Vision, so for tonight's Pastor,
Mike, we're bringing in the brightest
minds in the area to teach us more.
We understand the facts of the problem.
Now we want to focus on how and
why we got here, and to do that,
we have an excellent panel of four
experts to discuss Karen Holmes,
a transgender woman and
advocate for the community.
She currently works with
Prince George's County police,
helping get sex workers off the
streets and the Fairmont Heights area.
Linda Scruggs she was diagnosed with HIV,
and, more importantly,
has lived with HIV for 31 years.
She's now a community voice and
advocate based on her experiences,
Diane Diane Young,
a registered nurse who works for the
Prince Georges County Health Department.
She got in this fight about 20 years
ago when she lost her brother to
AIDS and doctor Carlos Rodriguez
Diaz and associate professor at
George Washington University.
Milliken School of Public Health,
who's been studying the disease for 20 years.
I
want to thank you guys so much
for being here and the numbers
show extremely high rates of HIV.
In young LGBTQ plus,
black men as well as other minorities.
So my question, why does it affect
these groups of people so much?
I'll take the first day.
I bet it Reese.
It's it's really around.
The stigma associated with HIV,
even just being tested is stigmatized.
So you can't even get tested
without feeling a certain way.
How do you even get treated
once you find out that you're
HIV positive and trying to get
people into care once their HIV?
Positive to combat that stigma
around being HIV positive is always
a challenge and our young LGBTQ
community often goes underground
because they're stigmatized
and they're judged and we need
to get away from that.
If
I can just add to that I think
also you know it's the stigma,
but also that you know when you think
about other minority communities.
HIV has been stigmatized since
the beginning of the epidemic,
so myself as a heterosexual black
woman making sure that people are not
ignoring you know what's happening.
It's easier often to not
address versus to address.
The HIV is in our community is
in our community for a moment,
but we can't stop it.
Stigma is a big piece,
but also just lack of information
and lack of self identity.
Part of my reason of coming out was
to tell a story I didn't look like.
I don't look like what I've been through.
I don't look like someone with HIV,
but because it's true.
I also know that other people
look in the mirror and think
that they're not talking to me.
They're not talking about me,
so I think this easy because we also come
from a lot of other issues and trauma.
Space is black and brown
communities and health disparities.
So HIV.
It's just another one of those
health disparities that were
challenged within our community.
And I know that, UM. The community,
at least in the transgender community.
A lot of people are assuming that that is
a big issue right there in regards to HIV,
you've got the sex workers that are
out there working and a lot of times
people are thinking they're not
being really that safe out there.
As far as having condoms on it
or not really doing it at all,
I think we just need to really get
the understanding of why the sex
workers are out there and that.
To see it in a different view
of things right now
when you guys talk about the stigma
and trying to defeat the stigma that
makes my mind go to two places,
one of which is trying to get people the
information and the truth and the realities
that are involved with HIV and AIDS.
Today the other is about that perception,
and as somebody that's a part of the media,
you know, I kind of take that.
That part of it and try and own
that part of it and how you can go
ahead and change that perception.
In order to combat that stigma,
a head first and I feel like doing
programs like this is one part of it.
What more can we do to combat that stigma?
There's a racial justice peace here, right?
So where HIV hasn't been allowed to be,
the African American Latino community.
We're taking the brunt of this
of this epidemic. Right now,
many of our folks are still thinking that
it's someone else, but it really is,
and race impacts their assets.
Our ZIP codes, community education,
the social determinants.
Of health are all input it and again
African American and Latino descent
individuals take the brunt of that so it
really is looking at structural racism.
Is looking at structural change
and implementation and also noting
that one size doesn't fit all
when we're talking about stigma.
Whether we're talking about treatment,
whether we talk about assets,
take care and services,
and HIV awareness is extremely important.
It should be in all conversations,
all encounter. Hey, health encounters
primary care providers have a very important
role in opening the door for people
to know about HIV, know their status,
and then to stay engaging, care.
And finally, I believe that we need
to understand that we are not unity
mention alright, we are many things.
We are men, gay person of color
living in a particular place and
with that understanding is that
we need to respond to the.
Epidemic, so we work from racial
justice from LGBT equity and for
housing security for food security
because all those elements influence
how people interact with the world,
including their health experiences
and the health care system.
There are also a lot of people in
and around DC and Prince Georges
County that are not in care that
they know their HIV diagnosis.
They know their status but.
Some of these other structural
things still keep them out of care,
so I think part of what we're trying
to say that cure is available.
You can live, you know,
limited life expectancy with HIV.
You know you don't have a
limitation of life space,
and I think that that's scary to people
who still think that this is a deaf space.
I love telling people that you know,
it's been 31 years.
The doctors were wrong.
They gave me three years and they were wrong.