ColumnWhile there still isn’t a cure for the virus, those with HIV can keep it at bay by taking antiretrovirals (ARVs) and expect to have a long and healthy life (and healthy relationships). Although all humans with an Internet connection and a brain can easily research facts about HIV, many people still seem to really freak out when they discover someone around them has the virus. So, why does HIV stigma still exist? The answer is two-part and simple: ignorance and fear.

HIV/AIDS has been in the press spotlight for the past month thanks to Charlie Sheen’s “revealing” interview with NBC and the recent passing of World AIDS Day. Both events are positive instances in the “anti-stigma” movement.

World AIDS Day is always a welcomed event. On December 1, the infection and those living with it get the spotlight to remind everyone that (1)  you cannot get HIV by kissing, touching, etc. (yes, some people still think you can contract the virus this way) and (2) researchers are working their asses off to create even better drugs for people who have HIV. In fact, people who have HIV can lead healthy, happy lives, and have a near-normal life expectancy.

While Charlie Sheen‘s on-air admission of having HIV was a bit dramatic, Sheen’s admission was a big deal. While Sheen discussed some very important facts about HIV and being able to live a healthy life with the diagnosis, he also talked in depth about how he paid people to keep his status private.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that he spent money to hide it,” Jonathan Scott, president and CEO of Boston’s Victory Programs, a nonprofit that works daily with those diagnosed with HIV and AIDS, told CNN. “HIV began with horrific stigma, and even 30 years into the disease there is still stigma that is different from other diseases, such as breast cancer.”

HIV stigma is incredibly detrimental to everyone. It hurts the public because it creates unnecessary fear and it harms patients because it can create shame, and deep depression and sadness. This depression and shame can, unfortunately, lead a patient to stop seeking the much-needed medical care patients need to lead a healthy life. CNN reports that “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States today.”

Of those “only about 37% are actually seeing a clinician regularly,” Dr. Stephen Boswell, president and CEO of Boston’s Fenway Health, a health care organization that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, told CNN.

Sadly, the fact that HIV/AIDS still carries this unnecessary stigma isn’t surprising. Comedians, television writers, and everyday people still think it’s hilarious to make jokes about herpes (a totally manageable infection) and people they deem “slutty” (for the last time: your partner number doesn’t count — how you treat your partners does). Hell, I still remember hearing a morning talk show host make a joke about the then recent recommendation to call sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) sexually transmitted infections (STIs), saying that the change was only made to make people feel better about themselves… barf.

We’re all aware that ignorance and fear can lead to hate, so, let’s all make a pact to stop fearing what we don’t know and dedicate time to reading the facts rather than believing the hype.

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Woman holding sign about HIV stigma from miker, Shutterstock

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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations is offering $100,000 to the most innovative development in condoms.

Okay, if you said “ew” you’re not alone. It’s a little bit creepy thinking about Bill Gates thinking about your junk and wanting you to have better sex, but that’s probably nothing $100,000 can’t fix, particularly if you’ve got any skills in working with latex. And even if you’re not the scientist who’s going to revolutionize condoms, chances are at some point, you’re going to benefit from the innovation.

The Gates are interested in seeing condoms get an upgrade so that they’re more fun and pleasurable, and ultimately a more appealing use of birth and disease control for sexually active couples throughout the world. With a new design and packaging, the goal is for men in particular to find condoms less as an interference with sexual pleasure and more of an enhancement. The use of condoms, says the Foundation, improves public health and reduces the rate of unwanted pregnancies and STDs (gonorrhea is now essentially antibiotic resistant).

If there seems to be little left in the way of innovation when it comes to the condom, the Gates are inspired ORIGAMI condoms that are made from silicone and offer varieties for women and men (and for receiving anal sex). For men, the condom has an accordion-like shape and is designed to enhance pleasure.

Could you imagine wearing a cloth condom? Inhabitat reports that bioengineers at the University of Washington have been developing a ” super-fine cloth that slowly releases spermicides and anti-HIV drugs.”

