Christophe Martet, a French journalist, has dedicated his life to the fight against HIV. HIV-positive, he was an activist with ACT UP-New York in the 1990s, before becoming president of ACT UP-Paris. Now at the head of Vers Paris sans sida, he looks back on his years of fighting the disease that has killed tens of millions of people worldwide since the start of the epidemic.
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” I took the HIV test in October 1985 as soon as it was available. It was positive. » From the association’s premises Towards Paris without AIDSin the 10th arrondissement of the capital, Christophe Martet recounts the moment that changed his life, when he was only 26 years old.
For this recently retired journalist, his activism began early. I first demonstrated in 1977, when I was in high school, against the Stoléru laws. And I was in Paris on April 4, 1981 for the first National March of Homosexuals and Lesbians. It was the day of my 22e birthday, I arrive from Strasbourg with my lover of the time ” he recalls, a smile on his lips.
At the time, the subject of HIV was taboo. Christophe Martet did not discuss his HIV status with his family after his test, since he had not yet had his coming out with her. We will have to wait for her public statements on the subject, a few years later. Until the early 1990s, it was very difficult to talk about AIDS. Yet, around me, people were dying, he laments. Sometimes parents hid the cause of their child’s death, they didn’t want it to be known. »
Then a journalist at France 2, he decided to take a sabbatical and go to New York in 1990, at the age of 31. At Cooper Union, in the south of Manhattan, Christophe Martet discovered ACT UPthe association for the fight against AIDS. “I found a group there that corresponded to what I wanted to do: get informed, campaign and shout in the street, because it feels good! [rires] »
” I thought I was going to be next on the list »
At ACT UP, he joined the media group. I was a little desperate, I had lost my friends and I thought I was going to be next on the list. So, I wanted to do something “, explains the journalist. Within the association’s working groups, he meets long-time activists, as well as men who came from Wall Street. All these different profiles who came to fight for the same cause. ” It was a kind of patchwork, but above all it was a coalition.he specifies. We all came from different backgrounds, but the subject of AIDS hit us so hard that we worked together.. »
Faced with the deteriorating health situation, Christophe Martet took part in the Day of Desperation, a huge day of mobilization organized by ACT UP in January 1991. “The American government said it had no budget to fight AIDS but was financing the Gulf War at the same time. So we wanted to invade the public space and put our demands back on the front burner. “, he recalls. In a shock action, hundreds of activists invaded Grand Central Station, the largest in New York, and blocked it during rush hour. It was impressive. »
Christophe Martet returned to France in 1991 and joined ACT UP-Paris, which was created following the American model. After several years, he finally became president of the association in 1994 and remained so for two years. At the same time, France was facing its highest death toll related to AIDS. ” The period was very hardregrets the activist. But ACT UP-Paris was very powerful in those years. In 1995, we carried out 85 militant actions, or one every four days. »
Forty years of activism
After many years of campaigning within ACT UP, Christophe Martet decided to return to journalism by launching in 2008, with three colleagues, Yagg, a news site and social network focused on issues LGBT+. He quickly became essential to the members of the community. But his activist commitment did not stop there. He joined the Association for the Recognition of the Rights of Homosexual and Trans People to Immigration and Residence (Ardhis), for which he still volunteers today.
The latest chapter – for the moment – of Christophe Martet’s commitment is his appointment as President of Towards Paris without AIDS in March 2023. The association was launched by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, UNAIDS and several large cities around a common objective: to end AIDS by 2030. If the journalist is optimistic, he nevertheless remains very cautious. In Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, we are on track in terms of effective treatment against HIV. A person who discovers their HIV status today will be able to see their health restored fairly quickly. “, he rejoices. But there is still too long a delay between contamination and screening. ” This is why people are still dying of AIDS, even though the treatments are very effective. »
At the age of 65, the journalist retired last April. But for him, stopping the fight five and a half years from the 2030 objective is impossible. We must not give up. I have no children or grandchildren, my commitment is the reason why I get up every morning, he claims. I experienced the very beginnings of the epidemic. It had such an impact on my life, and on the lives of hundreds of millions of people, and somewhere, I tell myself that I wouldn’t have done all that for nothing. ” he confides, his gaze determined.
As he looks back on his 40 years of activism, he acknowledges that with ACT UP, ” We have helped to move things forward. Today, AIDS is a disease that is under control. “But, for him, this assessment remains mixed, after decades of struggle. There have been so many deaths. All those I have lost, I think of them and I stay with their ghosts almost daily. To continue to fight, I owe that to them. »