Posts of: NMAC

Health departments, community-based organizations, and federal agencies are all looking to hire qualified people to fill their job openings. NMAC is building a free online jobs board called the EHE Workforce Jobs Bank that will be a centralized place for HIV, STD, and Hepatitis job openings. Funding to end the HIV epidemic in America means thousands of new positions. Our site was created by Career Builders and uses their platform to house the information.

Jobs posted on the site have hyperlinks for people to upload their resume. We only have a few jobs right now, including openings at NMAC. We need your help to grow. Organizations with job applications can post them for free by contacting Jas Florentino. They will set up an account for you so you can post on your own.

People looking for jobs should join our Talent Network. The Talent Network will send out alerts when a new job is posted that matches your interest. It will also allow you to forward any job announcements to friends or colleagues.

Professional employment is a matter of justice for people living with HIV, people of color, the transgender community, women, LGBTQ, and the recently incarcerated. This is how our movement can hire people from the communities they need to reach. Our goal is to build bridges between the communities hardest hit by HIV and the organizations who need to reach them.

God is Love and Love is for Everyone,

Paul Kawata
NMAC

This Jobs Board was funded by ELEVATE. This program is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $796,749.00 with 100 percentage funded by HRSA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

America’s latest culture battle is the weaponization of Critical Race Theory.  Any government program that works to address racial equity should be prepared for resistance and lawsuits. The core question facing the Biden-Harris administration is how to include race as a factor in federal procurement that can also pass muster in the Supreme Court.

Race and racism highly impact HIV care and prevention programs. The fight against critical race theory is a fight the HIV community cannot ignore. According to Education Week, “Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”

HIV results document that racism is more than an individual’s bias. Why are the majority of people living with HIV also people of color? Why are 75% of people on PrEP White? There is something systemic that creates this differential. People focus on the social determinants of health, but the outcomes almost always break down along lines of race. It is past time to directly speak to race and racism in America.

It will not be an easy fight. People are organizing across the country on both sides, and HIV needs to be part of the solution. If not, we will continue to see racial disparities in HIV that is mirrored in too many other diseases and social challenges impacted by race. The HIV movement can set the example for how America responses to race and ends an epidemic. Ultimately, the fight about using race in federal procurement will go to the Supreme Court where we will most likely lose given the court’s current make-up. Our job is to make it as difficult as possible for the courts to find against us.

What can the federal government do to include race as a factor in HIV federal procurement and not get stuck in endless court battles?

1. Race can be a factor but not the only factor
2. Look at education models like the one used at the Harvard Law Review
3. Use Minority AIDS Initiative as a “test case”

NMAC believes that race can be a factor in federal procurement, but not the only factor. Our shared goal is to build the justification for using race that can also hold up in the courts. Affirmative action case law is the primary source of legal jurisdiction. So far, the courts have clearly said that race can be a factor, but not the only factor for affirmative action programs in universities. By the same token, race can be a factor in federal procurement, but not the only factor.

The selection process for the Harvard Law Review is a potential model for how a diversity of awards can be created. At the Harvard Law Review, 18 of the 48 editors are selected through a holistic but anonymous review that may consider race, disability status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Maybe part of HIV contracting can also speak to the value of diversity in HIV grantees.

Given the weaponization of Critical Race Theory, the federal government might consider a pilot project that solidifies the value of “diversity” when using race as a factor in federal procurement. NMAC believes the Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) is the ideal test case. The MAI was created to support minority-led organizations; however, the Bush administration had concerns about any type of affirmative action in federal grant making, so they changed the MAI from minority-led to minority-serving organizations. Given the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to racial equity across government, now is the time to review implementation of this critical HIV funding stream.

NMAC is asking Harold Phillips, the new Director at the White House Office of National AIDS Policy to pull together a working group of federal and community leaders to examine ways to use race when making funding decisions about the use of the MAI. It will be essential to include legal experts who can help minimize challenges that will inevitably follow.

NMAC does not want to take any funding away from existing MAI grantees. Given the deadlines to end HIV, our hope is that the federal review is truncated to impact FY22-23 funding. Everyone wants to end the HIV epidemic but we will not reach this audacious goal if we continue with the status quo. HIV has led the way on so many issues. Now it’s time to lead with race.

NMAC is hosting a series of free summer virtual trainings, I hope you can join us.

1. National Training for Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming PLHIV (July 6-9)
2. National Training for PLHIV in Indian Country (Jul 12-14)
3. National Training for PLHIV in the Latinx Community in Spanish (July 19-23)
4. National Training for Gay Black Men living with HIV (Aug 2-6)
5. National Training for Cisgender Heterosexuals living with HIV (Aug 9-13)
6. National Training for PLHIV in the Latinx Community in English (Aug 16-20)
7. Midwest Stigma Training (Aug 23-27)
8. Southern Stigma Training (Aug 30-Sep 4)
9. Southwest Stigma Training (Sep 13-17)

This summer NMAC will hold a mix of regional and national virtual trainings. Given feedback, some trainings will engage communities highly impacted by HIV like the transgender/gender non-conforming community, Indian Country, Latinx community (Spanish and English), Black Gay Men, and Heterosexuals, as well as regional trainings on stigma.

The Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming training (July 6-9) will be coordinated by Lauren Miller. Please email or phone (202-997-0951) with questions. The trainers for this session will be Aryah Lester, Tori Cooper and Ja’Mel Ware. The goal is to create a safe space for the transgender/gender non-conforming community to share, learn, and build community.
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The Indian Country training (July 12-14) will be coordinated by Christopher J. Paisano. Please email or phone (202-997-0396) with questions. The goal is to create a safe space for American Indian/Alaska Natives living with HIV to share, learn, and build community.

