HRC and UConn Launch Survey to Examine Health Care Experiences of Black and Latinx Young Adults
Post submitted by HRC Foundation Research Manager Charlie H. Whittington, M.P.P.
HRC Foundation and researchers at the University of Connecticut are conducting a study to better understand the health care experiences of Black and Latinx young adults. This survey will ask respondents about their health care experiences, including their knowledge and experiences with PrEP. The survey will also ask participants questions about their background and identity, such as their education, relationships and age, and how these have shaped their experiences in the world. All responses are anonymous.
HRC Foundation is committed to addressing gaps in health care, including the lack of access to life-saving medication that contributes to HIV and health inequities in Black and Latinx communities. According to HRC Foundation’s analysis of CDC data, nearly one in four Latinx and Black LGBTQ high school youth say they have not received education about HIV prevention in their schools. This is unacceptable.
Our goal with this project is to identify ways to better connect community members with tools such as PrEP, and with inclusive, competent providers. The results of this survey will be shared with medical providers, policymakers and advocates in an effort to expand access to HIV prevention and care services. We want to help everyone get the care they want, need and deserve.
The survey questions were developed collaboratively with Black and Latinx community members and health care providers, as well as other survey experts. When undertaking surveys, HRC’s goal is to always make sure that the questions are relevant, inclusive and respectful, while being consistent with previous scientific studies to the extent possible.
Raif Derrazi responded to his HIV diagnosis by hitting the gym, hard
“I’m sorry to objectify you,” I said sheepishly to bodybuilder Raif Derrazi. For our videotaped interview, Raif was naked down to the nether regions of his sculpted abs, at my request.
“Not at all!” Raif happily responded. “There’s a time and place for everything, and this is it.”
Raif’s sunny disposition is disarming because as an aging queen who used to be All That, I was ready to resent him terribly. Alas, that is quite impossible. He is aware of his allure – he owns a mirror, after all – but he handles the trappings of hotness with humble aplomb.
Raif is also living with HIV, for seven years now, and he responded to his diagnosis in a fascinating way. He took his “not skinny, not overweight, just average” body and transformed it into a competition-level work of bodybuilding art. He did it as an act of reclaiming his body.
The results of Raif’s transformation have made him an Instagay hottie with a purpose. He uses his platform as a way to educate people about HIV treatment and prevention, physical fitness, and what it means to be undetectable (U=U). Meanwhile, Raif keeps raising the bar on his own personal fitness goals. In two weeks, he competes in his first professional bodybuilding competition.
Today is National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Well here you go! Be aware that I can live and be healthy like this with #HIV #AIDS . Bench press was the 3rd or 4th exercise I did for this chest day workout. Notice that I’m allowing the bar to come all the way down until it touches my chest for full range of motion. And the bar is right at about the nipple line…too much higher and the shoulders will start doing more of the work. I’m also pushing the bar all the way up until my arms are straight. 10-12 reps is solid for an emphasis on muscle growth! . Quit making excuses and get after it ??? . #NGMHAAD#HIVbodybuilder
HRC President to Congress: Anti-LGBTQ Housing Discrimination is “Morally Bankrupt”
Today, Alphonso David, the President of the HRC, testified in a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on anti-LGBTQ discrimination in housing and lending. The hearing also addressed the inhumane and unprecedented attacks on transgender people by HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
HRC President Alphonso David said:
No one should be turned away from an apartment, kicked out of their home, or sent back to the street simply because of who they are or whom they love. LGBTQ people and our families demand fair and equal access to housing opportunities. We want affordable homes, we want quality schools, and we want to feel safe when we lay our heads down at night. These are simple things, but without them the right to fully participate and contribute to our communities as equal members is simply out of reach. Discrimination continues to persist and, for an agency that purports to ensure housing for all, it is illogical and frankly morally bankrupt to harm those in our community who are often closest to the edges. Explicit, federal protections in statute are critical to end discrimination. That is why we need the Equality Act.
On any given day, as many as 10,000 LGBTQ young people do not have a safe place to sleep. In some U.S. cities, 30% of the homeless adult population is LGBTQ. The faces behind these numbers reflect our community’s most vulnerable—our youth, our transgender siblings, and people living with HIV. LGBTQ people face discrimination and rejection in every area of life– at school, at work, and at home. Distressingly, the weight of this discrimination falls disproportionately on the shoulders of LGBTQ people who are Black and Brown.
