Volume 23/Issue 4/2005
AIDS is a Fight Blacks Cannot Ignore
by Phill Wilson, Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute, Los Angeles, CA
As someone who has lived with HIV/AIDS for over 20 years, nothing alarms me more than the growing number of my brothers and sisters who are becoming infected with HIV everyday. With all the challenges confronting Black America today, the last thing we need is an exploding AIDS epidemic. Yet, an exploding AIDS epidemic is exactly what we have before us. While AIDS may not be a battle any of us would have chosen to fight, it’s one we cannot walk away from - nor one we can afford to lose. February 7, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, is an important day to strike back.
On that day in cities across the country, Black men and women will take part in hundreds of events to help bring Black America’s AIDS crisis to an end. That’s good news. And yes, there is bad news.
More than half of all new HIV diagnoses reported in the US in 2003 were Black. Black men now face rates of diagnosis that are higher than any other group. We are seven times more likely than white men, and three times more likely than Latino men to be diagnosed with HIV. Black women are also severely impacted. Among women in the US, Black women represent 72% of all new HIV/AIDS cases. Black women are 18 times more likely to be infected with HIV than white women and five times more likely than Latinas. These statistics and disparities are outrageous and must be addressed.
To change the course of this epidemic will require Black America to declare National Black HIV AID Awareness day everyday. We have always found ways to protect ourselves from harm and fight injustice, despite the enormous odds against us. Today, HIV is the harm and injustice that we must fight. And there are simple ways for us to improve the odds.
First, we all need to get informed about HIV. Even in 2005, too many of us aren’t protecting ourselves. A recent CDC study showed that many infected women did not recognize their risk for infection. It’s time for Black women and men to wake up to reality: We need to know the facts about this disease. Not just the bits and pieces. Thoroughly understanding what AIDS is and how the disease works can help save your life. What you don’t know can kill you.
As individuals, we must take every step we can to prevent the spread of HIV. For some, that means using condoms. Others may decide not to be sexually active at all. Under no circumstances should you share dirty needles. If you’re sexually active or injecting drugs, you can be exposed to HIV - unless you protect yourself. Second, we all need to get tested. Knowing your HIV status and the status of your partner is your right and responsibility. Testing is widely available, often for free. To find an HIV test site near you, or to talk with someone about HIV prevention, call CDC’s toll-free National AIDS Hotline at 1-800-342-2437.
Thirdly, we must get treated, if we are infected with HIV. HIV is no longer the automatic death sentence it once was. There are effective treatments available. I should know, I’m alive today because of those treatments. Every one of us, infected or not, should advocate for greater access to anti-retrovirals for people living with HIV/AIDS. We must also get involved. We are losing the battle against the AIDS epidemic because too many of us are MIA (missing in action). You can’t win a war, if you don’t show up.
We also need to take responsibility for discussing HIV with the people who matter to us - friends, family, and especially sexual partners. We must discuss our sexual history with our partners before sex. Yes, this can be difficult and embarrassing, but no one has ever died from embarrassment. Approximately 23 Black men and women die everyday from HIV/AIDS. A few minutes of honest talk about sex might just save your life.
Above all, we must once and for all shatter the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. In the face of derision, fear, and sometimes even hostility, people won’t get tested and seek treatment for HIV. In the face of homophobia and anti-drug hysteria, people won’t disclose their risk factors. Surveys show that African Americans see HIV/AIDS as the nation’s most urgent health problem. Stigma is one of the primary obstacles that stop our community from responding appropriately.
AIDS is the greatest health threat of our time and a major obstacle to our survival. On February 7 - and for the 364 days of the year that follow - we need to be committed to solving it.
The Promise of Protection
by David M. Smith, HRC’s Vice President of Policy and Strategy
Senate Republicans reintroduced a constitutional amendment in January that would deny marriage to same-sex couples, as well as threaten to deny us hundreds of benefits already offered by red and blue states across the country. This just so happened to coincide with the first full week of the President’s second term.
