lemonAIDS
Rick Johnston
SOCIAL AID :: As vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Canadian AIDS Society I want to share with you some of the work we’ve been doing leading up to this important time of year, and invite you to join in. As we all know, Canadian HIV/AIDS Awareness Week is here, World AIDS Day is Thursday (related events) and so my colleagues and I at the Canadian AIDS Society want you to get out and Do Something!
December 1st is often marked with a variety of events, including vigils, the World AIDS Day Gala, awareness campaigns and many other activities. World AIDS Day is especially poignant this year as we commemorate two milestones: the 30th year of HIV, with the first reported case documented in 1981 and the Canadian AIDS Society 25th anniversary responding to the epidemic.
Recognizing the importance of these anniversaries, CAS expanded its World AIDS Day activities this year by launching an exciting month-long social media campaign earlier this month. You can actively participate in the key messaging and social media activities leading up to December 1st. By participating you’ll be engaging both yourself and your peers on important issues affecting Canadians living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, as well as increase awareness to our friends all across Canada as well as on an international level.
Here is how you can spread the word:
1. CAS World AIDS Day Website: Promote the CAS World AIDS Day website. This website has all of CAS’ World AIDS Day Do Something themed activities which include a new daily action-oriented activity, youth-focused educational activities, information on our video competition (prizes, people!), and the chance for you to check out our snazzy campaign posters, Facebook Avatars and badges.
2. Twitter: Follow @CDNAIDS. Use our hashtag #DoSMTHG in English and #AGISSONS in French. We can provide you with our list of tweets or make up your own spreading the word about HIV/AIDS in Canada and World AIDS Day. Follow and retweet what you like, using one of the hashtags.
3. Facebook: “Like” the CAS page. We will have daily updates with our messages and activities and we encourage you to ‘like’ our posts and discuss your views by leaving a Comment. Save one of the Facebook Avatars from our World AIDS Day website and post the photo on your Facebook Profile or even make it your own Profile Picture! You can inspire others to get connected to the campaign by updating your status with one of our Tweet messages or sharing your own HIV/AIDS awareness message and linking to the CAS World AIDS Day site.
4. Make a video and enter our Youtube competition: CAS, in partnership with Abbott Laboratories, is hosting a video contest with two categories: one for youth between the ages of 13 and 29 and a general category for all Canadians. It’s as simple as making a 30-to-90 second video on what HIV means to you and submitting it. Plus, there are awesome prizes to be won (including an iPad!) and your video will be uploaded to the CAS website and shared on the contest’s official Youtube channel. Check out the World AIDS Day website for more info. Submit your video here!
5. LinkedIn: Join the Canadian AIDS Society group on LinkedIn and share your story about HIV/AIDS in Canada and what you are doing about it.
- Just Rick
XO
Tags: Canadian aids Society, Canadian HIV/AIDS Awareness Week, HIV/AIDS, lemonAIDS, Rick Johnston, World AIDS Day
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FLASHBACK 2012 :: At this feel-good time of year, we just had to revisit what had to have been one of our most popular posts this year. Have a look and you’ll know why…
SOCIAL MEDIA :: Recently when Rick Johnston shared his post about the anniversary about his HIV-diagnosis on Facebook, his mother commented (above). What she didn’t realize is this inadvertently meant all her friends in the small town in Nova Scotia where she lives would also see her son was HIV-positive:
Tags: GayGuideToronto.com, GGT, HIV/AIDS, lemonAIDS, Rick Johnston, Shaun Proulx Media, TheGayGuideNetwork
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SCOLDING :: When I read here on GGT about the American soap opera General Hospital airing a story where HIV was being used as a deadly weapon via a needle full of infected blood, as an HIV-positive person I had to respond. What are the writers of that show thinking? Seriously! I love a good soap but to sensationalize something that is already stigmatized and rampant with discrimination using more improper information – that society has already been riddled with since the early 80’s – blows my mind! Purposely using something as serious as HIV and AIDS to (I guess?) ‘hopefully’ maintain a dying viewership is lame to say the very least. To take HIV, a virus from which most don’t die anymore, and instill even a slight amount of fear into a mainly unknowledgeable middle-American viewership is out-and-out disgusting!
I would consider myself to be the last person to wish anything ill on someone’s livelihood, but as we have seen with the cancellation of many soaps already, if General Hospital continues to carry on with this storyline, I hope that it is as deadly to this show as the storyline in giving people who may not know any better such terrible misinformation.
Tags: GayGuideToronto.com, General Hospital, GGT, HIV/AIDS, lemonAIDS, Rick Johnston, TheGayGuideNetwork
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LEMONAIDS :: One of my favorite songs by Queen. “These are The Days of Our Lives” was one that, for the past six years, I used as a reflection of what life was for me before HIV. At this time of year – the anniversary date of my HIV diagnosis – I find myself thinking of this song and reflecting.
This year is different for me. Though I still live the song, it is no representation of the reflection that I have about my being HIV-positive. I find that I now reflect on how my life has changed, hugely and for the better. I would not change a thing! I think of what I have done in the past six years, the experiences I have had, the people that I have met and the love that I feel in my heart. I don’t know how different my life would have been but I certainly know that it wouldn’t have been the same if I wasn’t set on the path I began six years back.