Last month, Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), made horrific anti-transgender comments at a closed meeting of agency personnel that shocked many staff members and compelled one to walk out during his remarks. Under the leadership of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Carson’s agency has published potential changes that would severely undermine existing protections for transgender people. If this proposed rule is published in its current form, federally-funded emergency shelters would be empowered to turn away transgender people who are homeless or displaced.
Rachel Weisz to play Elizabeth Taylor in new biopic about her HIV work
Elizabeth Taylor on the Oprah Winfrey Show, 1992 (Photo: YouTube)
British actress Rachel Weisz has been cast to play the role of Elizabeth Taylor in an upcoming biopic of the Hollywood legend.
Variety reports that Weisz, 49, will star in A Special Relationship, penned by Slumdog Millionnaire writer Simon Beaufoy).
The film will focus on Taylor’s AIDS and HIV advocacy, as well as her relationship with personal assistant Roger Wall, a gayman who grew up in poverty in the southern US.
Taylor started to campaign to raise awareness around HIV when friends began to fall ill in the early 1980s. Actor Rock Hudson was the first major celebrity to reveal he had the disease, and Taylor publicly stood by his side as his health deteriorated.
The Oscar-winner went on help found amFAR in the mid-80s. She is credited with persuading Ronald Reagan to acknowledge the disease for the first time in a speech in 1987 and testified before the US Senate and House for the Ryan White Care Act.
She launched her own Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991. She was honored with her third Oscar, in recognition of her humanitarian work, in 1993.
Taylor died in 2011, aged 79.
Rachel Weisz in 2018 movie, The Favourite
Weisz is best known for her roles in The Mummy, The Bourne Legacy, and last year’s The Favourite. She won an Oscar for her role in 2005’s The Constant Gardener, among numerous other acting awards.
The movie will be directed by female directing duo Bert&Bertie for See-Saw Films. The production company will pitch the movie to distributors at the American Film Market in Santa Monica in early November.
Did ICE destroy evidence of wrongdoing in the death of a transgender woman?
Courtesy Transgender Law Center
Officials for ICE deleted pivotal and sensitive surveillance footage of Roxsana Hernández, a transgender Honduran woman who died while in custody. Critics say the move could be an attempt to derail a wrongful death lawsuit.
Hernández’s case remains under review with the Transgender Law Center. Andrew Free, a lawyer working with the TLC on the case, hotly criticized ICE for erasing the footage. “ICE and CoreCivic have consistently denied wrongdoing and stated that they in effect provided Roxsana with all the health care she needed,” BuzzFeed News reports. “The video would be essential and frankly irreplaceable evidence of whether that was true.”
ICE refuses to comment on the allegations, other than to say that surveillance footage is routinely deleted after 90 days. The family of Hernández had requested the footage as part of their own investigation well within the 90-day limit. Their request was ignored.
Hernández died of complications from AIDS while in a detention facility operated by CoreCivic, a private security firm that manages the facility at Cibola, just outside Albuquerque. CoreCivic is one of the largest private prison companies in the country. The family of Hernández claims she did not receive proper treatment after an internal investigation by ICE found no evidence that she ever received medication for her HIV+ status. ICE rules state that HIV+ detainees must receive a 30-day supply of antiretroviral medication. Furthermore, an autopsy conducted after her death revealed signs of abuse.
Philip Farabaugh, deputy medical director for ICE Health Service Corps, points out that despite ICE’s policy on HIV+ detainees, administering proper medication requires time and a medical examination. “Hernandez was in transit for most of her brief time with ICE. When she arrived at Cibola, such evaluation could not take place in such a short window of time prior to her transfer to the hospital,” Farabaugh said. “HIV medications are not without risks, and you don’t initiate them when other complex, life-threatening medical conditions are at hand.”
Hernández came to the United States to seek asylum from hostility in Honduras against transgender people. “They kill trans people in Honduras. I’m scared of that,” she said while in transit to the US. Hernández also claimed that a brutal gang rape in Honduras prompted her to come to the US.
Following her death, Hernández’s family began to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against ICE, claiming she did not receive proper care. “Her need for medical attention was obvious, it was documented, and it was life-threatening, and the records we have to date indicate that ICE officials knew those three things and decided to transfer her,” Andrew Free says. “If DHS cannot be trusted to play by the rules, both before and after a detained migrant’s death based on these records, how can DHS be trusted to continue imprisoning migrants at all?”
