Elton John: Include LGBT Community In Fight Against AIDS

“We can not lose a sense of urgency, because despite all the progress we have made, HIV remains among the most pressing and urgent of global challenges – 1.1 million people died of Aids and 2.1 million were infected past year alone”.

Prince Harry has recently focused more of his engagements around HIV – even taking a HIV test himself in a Facebook Live video earlier this month.

He said during the past decade he had seen “amazing progress” in Lesotho in the treatment of the physical and mental effects of HIV.

“She smashed the stigma around HIV on more than one occasion”. Our team there create a safe and open environment where young people are encouraged to share their experiences of living with HIV, often for the first time, with their peers.

It remained the number one cause of death among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa, Harry said, and it was time for “a new generation of leaders to step forward” to continue the fight. “We will be there for them, and we will battle every step of the way”. What I can do is ensure that people who are LGBT, if the clinics are closed down we can give them medicine, if they are arrested we can get them legal aid. Without education and empowerment‚ HIV would win.

“But thanks to the work of leaders in the fight against HIV – people like Nelson Mandela, Sir Elton John, the courageous activists of TAG and ACT UP, people like Dr Peter Piot, and like my mother, Princess Diana – we have made huge progress”. We will fight for their rights, their human rights, their health, everything. “It needs to stop here and now”. If you don’t, this campaign to end AIDS will be a disaster.

This is according to Prince Harry‚ co-founder and patron of the Lesotho-based Sentebale foundation that supports and treats children who have the disease.

The two princes watched as their organisation’s staff and youth volunteers explained how residential camps, monthly Saturday clubs and caregiver days help educate families and communities on supporting young people in their care with HIV.

The British royal spoke at the International AIDS Conference in South Africa on Thursday.

“I know that certain governments in Africa will not respond to someone like me telling them ‘You should do this, you should do that, ‘” John said at the news conference, held on Wednesday.