To learn more about the competition, visit the Gates’ website.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: Hey Paul Studios

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Lutz and Patmos (Tina Lutz and Marcia Patmos) are best known for their luxurious fabrics and forward design, collaborations, and working with guest designers like Kirsten Dunst, Sofia Coppola and their newest guest, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The Nobel peace Laureate and activist worked with Lutz and Patmos to design an organic cotton sweater and textile fabulous beaded necklace so that a portion all the proceeds could go towards the Desmond Tutu Peace Center (founded in 1998). The DTPC was created to deliver programs that promote conflict resolution and social justice to the marginalized people of South Africa.

For the Lutz and Patmos/Desmond Tutu collaboration, the two also reached out to South Africa’s Hillcrest Aids Center Trust (HACT), which works with local beading artists who are suffering or affected with AIDS, to create the necklace that comes with every “Tutu Sweater.”

Lutz and Patmos were introduced to HACT by artist, filmmaker and Reap What You Sew founder, Nicole Mackinlay Hahn, who had visited HACT and created a video about her experience.

Famous for her “fly on the wall” approach that “brings the voice and humanity of her subjects into sharper focus,” she just happened to shoot this video about a now deceased man from HACT named Sphiwe Dennis Madlala, who was a vital part of the thriving community.

“One year ago, I got an email from Tina Lutz of Lutz & Patmos. Tina was inquiring about apparel production in Africa. I was thrilled to hear that their new guest designer was to be Archbishop Desmond Tutu! I already knew Lutz & Patmos had been dedicating at least one style per season to a charity, and since this project would benefit the Desmond Tutu Peace Center in Cape Town, I shared all my South African contacts.

With a mission statement of ’empowering and uplifting people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS to become economically self-sufficient through the production of crafts within their own environment,’ I remembered that I had briefly filmed at Hillcrest – maybe an hour or two at the most. To my surprise, I did not have much craft footage, and here is why:

In 2007 I spent two months in Africa gathering anecdotes for my Mirror/Africa project. After a busy month in Madagascar, I had only one day free before moving on to Lesotho, so I decided to fly into Durban to visit the Hillcrest AIDS Center. My friend Tamsin Smith – the founding president of (RED) and long-time advocate of trade ties with Africa – tipped me off to the amazing women beaders and quilters there. I had expected to be moved by mission of this faith based group, but hadn’t expected them to be creating such original and stylish works of art. I think that I shopped more than I filmed that day. But I did document some treasures. I came across a man in the Hillcrest garden, who was planting & potting with great care. He looked like a potential draft for the NBA. However his uniform was a Hillcrest apron and his title was “Horticulturist.” He was very much more than that and his name was Sphiwe. Below is a memoir of this man, given by his twin brother.”

About Sphiwe Dennis Madlala – by Mandla Madlala (Sphiwe’s twin brother):

He was born in December 22, 1978 in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal and he moved out of Pietermaritzburg to Molweni in 1990 and he died in Molweni. He passed away September 30, 2007, it was on Sunday. He was 32-years-old when he passed away. He had one child before passing away. He liked gospel and R&B. There is a lot of things that Sphiwe did before he died. He started to play soccer for Leken Stars, Swallows, then he moved to Brazil F.C. to play as a striker and the goalkeeper. After two years, Sphiwe became a coach for Brazil F.C., and he liked soccer same as me. He was a good coach for Brazil F.C. He looked after the club and he was a good communicator with the players, and he was also one of the managers of the team. I remember a lot of things that Sphiwe did at that time. The club was playing in West zone league and the club became position 3. When Sphiwe died the club was also finished at that time.

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My old college bud, Kenny Scharf, is arguably the original green artist – a brilliant guy from L.A. who began his career nabbing trash from the streets of Manhattan and embellishing old appliances with his phantasmagorical, Fifties-inspired, squiggly creatures and symbols.

Working alongside East Village graffiti muralists like Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat, his uproariously spacey icons were quickly embraced by Andy Warhol and other enthusiasts with clout. He quickly rose to the ranks of artist superstar.

Scharf  conveyed his erumpent celeb status to me when I caught up with him back in 1984. I was covering festivals and parades during my first big break as a TV reporter in Central Pennsylvania.

