Source: ‘THE QUBE’
In the fourth and final installment of Black HIV in the South: How Did We Get Here? Anna DeShawn and Duane Cramer explore solutions to eradicating HIV/AIDS in the Black community. What are the next steps that will push this movement forward?
DeShawn and Cramer give a nod to the current initiatives working toward achieving zero new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. Among them are Change the Pattern, an initiative to memorialize and raise awareness of those lost to HIV/AIDS; U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable), a campaign that is raising awareness about the effectiveness of HIV medications; and PrEP4Love, a sex-positive HIV prevention campaign in Chicago.
Guest Dafina Ward, J.D., illustrates how each one of us can contribute to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Ward is the executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition (SAC) and has worked as an attorney and advocate on HIV and health equity issues in the South for nearly 15 years. “If you don’t have money, give your time. If you can’t be a check-writer, be a cheerleader,” Ward says.
Another way to support the movement is to look at local policies.
“Find out in your community whether there are any problematic policies currently on the books or in process that will negatively impact people living with or impacted by HIV, whether that’s HIV criminalization, which has to be changed and modernized. Find out whether there’s any anti-LGBTQ legislation happening,” Ward says.
“In many southern states we’re seeing young trans folk and trans families being attacked,” Ward says. “Find out if your state has anti-discrimination laws that protect communities most impacted by HIV. It’s also about making sure that we have a landscape in our communities where folks can live without being ostracized and being criminalized. That’s so critically important. So my call to action is always: educate yourself, then tell somebody else! Period!”
People like guest Deirdre Speaks are putting in the work in their localities to push the movement forward. Speaks is a co-founder of Ending Criminalization of HIV and Over-incarceration in Virginia (ECHO VA). She and her team were instrumental in decriminalizing HIV in her home state of Virginia, the first southern state to do so. She goes in-depth about that work in Episode 2.
Additional guests include Jada Harris, who is currently a Facilitator for StoryCorps, which documents storytelling to build connection and compassion in today’s world, and has worked with the NAMES Project Foundation/AIDS Memorial Quilt to increase the number of quilt panels representing Black American and marginalized communities; Nathan Townsend, HIV Prevention Programs Manager for the National AIDS Education & Services for Minorities (NAESM), one of the first African American community-based non-profit organizations fighting HIV/AIDS in Atlanta, Georgia; and Jimmy Gibbs, chair of the National Centers for AIDS Research CAB Coalition.
Listen to the Black HIV in the South: How Did We Get Here? podcast by clicking here.
SEE ALSO:
New Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Podcast Series Spotlights Epidemic In The South
Episode 3 Of ‘Black HIV In The South’ Podcast Addresses The Church’s Response to HIV/AIDS
