ready to take action.

-Meghan

Interview: MTV's Staying Alive Campaign

Check out Kyle, in an interview with MTV's Staying Alive campaign!

catholics from mtv staying alive on Vimeo.

"I can be Catholic again."

Some bloggin' on the run:

Meghan and Kyle are trying to squeeze everything in before the end of today's activities, but Meghan wanted to report on a conversation she had earlier:

"I had one man come up today who said: 'I really hated the church for a long time, but talking to you has made me think that I can be Catholic again.'"

Compassion is key! Good Catholics can, and do, use condoms!

Anything we should definitely see before the end of the conference tomorrow? Let us know here!

People, including those supporting the Red Umbrella Project of sex worker solidarity, march through the streets of Vienna.

Protest Updates

The exhibition hall has been hopping with protests.

After Tuesday's rallying cry of "Rights Here, Rights Now," activists have staged marches, sit-ins and other protests to demand that very thing. One group, led by chants of "Pharma Greed Kills," marched through the exhibition hall to tell the pharmaceutical companies located there that they want more affordable access and more research on vaccines. Protesters, fists up and signs bobbing, methodically circled each pharmaceutical booth to shout in unison: "Shame! Shame! Shame!"

Another group marched through the hall to advocate for a truly global approach to AIDS funding. With cardboard signs proclaiming "MENA (Middle East/Northern Africa) Rights Now," this coalition activated for the rights of Middle Easterners, Northern Africans and indigenous peoples. Over in the global village, the Global Fund protesters continue their living statue protests, with at least two people in solemn makeup and costume standing sentry at all times.

It's exciting to see so many people gathered for a great cause! Hopefully we'll see plenty more today.

Kids These Days, or, Youth In Action

Youth. Youth. Youth! We've truly seen the yCFC statement in action as young Catholics from six continents have stopped by our booth, eyes widening as they realize, like one girl from Slovakia told me today, "You exist!"

Activists in their teens, twenties and thirties have left no doubt that young Catholics are indeed having sex, want access to contraception, are HIV positive, and are gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual. These young people are advocating for their rights, and the bishops in their home countries are giving them hell for it.

A young man from Mexico told me about his local priest, a man who worked with a peer sex ed program to provide information about correct condom use and to distribute contraception to young LGBT and HIV-positive people in his community. When the local bishop caught wind, this priest was transferred to another parish.

A young French activist from AIDES told me that the French bishops have launched a new campaign aimed specifically at Catholic youth. Their basic message: Don't have sex, and don't use condoms.

These young Catholics are fighting back by working in their communities for sexual and reproductive access, education, and justice; they're also taking CFC, Condoms4Life and yCFC's messages home to other young Catholics who haven't discovered us. As the youth pavilion's slogan proclaims, I can't wait to see what they can do once they've got the chance to "Now make it happen."

Specific shouts-out of the day go to:
a) YPeer, for its "find a person in red" scavenger hunt, which led to me being brought to the organization's vibrant booth in my very bright, CFC-red dress.

b) ASTRA, which hosted a panel discussion today. Kyle attended, and our own Anka was a panelist.

c) Women ARISE (our orange neighbors, with a display of vagina puppets!), for letting me snag one of their very cool "Women's Rights Here, Rights Now" T-shirts.

- Meghan

YPeer does rock! Nice to meet you guys! (Photo via facebook)

More Friends from the Conference

The good folks at RFSU have featured us on their blog today! Check out the link below:

http://rfsubloggen.blogspot.com/2010/07/dagens-slogan.html

And, if your Swedish is a little spotty, here's a translation:

"There is much to be happy here. There is hope. Therefore, today I appoint Catholics for Choice for today's slogan holders.

"Both because it actually feels hopeful that there is such a motion (which are also not entirely new) and for my first 'misreading' - which I first thought it was advertising for a movement that did not think that there would be no more Catholics (which surprised me) - made me laugh in the middle of a conference that at times was quite heavy.

"Good Catholics Use Condoms!"

So do good activists. We like what you're doing, RFSU!

Have you stopped by our booth at AIDS 2010? Leave us a note, and we'll make sure to say hello!

