Filmmaker David Furnish has said he
believes his son will be part of the generation to live in an
AIDS-free world.
Last Christmas day, Furnish and singer
Elton John welcomed baby Zachary to their family.
During an interview with gay glossy The
Advocate, Furnish, the chairman of the Elton John AIDS
Foundation, said he became active in the fight against AIDS after
watching many of his friends succumb to the disease in the 80s.
“And I watched them die very
solitary, stigmatized deaths,” Furnish said. “This is a disease
that has killed 30 million people, and 37 million people on our
planet are living with the virus. It's a pandemic. Having been
personally affected by it, it feel it's important to get involved as
much as possible.”
“I would like to see my son in his
lifetime live in a world without AIDS,” he later added. “And
whether we discover a vaccine or a cure, if we can address stigma and
homophobia, we can stop the disease from being spread to other
people. And since we know with the programs we're doing around the
world that we can prevent mother-to-child transmission in
HIV-positive mothers, we can literally visualize an AIDS-free next
generation – and my son is going to be a part of that.”