Compassion can help defeat AIDS, Elton John tells conference
"I have just been to the AIDS quilt and I
have seen so much love for the dead," said John, after visiting the
National Mall in Washington, where panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, created to honor victims of the disease, stretch between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol. "What we need is more love for the living."
The singer, whose Elton John AIDS Foundation
gives away $18 million a year, spoke at AIDS 2012, an international
gathering of more than 21,000 researchers, activists and policymakers.
John and others applauded a message by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who set a goal "for a generation that is free of AIDS."
Yet
the best science in the world is useless if it doesn't reach poor
people, John said. "Maybe you think I'm naïve," he said at the
conference. "Maybe you think I'm off my rocker. Here I am telling an
audience of 7,000 global health experts that you can end AIDS with
love."
Yet he noted that landmark American
legislation to provide AIDS relief to developing nations was based,
fundamentally, on caring for other people. "Thanks to all this
compassion, all this love, more than 8 million people are on treatment.…
"Thanks
to people who have chosen to act, who have chosen to care, we can see
an end to this epidemic, but it's going to take a lot more compassion to
get us there, a hell of a lot more."
John noted that "shame and stigma" prevent many people from getting help and "from protecting themselves in the first place."
He added, "We have inexpensive and accurate take-home tests for HIV. But we can't convince people to get tested if they think their lives don't count.…
"Millions
of people around the world feel ashamed because of who they are. They
feel subhuman, worthless, like they don't matter at all."
John described his recovery from cocaine addiction, and how he was inspired by the young AIDS activist Ryan White
to get clean. "I felt that shame before and it almost killed me," John
said. "It's killing people all around the world. We have to replace the
stigma with compassion. "
Others conference speakers agree.
Phill
Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute, said some of the risky
behavior seen in today's young people stems from a lack of love, and a
sense of hopelessness.
"When you have young
men who have been denied love their entire life, they will give anything
to be loved, including their lives," Wilson says.
Families
can help to turn the AIDS epidemic around, Wilson says, simply by
supporting their children. Young people who feel accepted and respected
are more likely to form healthy relationships, Wilson says.
"People
ask me, 'What is the most important thing we can do to help young black
gay men?' and 'When do you begin AIDS prevention?' " Wilson says. "My
answer to both is the same. You start the first time you hold that child
to your breast after they're born. You start every time you tell them
you love them, when you remind them they are valuable. When you remind
them that there is someone who has their back, that they are not alone."
John also called on the USA to address its own HIV epidemic. More than 1.1 Americans are infected with HIV.
"Do
you want to end the epidemic in America? Then show some compassion for
those who can't afford treatment," John said in his speech.
"Show compassion for those with HIV in Washington, D.C.,
most of whom are poor and black. Americans has shown so much love for
those living with HIV in the developing world. If Americans wanted to
show compassion for those living with HIV here at home, then it could do
so in a heartbeat."
In an interview with USA
TODAY, John said he also had a message for young people being bullied.
These kids need to get support, he said, so that they won't feel so
alone.
He said he's been heartbroken to hear
of kids committing suicide because of bullying. "Look, if you're being
bullied, the Internet is not the place to go," John said. "Reach out to
another human being."