On the eve of the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, the bishop of St. Pölten, Klaus Küng, who has been associated with the ultra-conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei, acknowledged the importance of condom use in the ongoing battle against the spread of HIV and AIDS. Writing for the Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost, Bishop Küng noted that the church was reluctant to be involved with “health programs that have seen widespread distribution of condoms.” However, even though the attitude of the Vatican to the condom question remains unchanged he admitted that “some change was possible, perhaps even necessary.” In certain circumstances, he said, it was permissible to allow the use of condoms. The example he specifically noted was in a marriage where one partner is infected with HIV or AIDS. In such cases, he said, condoms may be allowed or even required in order to protect your partner’s health. In such cases, the goal was not contraceptive but protective. Other examples he gave included drug addicts or those who “are in no way prepared to practice sexual abstinence.”

Meet 'n' Greet, or Who Are The People in Our (Conference) Neighborhood?

One thing we're noticing so far in the conference is the number of people who come to the booth just to tell us they have heard of, and love, Catholics for Choice and Condoms4Life. They've seen our posters on their walls, our postcards on their parents' dining room tables and our pamphlets in their offices.

A lab technician from Italy told Meghan that he likes to keep our "Abstinence has a high failure rate" poster in the area where he works on microbicide research. A professor from the University of Washington in Seattle hangs the "People of Faith Use Condoms" posters in his office "to rattle (his) colleagues who are not such progressive Catholics." One woman from the UK said that, when she told her 85-year-old mother about the pope's unequivocal ban on condoms and the work Condoms4Life does to combat it, she received strict marching orders to bring back a postcard for her mother's parish priest.

People who hadn't heard about us before also are utilizing our materials in new ways - taking our literature and stickers for training sessions with youth in Africa, panel discussions on faith in Europe and meetings with patients in Asia and Latin America. The French materials, especially, have made a huge impact among French-speaking African attendees from Senegal, the DRC and beyond. Our Spanish materials are reaching Latinos and Latinas from the US as well as people from throughout Central and South America.

We plan to march with the rest of the conference attendees tonight! See you there.

Meghan (right) and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence mingle at the 2010 International AIDS Conference. Our much-loved posters frame them!

Making friends in Vienna

Want to learn more about Condoms4Life and the International AIDS Conference? Speak a little Swedish? Then you're going to love today's link.

RFSU is a Swedish non-profit organization that advocates for sharing information about sexual health and reproductive rights on local, national and international levels. RFSU representatives will be at AIDS XVIII all week, and so will Condoms4Life.

Stop by the RFSU site and check it out, or visit with representatives at the conference.

And don't forget to visit Kyle and Meghan at the Condoms4Life booth, too!

Seeing Is Believing: On Faith-Based Organizations and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment

Catholics For Choice has recently released "Seeing Is Believing," a report exploring faith-based organizations that are involved in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. How do they address condoms? Do they at all? Who gets funding - and from where?

You can learn more by reading the report here.

Condoms4Life at AIDS 2010

Since the conference's official opening yesterday morning, CFC has been in the thick of it. From hosting a workshop during the youth pre-conference and gathering young people for a networking reception with leaders from the Global AIDS Alliance and International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Condoms4Life campaign has connected with Catholics, especially young Catholics, from around the world. People, especially youths, have shared their stories and told us exactly why they think that the bishops' stance on condoms is wrong.

Not included in our forthcoming videos are those who, because of the work for and with Catholic hospitals and schools, were afraid of losing their jobs if they appeared on camera. There was the pharmacist from a Catholic hospital in New Jersey who told me that he used to fill "condom prescriptions" until hospital administrators cracked down on the practice. There was a nurse from Canada whose article supporting contraception to prevent HIV and AIDS was recently featured in a medical journal - and who had to speak with her Catholic hospital's CEO to make sure she wouldn't face repercussions for doing so. We've met clergy from India and educators from the Philippines who have resisted their ultra-conservative bishops to talk about condoms, sexual health and protecting oneself and one's loved ones.

"When the priests who run the schools ask me if I will mention condoms, I tell them this," said one sexual educator from Manila. "I say, 'I will not mention condoms, but if the children ask, I cannot lie to them. I bring them just in case.'"

Get ready...

Condoms4Life will be at the XVIII International AIDS Conference. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Have a question? Want to make sure we meet up? You can e-mail us at info@condoms4life.org, send us a tweet @Catholic4Choice or even Facebook us by searching for Catholics For Choice.

See you at the conference!