“I’m really big now, Luanne,” he informed me. “I mean really big.”

Oh, yeah? Well, I just downed my 10th funnel cake at another Keystone country shindig, so there!

A few decades later, the prolific, globally-acclaimed pop star is still doing what he does best: painting, scavenging beaches for trash for his sculptures, performing at his recycled Brooklyn live-work space and enjoying the fanfare of a new retrospective book, Kenny Scharf by Rizzoli.

Oh, and another thing he’s still doing – riding his bike instead of driving whenever possible. It’s been his favorite mode of transport for the past 30 years. In fact, he was riding with cell in ear when I caught up with him, yet again, huffing only so slightly. Quite admirable for 51.

“I ride my bike everywhere,” he says. “I live in Brooklyn and ride over the bridge and back, sometimes twice a day. Why drive a few blocks when you can walk or ride?”

His biking is admirable not only for cutting fuel emissions, but also for keeping him as fit as the new crop of young artists who form his entourage in New York. They include Daniel Heidkamp, who encouraged Scharf to lend his magic to one of the many empty commercial storefronts hit by the recession.

Landlords have been luring in artists to keep up appearances in the darkened spaces with that edgy, gallery feel. According to the New York Times, the goal is to deter crime while attracting tenants who can afford the rent. Scharf agreed to be part of a group show in one of these pop-up galleries, finding it exciting to be part of the scene.

“I said I didn’t have work I could donate, but I could do something directly on the wall like a spray painting,” he told me. “I will do that pretty much anywhere. So I did my spray painting and there was a photographer and a reporter from the New York Times waiting for me there.”

The unexpected coverage boosted the opening of the show, entitled ‘Too Big to Fail: Big Paintings’.

“I went and it was nice, like a bunch of 20-something artists,” he says. “I liked the work and to be part of the youngsters [scene].”

I assured him he’s still a youngster, too. After all, I still sense a wide-eyed wonder in his current work that merges organic earth elements with sensual, knobby creatures in the perspective of a damaged Cable Guy way over-exposed to TV Land stimuli. The familiarity of his fantasies make us laugh as we drink in the irony and nostalgia.

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Today, the high-energy Scharf divides his time between homes in Brazil and NYC.

He enjoyed a recent show of his paintings (above) and sculptures at the Honor Fraser Gallery in Venice, Ca. At home in Brooklyn, he lives in a basement studio called the Cosmic Cavern A-Go-Go, which moonlights as a psychedelic nightclub for parties and performance art.

“I have been working with garbage and refuse for all these years, and the Cavern is made out of found objects from the street that I pull in and decorate,” he explains.

The Cavern attracts a following of young visionaries (like the space Cadette with Kenny, below) eager to talk trash with the painter and celebrate his lighthearted sensibilities.

“We have actual performances when the music stops playing,” Scharf tells me about the club. “People appear as art objects and they go all out. It’s about being inclusive and everyone being allowed to be a part of it.”

The lucky patrons who come unadulterated get a quick Scharfian make-over.

“I just paint their faces,” he says. “Then they sweat it off dancing.”

Guess we can’t really call that sustainable craft, but the artist himself is enduring longer than most of his peers, many of whom passed on years ago from AIDS (like Haring).

“I miss my dead friends very much, but I’m used to not having them around,” Scharf says.

Instead, he surrounds himself with their art (he used to trade his for theirs) and his golden memories, while forging ahead in a brave, new and green world. A world where the resourceful painter is as much at home in Orbit City as George Jetson.

“I’ve been an eco-artist for a long time,” he tells me. “Though I’m not some puritan. I use spray paint; I take airplanes; I make sculptures out of resin when I need to, but I’m very conscious of it.”

I believe you, Kenny. You are really big and you are really conscious. Anyway, it’s not easy to spray paint with vegetable dye and ride a bike to Brazil. But if you could, you would.

Main Image: New York Times

Image One: Kenny Scharf

Image Two: RizzoliUsa

Image Three: Honor Fraser Gallery

Images Three, Four, Five : Kenny Scharf

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