On this day in history: Judge Edwin Cameron reveals his HIV status
On 20 April 1999, Justice Edwin Cameron revealed he has been living with HIV since 1987.
Justice of the Constitutional Court, Edwin Cameron made headlines in 1999 when he announced that he had been living with HIV for twelve years.
Cameron was one of the first few high profile people to publicly disclose his status. He had said at the time that he was inspired by the case of Gugu Dlamini. Dlamini was stoned and stabbed to death after disclosing on a local radio show that she had HIV.
Cameron said in an interview: “I thought my life had been taken away from me. I was diagnosed with HIV. It was the darkest days of the epidemic, and dire days in the struggle against apartheid. For AIDS there was no cure. And the apartheid government seemed determined to reduce our country to repressive chaos. For me a long period of depression and isolation followed. I was terrified that I would fall ill immediately.”
Cameron is openly gay and has been active in the fight against HIV/AIDS. While serving as human rights lawyer at the Witwatersrand University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies, he co-drafted the Charter of Rights on AIDS and HIV, co-founded the AIDS Consortium and founded the AIDS Law Project.
Source: SA History
