Madam, - I wish to express in the strongest terms my objection to Kevin Myers's Irishman's Diary of July 22nd. It is both inaccurate and offensive on a number of levels, not least in terms of his description of men who have contracted HIV through unprotected anal intercourse. It would appear that Mr Myers and The Irish Times are wholly unaware of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989.
Despite his assertion that AIDS is not something he wishes to "speak lightly of", Mr Myers's article has served irresponsibly, to reinforce the stigma experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS by claiming that HIV is a "disease of volition". By such outrageous reasoning, many chronic illnesses could be so termed. Nobody chooses to contract HIV, in the same way that people who may have been exposed to smoke-filled environments in the past did not choose to put themselves at risk of heart disease or cancer.
Furthermore, the scale of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic is trivialised by Mr Myers's excessive generalisation and poor understanding of the issue. "In the absence of a cure, education is the social vaccine," said Kadar Asmal, former education minister of South Africa. May I suggest that Kevin Myers acquires some. - Yours, etc.,
ANN NOLAN, Executive Director, Dublin AIDS Alliance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.