Edwin Cameron - Dealing with Homosexuality and HIV in South Africa

South Africa became the first jurisdiction in the world to protect the LGBT community.

Right now, around 50% of the population of South Africa thinks that homosexuality should be accepted and even a bigger proportion, accept and believe that it should be protected by the constitution.

On today’s episode, I have an interesting discussion with Judge Cameron, one of the few leaders that had the courage to step up and admit publicly that he is a gay man, living with HIV and who, through his efforts and dedication, helps to change the future of the LGBT community.

Edwin Cameron is a retired judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Edwin is openly gay and HIV positive, living with the virus since 1985, a period in which anti-retroviral medicine was not accessible to the less endowed in society. Edwin's realization that he owed his life to his relative wealth, caused him to become a prominent HIV and AIDS activist in post-apartheid South Africa. Since disclosing that he was HIV positive, in 1999, Judge Cameron remains the only senior South African official to have stated publicly that he is living with HIV.

He co-founded the AIDS Consortium, which he chaired for the first three years. He was the first director of the AIDS Law Project and co-drafted the Charter of Rights on AIDS and HIV. He also advised the National Union of Mineworkers on HIV and AIDS and was involved in drafting the first comprehensive AIDS agreement for the industry, with the Chamber of Mines.

Throughout his career, Edwin Cameron has been named a Legal Giant, recognized for his brilliance, commitment to human rights and social justice and his HIV and AIDS activism. He has received numerous awards, notably Transnet's HIV/AIDS Champions Award in 2000, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's Excellence in Leadership Award in 2003, Prize for Civil Courage of German Gay and Lesbian Movement in 2007, winner of Brudner Prize, Yale University for Gay and Lesbians scholarship in 2009, among many others.

So, listen to Episode 5 of Positively Alive, to learn about one of the most courageous leaders in South Africa, about his experiences, his activism work, his opinions on stigma and criminalization and his future projects.

Questions I ask:

• Could you elaborate a little bit on your journey as a gay man in South Africa and also, what it has been for you to open up as a public official? (04:06)
• Why do you think it's so difficult for others to follow in your footsteps? (11:15)
• In South Africa, how would you evaluate the Government's response to this epidemic? (14:24)
• Do you believe that at some point in South Africa, HIV testing will become as natural as relicensing your car or renewing your driver's license? (19:20)
• What role can you play as judges, to make sure that injustice, irrationality, fear, and ignorance do not triumph? (24:12)
• Looking back, what would you describe as your major accomplishment? (26:54)

In this episode, you will learn:

• Judge Cameron’s opinion on complacency - the biggest threat to ending the war against HIV. (09:04)
• Who Judge Cameron considers being the demographic that HIV/AIDS campaigns should target to educate. (17:07)
• Judge Cameron’s experience and feelings when he went public about being a gay person living with HIV. (20:13)
• The statistics on criminalization based on sexual orientation. (21:34)
• The impact of U=U (Undetectable is Untransmittable) in South Africa. (26:06)
• The future projects that Judge Cameron is working on. (27:38)

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