QUEEN’S PARK – Kristyn Wong-Tam, Official Opposition NDP's 2SLGBTQ+ Issues critic, released the following statement to mark World AIDS Day:
“This World AIDS Day is a chance to celebrate everyone working on the frontlines of HIV/AIDS and to recommit to do better for everyone living with HIV/AIDS. This World AIDS Day follows a year of rising homophobia and transphobia that has shown how tenuous gains towards social inclusion can be. Appropriately, the theme ‘Let Communities Lead’ stresses the importance of ensuring that the vulnerable communities overrepresented in the transmission of HIV/AIDS are the ones leading the delivery of service.
World AIDS Day reminds us that AIDS is not over. HIV/AIDS survivors deserve better public health education and ongoing mental, social, and medical support. People at risk need better access to testing and publicly funded pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
Many communities need our government to do a better job at stepping up to mitigate and treat HIV/AIDS: Two-Spirit, Black, racialized, Trans communities, as well as women living with HIV/AIDS deserve better. Harm reduction advocates continue to struggle to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS without adequate government funding.
Ontario’s NDP wants the HIV/AIDS prevention community to know that we will continue to fight for you to get the funding and services you deserve. Thank you for all that you do and for all the lives you have saved.”