Like the man on the soap opera says, these are the days of our lives. I embrace them.
Live, love and laugh peeps!
Xo
Rick
KEEP READING :: Rick Johnston – Graphic HIV
Tags: GayGuideToronto.com, GGT, HIV/AIDS, lemonAIDS, Queen, Rick Johnston, Shaun Proulx Media, TheGayGuideNetwork, These Are The Days Of Our Lives
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THANKSGIVING :: Never having met a camera he doesn’t like, Rick Johnston adds his voice to our Thanksgiving Week focus here on GGT, sharing the one thing he appreciates every year at this time:
Related :: What Richard Ryder, Eddie Stone, Miss Raquel, Jennifer Breakspear and Philip Tetro are thankful for this year.
Tags: GayGuideToronto.com, HIV/AIDS, lemonAIDS, Rick Johnston, Shaun Proulx Media, Thanksgiving, TheGayGuideNetwork
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Jully Black entertains the crowd at this year's Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life Toronto which has raised over $430,000. / Image: Marketwire.com
WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS :: Regular LemonAIDS readers know Rick Johnston‘s leitmotif is to live large, especially as a person living with HIV. In this new vlog, Johnston shares some of what that meant to him this past summer, including an update on former LemonAIDS guest Randy Filby’s success post-CN Tower /AIDS Walk adventure:
Tags: AIDS Walk 2011, Eddie Stone, GayGuideToronto.com, GGT, lemonAIDS, Randy Filby, Rick Johnston, Shaun Proulx Media
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LIVING ON THE EDGE :: The stigma of having HIV/AIDS can be challenge enough for many. Randy Filby is rising to that challenge, coming out – and heading up – as an HIV-positive person in his effort to raise money for the upcoming AIDS Walk. I got the full details from him:
Help Randy achieve his goal – click the link and search ‘Randy Filby’.
Live on the Edge peeps!
xo
Rick
Tags: CN Tower Edge Walk, GayGuideToronto.com, heroes among us, HIV/AIDS, Randy Filby, Rick Johnston, Shaun Proulx Media, The AIDS Committee of Toronto
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With Eddie Stone and Rico Mandarino (centre), Toronto Pride 2009. Photo: Shaun Proulx Media
‘Tis the Season!
I cannot express how excited, energized and elated I am for this time of year (even more than the sparkle and lights of Christmas!).
As we enter the 42nd year since the Stonewall riots and the beginning of the LGBT movement, I embody every ounce of Pride that comes from an equaled amount of hate that fueled those riots.
From this middle-aged, HIV+ gay man, I wish all of you a Happy, Festive and Colorful PRIDE Season, no matter where you are!
Play hard, Love lots and be safe.
Tags: Atlanta Pride, Boston Pride, Chicago Pride, Dallas Pride, Eddie Stone, Enrico Mandarino, GayGuideToronto.com, LA Pride, lemonAIDS, NYC Pride, Rick Johnston, San Francisco Pride, Shaun Proulx Media, Toronto Pride, Washington Pride
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COMICS - Darren Davis’ creation of the new comic Lost Raven is a great addition to any comic-book enthusiast’s collection, especially given it’s profound messaging within brilliantly animated pages.
Think Gilligan’s Island-meets-tropical-Terminator, a sci-fi story of Zak Raven, a high-powered attorney who has just found out that he is HIV-positive (subtext: HIV can infect anyone) and sets sail on the high seas to find himself.
Though Davis has said he has deliberately kept Raven’s sexuality vague “for the purpose of both straight people and gay people (to) get something out of it” (and again: HIV can infect anyone), he has Raven explore hard questions so similar to the ones I as a gay man asked myself when I learned I was HIV-positive. Should I go on medication, or wait? Should I tell my family? What about sex? Will anyone want to have sex with me?
Soon Raven is shipwrecked on a deserted island, which, it turns out isn’t deserted at all.
The island’s inhabitants, creatures resulting from scientific experiments, turn out to be highly relatable to Zak, everyone there feeling isolated, alone, targeted and different, more HIV/AIDS subtext coming alive in a way I would never expect from a comic book. In fact, in all my years of HIV/AIDS activism I have never seen anything like this, using a comic book to capture someone’s attention as far as HIV is concerned is a great, different idea.
Brilliantly done. I can’t wait for the next issue and urge anyone who wants a great lighthearted read yet one with a deeply ingrained message to pick up a copy.
Tags: Darren Davis, GayGuideToronto.com, GGT, Gilligan's Island, HIV/AIDS, lemonAIDS, Lost Raven, Rick Johnston, Shaun Proulx Media, Terminator
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A Girl Can Dream
As with all little girls, this little girl had dreams of finding a handsome prince and one day becoming a princess. Today was proof that dreams really do come true. I dream of a world without HIV and AIDS.
Never stop dreaming peeps!
- just rick
Tags: GayGuideToronto.com, GGT, HIV/AIDS, Rick Johnston, Royal Wedding, Shaun Proulx, Shaun Proulx Media
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