Activists celebrate AIDS Day

Associated Press
Published: December 1, 2008

BEIJING (AP) - World AIDS Day is being celebrated around the world by activists hoping to reduce the stigma and shatter perceptions held by societies and governments.
    In China, activists are skeptical of a pledge to now fight discrimination against people with the disease. China has long denied AIDS was ever a problem and dozens of AIDS activists were put under house arrest or surveillance just before the Olympics.
    In South Africa, where more live with AIDS than anywhere else, people stopped for a moment of silence led by a government also once known for denying the severity of the problem.
    Yesterday in Haiti organizers held what’s called the Caribbean nation’s first openly gay march. Haiti has long been plagued by the virus, though the rate of AIDS has fallen by more than half since 1996.