+Life counters HIV stigma with powerful new weekly video series
Credit: +Life
+Life is a new digital lifestyle brand which focuses on combating the stigma facing those living with HIV. Available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and at PlusLifeMedia.com, +Life is produced by AOMEDIA and provides original content that shatters stereotypes, myths and inaccuracies about living with HIV. The +Life team will be working with GLAAD on upcoming videos and has already attended several GLAAD events where they have brought up much needed discussions of HIV.
The creation of +Life was inspired by Karl Schmid, an internationally known entertainment reporter who has been a featured talent on leading networks including KABC, ABC.com, TLC and Logo, as well as on programming in his native Australia. Schmid opened up about his own HIV-positive status in a Facebook post in 2018. Schmid serves as +Life’s editorial director, and will use the platform to continue sharing his message and educating others on the realities of living with HIV.
+Life launched with an original weekly video series called “+Talk.” Hosted by Schmid, it features honest conversations and empowering information around topics like the recent undetectable = untransmittable public education work. New content will be added regularly across social media channels, with +Talk episodes available on Facebook and YouTube.
“I kept my diagnosis secret for 10 long years because some well-meaning people I trusted told me that revealing my status would ruin my career. Did I really want to be known as ‘the guy on TV with AIDS?’ Then one afternoon while scrolling through The AIDS Memorial Instagram account, I was inspired to overcome my fear, and decided to share my positive status,” said Schmid. “I was amazed at the overwhelming support I immediately received from loved ones and strangers around the world, and my hope for +Life, is that it helps others learn they too, have the freedom to live and love proudly, and help change stigma-induced fear common among those living with the disease in private. A positive HIV status is not something that should hold anyone back from achieving their dreams and living life to its fullest potential.”
More than 37 million people globally are living with HIV today. Today, people who have HIV and engage in proper medical treatment can’t pass it on and live long, healthy, and productive lives, however, stigma remains and impacts access to health care, employment, and community.
+Life has plans for additional programming including interviews with newsmakers and activists, as well as relaying the latest in practical medical information. +Life will also address topics related to sex, dating and relationships, from the perspective of people living with HIV and their partners.
“+Life is for those living with HIV, the people who support them, and anyone at risk of contracting the disease – which is everyone,” said Executive Producers Brent Zacky and Michael Spierer, AOMEDIA. “Fear and lack of information can literally be a death sentence for people who do not get tested or are afraid to seek treatment. Our goal is to entertain while we educate, building a community and providing the facts everyone needs to lead happy, healthy, complete lives.”
Wrote Ocean: “Club culture around late 70s and 80s nightlife in NYC was a special, much talked about and written about thing. From the star studded midtown clubs like studio 54 and the first danceteria to the downtown clubs like Mudd + paradise garage. The figures, the music, the looks, the lack of regulation haha. I recognize NY wasn’t all lasers and disco lighting and that simultaneously, there was a lot of crime and poverty and that a huge part of club culture, the gay community, at that time were being wiped out by HIV + AIDS.”
“Now in 2019, there’s a pill you can take every day that will at a better than 90% chance prevent you from contracting HIV,” he added. “This pill was approved by the FDA in 2012. The pricing strategy behind it is malicious in my opinion and so it’s (sic) public perception is marred and rightfully so. But the fact remains that despite price being a very real barrier to this potentially life saving drug for some, the other very real barrier is awareness. I decided to name, what was otherwise going to be a night of lights and music inspired by an era of clubbing that I loved PrEP+ because while designing the club which is inside of an old glass factory basement in Queens (shoutout to The Basement that runs a very awesome techno night on Fridays after us) I started to imagine in an era where so many lives were lost and so much promise was lost forever along with them, what would it have been like if something, anything had existed that in all probability would’ve saved thousands and thousands of lives.”
Ocean continued: “I’m an artist, it’s core to my job to imagine realities that don’t necessarily exist and it’s a joy to. A couple days before we threw the party, I was discussing this subject with my team and one of the architects I work with thought that PrEP as a drug had reached ‘100% saturation’ so far as awareness. I thought he was dead wrong so I asked a friend (who I won’t name haha) if he knew what PrEP was and his response was ‘isn’t that some type of viagra or something’. My ex who I was with for several years didn’t know about it when we first met at a gay club in LA. Awareness isn’t always what we’d hope it would be. But anyway, I’m ranting. I’m happy that folks are talking about the subject in the first place. Thank you to everyone who came out and danced with us last night. Y’all were beautiful and the energy was right! Thank you Bouffant Bouffant, Sango, Justice and Sherelle for your sets last night they were soo good man. Oh one more thing, I saw someone say that this was a PR stunt etc etc, pshhh bitch pls come get a drink next time and I’ll put several barstools out so you can have as many seats as you need. All my love everybody really. Stay safe.”