It’s a second term that many in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and our allies rightfully see as a major challenge to our rights. We are in one of the most difficult political environments in recent history. There’s no doubt that the November elections brought us new - and old - hurdles. This amendment is one of them.
But we won’t defeat the new amendment or win equality if we’re constantly on the defense. The GLBT community is in great need of more protections and equal access to exercise our responsibilities, and at the Human Rights Campaign, we’re going on the offense to match the needs of today.
Our lives are spent in our homes, in our workplaces and in our communities. Unfortunately, the majority of GLBT people have minimal protections in all areas.
As the 109th Congress begins and our opponents take steps toward discrimination, the Human Rights Campaign is forging ahead with a fresh approach to federal advocacy. Working with our allies on Capitol Hill, HRC is drafting three broad legislative packages that would provide the community with substantial security.
A new home life legislative package would focus on protecting our families’ financial and long-term security. HRC is continuing our hard push for marriage equality, and working with Congress on these benefits issues will help elected officials understand in a very hands-on way the 1,100+ rights and responsibilities we’re denied under federal law without marriage.
Working with allies in the House and Senate, we intend to introduce a package that would repeal the ban on the provision of federal benefits to married same-sex couples. It would also include equality in Social Security survivor benefits and would ensure that same-sex couples can make medical decisions on each other’s behalf. It would give equal benefits to veterans so that they are not punished a second time in the area of benefits if discharged under the discriminatory "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy. It would extend to same-sex couples spousal privilege in courts. It would deal with the inequities same-sex couples face in estate tax, bankruptcy protection and Medicaid "spend down," which ensures that Medicaid recipients and their families don’t have to sell their family home to care for a sick loved one. Lastly, it would expand immigration rights so that binational same-sex couples aren’t torn apart. As we have in the past, we remain committed to pushing for these bills as separate measures, along with our allies who have taken leadership on these issues.
Another package centers on workplace equity. For years, HRC has been advocating for equal protections and benefits for people based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. Corporate America heard our call, and hundreds of Fortune 500 companies have answered with new protections and rights. So, too, have hundreds of hundreds of smaller businesses around the country.
Still, the majority of GLBT Americans go into work in the morning with absolutely no assurance that they won’t be fired from that job for no other reason than who they are. And many more are denied equal benefits and fairness in taxation, in large part because the federal government does not provide equity to GLBT Americans in workplace law.
The workplace package will include equal opportunity law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and expression as well as sexual orientation. It would provide equal compensation in terms of spousal benefits. It would expand the Family and Medical Leave Act and COBRA coverage, which allows an employee to continue health coverage for spouses and children upon the loss of a job. It would ensure equity in taxation of health care, flexible spending accounts and retirement plans. We also need to address the legal discrimination that exists in the military on the basis of sexual orientation, and allow many soldiers now serving in silence and fear to serve openly and honestly in the military. In short, it would aim to ensure a wide range of protections are provided to GLBT Americans in workplaces.
The third package would focus on the health and safety of GLBT Americans in our communities. From hate crimes law to assisting anti-violence projects and protecting youth against bullying in their schools, GLBT Americans deserve to know that our nation will not tolerate harassment and violence directed at them. In this package, we plan to address those issues as well as the need for Medicaid preservation, early treatment for HIV care, the reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act and prevention policies that are based on science not ideology.
Given that legislation is always a work in progress, we as a community must remain flexible but firm in our goals to achieve equality in these specific areas. Since November, we’ve been discussing these packages with community leaders and activists. None of us want to use the challenges we face in Washington as an excuse to be passive. Regardless of the climate, when we are without equality we must fight. In their rhetoric, our opponents claim that opposition to marriage equality isn’t about discrimination. It’s time to give them a chance to prove it.
There’s no doubt that the community has its challenges in Washington, and indeed, in states and localities across the country. But we’re up to the task. We’ll be talking about the big picture in a very loud way with Congress and to the American people and we’ll be boiling it down to the finer points so nothing can be ignored. This means seizing the opportunity when it presents itself.
In his inaugural address, President Bush said, "Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities." We’re choosing our freedom and we’re going to defend it. Our new approach holds him and America to the promise of protection.
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