Today is December 1, and since 1988 the day has been commemorated as World AIDS Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.
I remember rather vividly when I started wearing that red ribbon. I was in high school, and I spent all damn day answering the following questions from classmates and people in other years:
"What's the red ribbon for?" (Cue explanation.)
"Does that mean YOU have AIDS?" (Cue facepalm / headdesk reaction.)
I should just be grateful that progress has since been made in both the areas of awareness (i.e. THAT reaction described above? Getting rarer and rarer every year....) and the disease/syndrome itself (read about one phase of testing for a specific vaccine here).
I will continue to support the global fight against this disease - and, in corollary, I continue to support the fight for equal rights everywhere. You're a man, a woman, gay, lesbian, transgender, a child, elderly, suffering from some sort of disease or condition, hungry, thirsty, etc. etc. - YOU HAVE RIGHTS. Fight on.
WorldAIDSDay.org
Wikipedia article on World AIDS Day
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