World AIDS Day: What It Means To Me

Every day is World AIDS Day since the DOH estimated that there are 9 infections every day in the Philippines. The World AIDS Day, which happens every first day of December is for me a very special day. It’s a day found within the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence and the celebration of the Human Rights Month.

World AIDS Day for me means three things; it is about the principles of dignity, rights, and responsibility. In line with UNAIDS’s strategic campaign on Getting to Zero, I link dignity for the promotion of Zero Discrimination, human rights for the promotion of Zero AIDS-related conditions and human responsibility for the promotion of Zero Infection.

This 2012 World AIDS Day we have launched the “Thrice the Zero and be a Hero” campaign as the contribution the sex worker communities and those afflicted with drugs to rollback HIV by 2015. This work gives meaning to my life as well as fulfillment as an advocate of dignity, rights and responsibility.

John Piermont Montilla
Former male prostitute