HIV advocates become senior citizens
Two leading HIV awareness advocates have been named on a list of twenty ambassadors for NSW Seniors Week, running from March 15 – 22.
Ita Buttrose, the former editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly and AIDS awareness advocate, and Stuart Wagstaff, patron of the Stanford House for people with HIV, have been named as seniors ambassadors for 2009.
In their role the pair will attend events throughout the state, sharing their experiences with up to 250,000 people, said the NSW Minister for Ageing and Disability Services, Paul Lynch.
Seniors Week is a time to celebrate older members of our community and to recognise the important contribution they make to our state each day.
It is exciting to have such high calibre and well-respected ambassadors who, through their achieve-ments and positive outlook, embody what it means to live life, he said before announcing the list.
Other seniors taking up positions as ambassador include journalist and political commentator Mungo MacCallum, ballerina Marilyn Jones, choreographer Nancye Hayes, architect Penelope Seidler and Susan Ryan, the former Minister Assisting on the Status of Women in the Hawke Labor Government.
info: For a full list of events during Seniors Week go to www.nswseniorsweek.com.au.
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It is wonderful to see supporters of the gay community as ambassadors for seniors week – one can only hope that they speak out about the horror being inflicted on gay seniors as a result of the same sex reforms and Centrelink set to force old people out of the closet, invade their privacy, inspect their houses and ask questions of neighbours and family about their relationship. And ask about their sexual relationship. Shameful and we need ambassadors to speak out and say that this is mistreatment of seniors and abusive.
I am sure that Ita and Stuart and others such as Susan Ryan will express concern and disgust, as international experts on human rights and aged care have done.
There will be no celebration for gay seniors during 2009 unless the federal government protects them from outing and grandfathers them from these harmful reforms, giving them some peace so late in life.