1990-1991
In this June 1990 issue of the Khush Khayal newsletter, an advertisement for “JUMP UP With Khush”, a Caribbean Style Dance, can be found on page 2. It is noted that the proceeds of this dance were going to the South Asian AIDS Coalition (SAAC), later known as the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP/ASAAP).
Under the “Khush Khabri (Khushnews)” section on page 3, there is a blurb about the City of Toronto funding the South Asian AIDS Coalition (SAAC) with around $26,000 for AIDS prevention.
Below that is a paragraph mentioning Anthony and his involvement with the Lesbian and Gay Pride Day.
An advertisement for the South Asian AIDS Coalition (SAAC) can be found on page 7.
The South Asian AIDS Coalition (SAAC) is listed under the “Group Directory” section on page 8.
In this December 1990 issue of the Khush Khayal newsletter, Anthony Mohamed is pictured on the front page as part of a piece on his role in the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP/ASAAP). The piece continues on page 2.
As the co-ordinator of ASAP, Anthony explains “South Asians continue to believe that AIDS is primarily a white gay male problem” and “the lack of information around AIDS directed to South Asians accentuates the risk the community faces”.
He explains that “AIDS is an issue close to the heart” so when he saw the job ad, he felt it was meant for him.
Anthony ends off the interview with a reminder to the readers “Don’t forget to wear your condoms or dental dams everytime, and never share needles. See you at the office”.
A poster advertising the documentary titled “BOLO! BOLO!” by Ian Iqbal Rashid & Kaspar Jivan Saxena, produced in conjunction with the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP/ASAAP) and Toronto Living With AIDS.
This clipping from India Abroad newspaper features an article by Ajit Jain titled “AIDS Demonstrations”.
Jain talks about the upcoming demonstration planned by the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP/ASAAP) for August 13th, outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto.
The demonstration is in opposition to an Indian government-sponsored AIDS Prevention Bill.
Anthony Mohamed asserts the bill “favors confinement, surveillance and coercive testing over care, treatment and education”.
He explains how the bill “seeks to empower health authorities to forcibly test, isolate and detain an HIV-infected person or anyone suspected of being so, without any obligation to inform those tested about the nature or consequences of the test”.
An informative brochure about AIDS produced by the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP/ASAAP), which Anthony was a part of.
This newspaper clipping features an article by Glenn Cooly titled “Coercion in India on AIDS patients”.
Throughout the article, Cooly references the claims and allegations from the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP/ASAAP) against “India’s medical and policing practices regarding people who have AIDS or are HIV-positive”.
Cooly interviews Anthony who says “This is not a strategy at all for combatting AIDS . . . It’s completely irresponsible, and it’s not like they don’t know what they’re doing because they’ve heard from the World Health Organization (WHO) numerous times on their policies”.
Anthony also explains that “while the government continues to crack down on people it believes are in high-risk groups, it has failed to institute widely accepted public health practices such as screening of blood donor samples for HIV”.
In this May 1991 issue of the Khush Khayal newsletter, the South Asian AIDS Coalition (SAAC), later known as the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAP/ASAAP), is listed under the “Group Directory” section on page 8.
In this October 1991 issue of the ACTlife newsletter, Anthony Mohamed, a member of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, is featured on the cover alongside five other gay men from the Youth Advisory Committee for ACT as part of a piece on safer sex in the young gay community of Toronto. Anthony is sitting right in the middle of the young people, wearing a white t-shirt, shorts and a neck chain.
For the piece itself, (which can be found on pages 4-5) ACT reached out to “people at Lesbian and Gay Youth Toronto”, and in May of that year “invited them and other community groups to set up a Youth Advisory Committee for ACT”.
Anthony is also pictured in the piece itself, sitting next to other members of the Youth Advisory Committee for ACT. He is second from the upper left.
This committee consisted of eight young men from “ACT, Street Outreach Services, the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, Two Spirited Peoples of the First Nations and the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention” and ACT’s Gay Men’s Education Coordinator. The committee’s task was to “design a safer sex campaign for young gay men”.
In reference to the campaign, Anthony Mohamed notes “It had to speak to all of us directly”. He explains “We had to see ourselves in it. And it had to say, 'We're proud of ourselves, we protect ourselves, we take care of each other. We're the future. And we feel good about it’”.