Sep 19 2015
The 2015 US Conference on AIDS was held September 10-13 in Washington, DC. On the opening day dozens of transgender and gender-nonconforming people seized the stage at the lunchtime plenary session to draw attention to HIV+ gender-variant people.
The group was chanting, We are not gay men! to protest the inclusion of trans women in gay male research and statistics.
Jan 11 2014
On December 9, 2013 the Center for Disease Control released a report entitled HIV Among Transgender People.
Two days ago Leela Ginelle, communications and development intern for TransActive Education and Advocacy wrote an Op-Ed at the Advocate: Why the CDC’s Latest HIV Report Is So Alarming.
The CDC report says an estimated 27% of transgender women are HIV positive, which is nearly 50 times as high as the rate for other adults. A New York City study found that more than 90% of newly diagnosed transwomen are African-American or Latina, and more than half are in their 20s.
Ginelle asks the question, “Why?”
Aug 21 2010
Helena Bushong was diagnosed with AIDS in 2002. She probably had been HIV+ since 1985. She also has Hepatitis C and is a survivor of spinal cancer.
But she has one hell of a strong backbone.
This past week she was interviewed about being transgender, black and poz. Do yourself a favor and go see what she has to say for herself. The video is not embeddable.
I felt comfortable in my own skin for the first time in my 56 years.
–Helena Bushong, about going on homone therapy
But y’all come back, y’hear!
And there is more…
Dec 30 2009
Most of you know who Zelda Rubinstein is, even if you don’t know her by name. The 4′ 3″ actress made a huge mark in popular culture when she starred as the mysterious Tangina Barrons in the Poltergeist series, delivering one of the film’s most memorable lines – “Step into the light, Carol Anne!” – and winning a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress to boot.
Many of us (myself included) might not realize that Rubinstein was also an activist, among the first celebrity faces of the safe sex campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS – doing so all the way back in 1984, at great personal and professional risk.
Today radaronline is reporting that Rubinstein was taken off life support. I’d like to send best wishes to her and her family, along with warm thanks for all that she’s done.
Jun 30 2009
Taught my first daughter well as she did the absolute right thing in spite of pressure from her doctor’s office. We are after all suburbanites so the cesspool of “normal” urban living is at times most offensive. My new quote. I am an American and I’m pissed.
“Your America means nothing to me”
Jun 28 2009
Last week I posted a diary about LGBT legislation before Congress, suggesting that all was not doom and gloom in the fight for LGBT rights. Now there’s more good news coming down the pipeline: on Friday the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its website the words that activists have been waiting years to see:
Title: Medical Examination of Aliens: Removal of HIV Infection as a Communicable Disease of Public Health Significance
With this we move one significant step closer to getting rid of one of the worst and most discriminatory bits of immigration law currently on the books: the HIV travel ban.
Feb 07 2008
We’re all probably aware that February is African-American History Month, but did you know that February 7, 2008, yes, today, is National Black HIV/AIDS
Awareness Day 2008
You can see this year’s PSA on the website (link below), but only 2007’s was available on youtube:
Jan 23 2008
“Whither I fly is Hell…”
Candace Gorman is reporting that her client, Guantanamo prisoner Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi, contracted AIDS at Guantanamo’s Camp Delta. He believes he was infected during a “routine blood test.”
Last October I wrote about Mr. al-Ghizzawi’s dire medical state, and the Amnesty International campaign to save him. At that time, all we knew is that he was seriously ill with hepatitis B and tuberculosis. While Guantanamo authorities deny it, he claims he is not receiving adequate medical care. Eyewitness accounts from the U.S. prison confirm his charges.
His attorney wrote the following at The Guantanamo Blog last Sunday: