Love & Passion Quote by Emma Thompson

Thompson’s line lands like a polite sentence with a quiet alarm bell inside it. She isn’t trading in shock; she’s pointing to the kind of everyday silence that, in public health, becomes lethal. By naming Uganda, Mozambique, and South Africa, she signals she’s talking about places shaped by the long shadow of HIV/AIDS and the way cultural norms and institutional power can turn a medical tool into a moral battleground.

The phrasing does a lot of work. “People don’t really talk about sex” sounds mild, almost conversational, but it indicts a social infrastructure of avoidance: if sex can’t be spoken about plainly, prevention can’t be taught plainly, negotiated plainly, or funded plainly. Then she narrows the focus: “certainly religious leaders - some of them -” is careful, strategic. She anticipates backlash and preempts the accusation of stereotyping by carving out exceptions, while still naming religion as a gatekeeper with real-world consequences.

The subtext is that condoms aren’t controversial because of their efficacy; they’re controversial because they force communities to admit that sex happens outside approved scripts. “Up to now” is the pressure point: it frames opposition not as an eternal truth but as a stance that can change, and that should have changed already. Coming from an actress and public figure, the intent is pragmatic advocacy, not theory. She’s using her platform to translate an abstract policy dispute into a blunt cultural reality: stigma doesn’t just shame people; it blocks the simplest harm reduction.