World AIDS Day. Ah yes. That would be Monday.
What with the Ebola crisis and everything it is easy to forget that we have not concluded this chapter in our collective history. AIDS is still a threat. HIV is a reality far too many people still live with...and far more fear.
In the days following my early encounters, I panicked about every sneeze or sniffle as I surfed Dr Google for symptoms of infection. I knew it was irrational behaviour but didn’t know where to go for real information. I didn’t feel comfortable speaking with my doctor and couldn’t bring it up with my friends. And so I lingered briefly in this world where I made decisions based on fear and ignorance.
--Andrew Gills, the importance of HIV/AIDS education
Planet
Days Will Come
Days will come
when sanity will
regain supremacy,
when disease will
be battled without
political consideration,
when people's deaths
will not be occasions
to seek out
personal advantage.
But not today.
--Robyn Elaine Serven
--December 1, 2005
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Transgender people, particularly transgender women, constitute one of the groups at highest risk of HIV infection. But AIDS activists are cluing us in to the fact that we are not getting fair treatment from health providers and, in fact, many institutions are dispensing discrimination rather than health care.
Advocates, who charge that too often transgender individuals get bitter, and sometimes hostile, receptions from healthcare providers, say change needs to take place in order to get people the treatment they need.
When we trans people seek help, we are often met with disrespect, if not out and out discrimination. guess what happens then: people are dissuaded from seeking help and lives are put at risk.
If a trans woman is found to be carrying condoms, police in many locations consider that to be evidence that the transwoman is a prostitute.
The grievances range from paperwork lacking their gender identity to medical personnel addressing trans individuals as “mister” when they are female. Sadly, these and other bad experiences have created such resentment in the transgender community that many are reluctant to seek treatment.
I hurt myself recently, but didn’t want to go to the hospital because I know what the experience will be.
Fifty percent of all trans women of color in the United States are impacted by HIV,” said Hunter. “However, a lot of time, organizations are not informed on transgenders. They don’t have the cultural competency to deal with us.
--Lourdes Ashley Hunter, co-founder of the Trans Women of Color Collective
Hunter has a simple solution:
Employ trans people who’ll bring culture competency and experiences to healthcare.
For years, they’ve been and continue to be invisible. Transgender has a huge stigma attached to it. It’s a marginalized community that has rights and that needs to access services like healthcare.
---Soraya Elcock, president and CEO of Creating Access Consulting Services
We must address the needs of the transgender community. We’ll be making a big mistake if we don’t reach out and understand their needs and develop meaningful and sensitive initiatives to benefit this growing community in our city.
--Guillermo Chacón, presdident of the Latino Commission on AIDS