I Don't Want to Talk About it - Biography of Tony Carden by his mother Lesley Saddington

Tony Carden was a gay activist in Sydney and apart from the fact that he died of AIDS, he was also involved with organisations such as ACT UP, an activist group which it could in effect be said to have been imported from the USA where, thanks to Ronald Reagan,the number of deaths fromm HIV/AIDS had become astronomical. I suppose one could say that bin an way we were lucky in Australia when AIDS landed here,beucause to a certain extent we couldlearn from the US disaster and try and see that we did not make all the mistakes made in the USA. One thing we were lucky about was that we had a goverment at that time was composed of severalpeople who were progressive thinkers and were to achieve some progressive moves which helped to save the lives of thousands of people, mostly young men. We were also fortunate that gay liberation was in its early days and there were many youg people who became politically active which helped so many youg people understand actions that needed to be taken in order to work towards changing the political climate. One such person was Tony Carden who was at the forefront of activism in ACT UP and the likes which changed the politics of activism. Tony Carden died of AIDS and his mother Lesley Saddington has written a book about his life which should go a long way for today's young people to learn how to go about changing the politics of conservatism and effecting the changes we all need for a freer society and na less oppressive climate for the gay and lesbian and other people of diverse sexualities to live in a climate of less oppression making a happier set ofcommunities. I came out as a gay man when I was 61 in the early days of HIV/AIDS, and so was able to learn early about safe sex and other difficulties we were burdened with thanks to Reagen and Margaret Thatcher who was busy introducing some of the most conservative palicies in the UK of any white goverments in the Western world. To learn a great deal about life in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, the book just published by Lesley Saddington is a must read called "I Don'[t Want to Talk About it. It reminded me a great deal of the great horrors of those terrible years.