Edwin Cameron - Taking a Risk

We kick off our series with former South African court justice, HIV advocate and tireless defender of LGBTQ+ rights, Edwin Cameron.  From his tough childhood growing up in a children’s home, he went on to an outstanding legal career, and was described by Nelson Mandela as ‘One of South Africa’s new heroes’. In this episode, Edwin talks frankly about growing up as a poor white child in the apartheid era, about the trauma of getting diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s, and the difficult decision to declare his HIV status publicly – he is still the only prominent public figure in Africa to do so.  ‘Sometimes, in appropriate circumstances, you’ve got to take a risk, and the risk, when you are doing the right thing, is often rewarded. ‘

How have attitudes to HIV changed in South Africa since Edwin Cameron took that risk? And what gives him hope as the fight against the stigma of HIV continues?  

Adult themes.

Books by Edwin Cameron:

Witness to Aids

Justice: A Personal Account

Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa

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