A commentary by Florian Winkler-Ohm - Role model of the campaign ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU and HIV positive
The 20th lesbian-gay city festival in Berlin-Schöneberg advertises itself with the slogan "Equal rights for unequal people". It's a slogan that the organisers themselves probably didn't really choose as the basis for their actions when naming their individual festival areas. Surely the masses of visitors will feel at home in the "Sports World", the "Film World" or even the "Wellness and Health World". However, the area that focuses on education, reducing discrimination and providing information about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections is advertised with the clumsy and puffery term "Aids World".
The name seems simply misleading when you look at the work of all those who volunteer their time on Motzstraße during these days. Many HIV-infected people, who sacrifice their free time on these days to help visitors overcome their fear of contact with HIV-positive people in line with the city festival slogan, certainly also find the name inappropriate and discriminatory.
And why can't an HIV-positive person also be part of a sports or health world? At the street party, however, worlds are placed next to each other and thus also separated from each other, as if they were mutually exclusive. But we all live in ONE world. An event that fights for acceptance and "equal rights" for all should also express this and not divide or demarcate itself.
For years, organisations such as Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe have been educating people with the ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU campaign so that HIV and AIDS are not lumped together. Even school classes in rural areas now learn the clear difference in prevention lessons and know that in the 21st century, AIDS is no longer at the forefront of HIV diseases.
However, the organisers of the Rainbow Fund from the capital seem to be unaware of the difference. It's time for them to get the clarification they need at one of the many information stands in Motzstraße this year to finally put an end to such misleading names next year.
So we can only hope that, despite the stigmatising name, visitors will visit Motzstrasse in the "Aidswelt" and me there, find out more and then realise that they are actually standing in an area that has been misnamed.
Those who demand "equal rights for unequal people" should also fulfil them.