Ocean this week also released a new track called DHL.
Azealia Banks found herself the center of controversy (again) over the weekend after she criticized Frank Ocean for launching a queer club night entitled PrEP+.
Singer and rapper Ocean launched the club at short notice last Thursday in New York City. Announcing news of the event, GayLetter said: “The night is named PrEP+ as an homage to what could have been of the 1980s’ NYC club scene if the drug PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) – which can be taken daily to prevent HIV/AIDs for those who are not infected but are at high risk – had been invented in that era.”
In an Instagram story, Azealia Banks took exception to the name and voiced criticisms of the medication – which is taken by users to prevent them from acquiring HIV. She questioned the drug’s potential side effects and people allowing others to cum inside them.
Azealia Banks has made some points AGAIN! Gays stay off that prep shit because the white media is plotting on y’all & you’re making it too damn easy for them pic.twitter.com/nN47VTiPGY
“There’s no reason you need to have a fucking pill so you can just fuck whoever you wanna fuck,” she said.
“The boys are still getting HIV. The girls are getting fucking renal failure. They’re getting liver fucking failure, they’re getting anal warts, they’re getting anal cancer, OK? That’s a fucking death trap.”
“And for that dumbass n*gga Frank Ocean to sit up there and fucking promote that to y’all gays like that’s something that y’all need? It’s evil. And he’s probably getting paid.
She suggested that anyone taking PrEP may have a “sex addiction” and should seek help from a psychiatrist, before imploring people not to allow “everybody” to cum inside them and, “be responsible!”
One of those to criticize Banks’ comments was Olly Alexander of the band Years and Years. Alexander is currently filming a Russell T Davies drama set in London in the 1980s, exploring the impact of AIDS on the gay community.
Pls don’t listen to azealia banks talk about prep if you want some information i highly recommend @TeamPrepster and this page here t.co/yeWE7c4O2r
“Pls don’t listen to Azealia banks talk about prep if you want some information I highly recommend @TeamPrepster and this page here prepster.info/prep-faqs/,” said the gay singer on Twitter.
“We absolutely won’t be listening to any mis-information or shaming of people taking prep!
“There are lots of reasons why somebody might choose to take prep. we want people to have access to health care and to feel empowered to make the choices right for them.
“This issue is extremely complex and touches on our collective history as queer people and our relationship to HIV.
“I ask for people to be a little thoughtful before they start labeling people on prep as – in Azealia’s case, just whores who want it raw. It’s homophobic and actually it does not concern you in the slightest.”
Frank Ocean has not responded specifically to Banks’ comments, although he posted a Tumblr post in response to some of the criticism of his club night. He started by clarifying that the event was in no way sponsored by Gilead, the manufacturer of Truvada.
Ocean went on to say he wanted to pay tribute to the 80s and 90s club scene, but also acknowledge how that scene was impacted by HIV and AIDS.
“Now in 2019, there’s a pill you can take every day that will at a better than 90% chance prevent you from contracting HIV. This pill was approved by the FDA in 2012. The pricing strategy behind it is malicious in my opinion and so it’s public perception is marred and rightfully so.
“But the fact remains that despite price being a very real barrier to this potentially life saving drug for some, the other very real barrier is awareness.
“I decided to name, what was otherwise going to be a night of lights and music inspired by an era of clubbing that I loved PrEP+ because while designing the club … I started to imagine in an era where so many lives were lost and so much promise was lost forever along with them, what would it have been like if something, anything had existed that in all probability would’ve saved thousands and thousands of lives.”
Banks, who is bisexual, is no stranger to controversy. The “212” singer has previously blasted drag culture and RuPaul, and called Perez Hilton and Zayn Malik “faggots.”
At the time, she defended her use of the word “faggot” by saying she believed it similar to gaymen using the word “bitch’ to refer to women, but later said she would stop using it when she realized that it was not worth the hurt it caused to people.
