People with AIDS deplore 'cheap, shabby' attack

The National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) has strongly condemned today‘s statement by Derryn Hinch that Graham Kennedy died of an AIDS-related illness.

“Mr Hinch’s” words have deeply angered HIV-positive Australians,” said NAPWA President Ms Gabe McCarthy. “Using someone‘s supposed HIV status to attack and revile them is a shameful, despicable act. Doing so when the person is unable to defend themself is simply beneath contempt.”

“People living with HIV/AIDS know all too well the stigma their infection carries, and still face discrimination and vilification, despite twenty years of success in combating and understanding this disease. The fact that someone with Mr Hinch‘s profile is prepared to use their position to attack people living with serious illness for the purpose of making a salacious attack of this kind shows just how far we still have to go,” she said.

“HIV-positive people deserve respect and a fair go. NAPWA deplores this cheap, shabby attack and calls on Derryn Hinch to apologise for the hurt his remarks have caused.”

NAPWA expressed its sympathy to Mr Kennedy’s friends and family in their time of grief.

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