September 25, 2015
Earlier this month, providers, frontline workers, activists and others met in Washington, DC for the annual United States Conference on AIDS, the largest gathering in the nation of organizations working on HIV/AIDS.
The theme—The Numbers Don’t Lie: It’s Time to End Disparities—was evident throughout the meeting, from a kick-off plenary on #blacklivesmatter to various actions by and for transgender communities. These sessions and actions highlighted the myriad issues many communities face, in addition to HIV/AIDS—and the recognition that without acknowledging intersectionality (a framework of understanding how a variety of oppressions can intersect), the HIV epidemic will never end.
Members of the AVAC team and its US PxROAR program were active at the conference discussing HIV prevention in this context. The conference was appreciated all around as a place to reflect and strategize. Read the ROARers’ blogs below as they take measure of the past year’s successes in trans visibility, PrEP acceleration, treatment trends and the stubborn challenges of criminalization of sex work, drug use and people living with HIV; racism; poverty; lack of health literacy and access disparities, still at the forefront of HIV in the US.
- We Are the Transgender Women and PrEP Affinity Group and WE RECRUIT!, by Julie Patterson
- Reflections From USCA: What is the Role of Public Health in a Police State?, by Lindsay Roth
- A Gift I Needed, by Lisa Diane White
- What Kind of Advocate Are You?, by Minster Rob Newells
- The Numbers Don’t Lie, by Marsha Jones
- We’ve Come a Long Way, by Cindra Feuer