Two former ministers of health and many personalities signed a petition launched by a catering entrepreneur, Camille Genton.
“Today, thanks to antiretroviral treatments, our viral load is undetectable, we can no longer transmit the virus and our life expectancy is the same as that of the average French person”. Camille Genton, a French entrepreneur at the head of nine restaurants in Paris, recalls in a published petition on the Youscribe site these arguments to denounce the discrimination associated with seropositivity.
He notes that, despite the exceptional progress made in recent years, society’s view of people with HIV is still the same. “We refuse to be ashamed of who we are,” he claims.
An entrepreneur without funding
Because serophobia is not reflected only in social relationships, but also in life choices, or daily life. The 32-year-old entrepreneur, who has been HIV-positive for 7 years, can no longer bear having to lie to insurance companies and banks, and not having access to certain training courses or jobs that are closed to HIV-positive people. Publicizing your HIV status at work is also an obstacle to promotions.
Camille Genton suffered in particular from the refusal of funding. “We don’t tell you no because you have HIV, it’s more insidious,” he says in The Parisian. We are trying to discourage you, the deadlines for a response are getting longer. I took the test with nine banks. However, if I want to make a deal, I must be reactive. So I lied to get my loans. He admits to cheating with the law, but opposes his right to undertake.
“We must choose our destinations according to the countries which deign to accept us on their soil”, he is also indignant in the petition, referring to the forty countries, of which Australia, which prohibit the access to people with HIV.
For equal opportunities
He was followed in his approach by many personalities, HIV positive or not. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, researcher and Nobel Prize in medicine 2008 for the co-discovery with Prof. Luc Montagnier of the AIDS virus in 1983, and two former ministers of health, Marisol Touraine and Roselyne Bachelot, signed the petition, but also Jean-Paul Gaultier, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart – main actor of the film 120 beats per minute, Grand Prix of the Cannes festival 2017 -, Inès de La Fressange, the designer Agnès B or the journalist Daphné Bürki and Norbert, the cook and host.
Other anonymous, doctors, lawyers, advertisers, artists, entrepreneurs, executive officers, have also joined the cause. “This virus continues to poison our lives, regrets Camille Genton. This virus of discrimination and rejection applies to us like a double penalty. “For him, as for the 150,000 HIV carriers in France, he calls for” real equality of opportunity and treatment, total and unconditional “.
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