LGBT Labour Raises Concerns over Cameron’s HIV Plea
November 29, 2010
Prime Minister David Cameron
LGBT Labour has questioned Prime Minister David Cameron’s sincerity over a message he delivered last week for World AIDS Day.
Writing in Boyz magazine, Cameron urged the gay community to come together to fight HIV and support each other. He also urged condom use and HIV testing.
“You need to support each other in avoiding the virus. You still need to practice safe sex. You need to test and to know your HIV status,” he said.
He added: “I talk a lot about responsibility when it comes to my politics. And this World AIDS Day it’s important everyone thinks about the responsibility they have towards themselves, their partners and the wider community. Only together can we fight and then beat HIV and AIDS.”
But LGBT Labour said the Tory cuts won’t help stem the tide of HIV and would “significantly squeeze” HIV funding. It said the government’s “words of support for tackling HIV must be matched by action.”
James Asser, LGBT Labour co-chair, said: “Many health services will be forced to slash specialist HIV support services. Government cuts to local authorities will see many HIV/AIDS support groups and voluntary organisations lose essential funding.
“The government has already stated it will abolish the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health & HIV and it’s unclear what, if anything, will replace it.”
Two HIV advisory groups have been scrapped as funding cuts drop programs, with one group funneled under the Department of Health.
“LGBT Labour joins many HIV organisations in expressing concerns about hasty and top-down reforms of the NHS. The specific needs of people living with HIV could easily fall through the cracks of ill-thought through GP-led commissioning,” Asser said.
Also this week, the National AIDS Trust asked the government to ensure the UK’s national HIV strategy is ready to go by 2011, a part of its UN commitment.
Image by Copyright by World Economic Forum, swiss-image.ch/Photo by Remy Steinegger. [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