There are two trainings targeting the Latinx community (July 19-23 in Spanish & August 16-20 in English). Cora Trelles Cartagena is the coordinator for these trainings. You can reach her via email or phone (202-870-0481). The goal is to create a safe space for the Latinx community to share, learn, and build community.

The Black Gay Men living with HIV training (August 2-6) will be coordinated by Charles Shazor Jr.. Please email or phone (202-302-7515) with questions. The goal is to create a safe space for Black Gay Men living with HIV to share, learn, and build community.

The training for Cisgender Heterosexuals living with HIV will be coordinated by Gabriella Spencer and Lauren Miller. Lauren’s information is above. You can email or phone (202-738-0935) Gabriella with any questions. The goal is to create a safe space for heterosexuals living with HIV to share, learn, and build community.

Additionally, NMAC will host three regional Stigma Reduction trainings (Aug 23-27, Aug 30-Sep 4, & Sep 13-17). These trainings will be coordinated by Terrell Parker and Christopher J. Paisano. Christopher’s information is above. You can email or phone (202-997-5598) Terrell. The goal of these trainings is to bring PLHIVs together with their Ryan White service provider to reduce HIV stigma in the HIV workplace.  The deadline to apply for the stigma trainings is July 9. In addition to the trainings, we will also provide Agency level Technical Assistance and Learning Collaboratives.

Our goal is to build communities of people living with HIV who are ready to work to end the HIV epidemic in America. We also hope to address HIV stigma in the HIV workplace because too many PLHIV are not retained in HIV care.

Yours in the struggle,
Paul Kawata
NMAC

ESCALATE is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,600,906.100 percentage funded by HRSA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

ELEVATE is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $796,749.00 with 100 percentage funded by HRSA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

I recently flew to Long Beach to be with my friend Archbishop Carl Bean as he begins his hospice journey. Normally this would be a very private moment, but Carl needs our help. He is a proud man who would be mortified that I am sharing his Go Fund Me campaign, but he needs support. Some of you might not know Carl but, in the Black LGBTQ community, he is a hero, preacher, and fighter against HIV in the African American community. If you never got to see him preach (watch), you missed something special. Carl fought against discrimination and oppression. He is the founder of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, the Minority AIDS Project and NMAC.

Carl spent his life fighting for the poor. He built the largest national movement of Black LGBTQ churches. As a minister, he never took a salary or paid into social security. As a result, he finds himself at the end of his life well lived without resources. While his hospice is clean and safe, he is sharing a room with two strangers who are also dying. There is a sheet that separates these odd roommates. It was hard to see him in these conditions. The world is not a fair place for people who are poor, even with friends like Congresswomen Maxine Waters (who visited Carl three days earlier). While friends are writing checks, he still needs some help. Please go to his Go Fund Me page.

This photo of us was taken by the Los Angeles Blade after the Rodney King verdict and the riots in LA in 1992. Carl asked me to join him to facilitate conversations between the African American and Asian communities. Back then, it felt like we were fighting two different epidemics: one that was well funded and one for the poor. For Carl, the work would always be centered on the poor.

I met Carl in the mid-‘80s when he opened the Minority AIDS Project as a program of the Unity Fellowship Church in South Central Los Angeles in his community, the Black LGBTQ community. At the time it was revolutionary. There were services for the LGBTQ community in West Hollywood and services for African Americans in Compton, but Carl understood the unique need for HIV services targeting Black gay men. He was very concerned about discrimination his community would face. He created a religious movement and nonprofit HIV agency that would provide services in a nonjudgmental fashion, services that were grounded in the history and legacy of the African American community but targeting Black gay men.

We served unique roles in each other’s lives. I was his safety net, the place where he could let his hair down and not be the archbishop. He was my traveling buddy, the person I counted on to get me away from the crazy lives we led as leaders in the HIV movement. In one day, Carl might visit someone who was sick with AIDS, then go preside at a memorial for someone he did not know because too many churches denied burials. He might close the night with a family that must make too many difficult decisions. This was the groundswell of both our lives, a never-ending onslaught of death and sickness that is still too difficult to describe.

Our shared pain was the bond that brought us together like so many in the early days. Carl introduced me and got me to love the Black church or at least his version of one. He preached liberation theology where “God is Love and Love is for Everyone.” Every Sunday his church was packed with mostly African American LGBTQ parishioners, but it could be any Black church in America. People of all genders wore their crowns as all good church mothers do. The choir was singing “come to the light” at the top of their lungs. Just as the organ had everybody standing and clapping, Carl would emerge. He knew how to give them a show. His message of love and acceptance was particularly important to Black LGBTQ people, but everyone was welcomed. His church was a place where people could be themselves and know that God loves them.

To be honest, I was not that close to God. AIDS left me feeling betrayed and lost. How could there be a God when there was so much pain and death? I could not adjust my mind to this contradiction until Carl came into my life. He asked for nothing as he took care of people who had been rejected by their families and friends, people facing multiple issues with drugs, incarceration, and HIV. Soon it would be in numbers that are still too hard to fathom. Through his work I could see God.

I think the constant pressure of leading a religious movement and the PTSD from the early days of AIDS came to a breaking point around five years ago. Carl had a stroke and essentially became home bound. He could not leave his home or see his friends for long extended periods. On my last day at the hospice, I thought it would be nice to share a meal. I asked Carl about his favorite foods. Carl loved to eat. He wanted “steak, baked potato, and carrot cake.” Thank God fUber eats could deliver to the hospice. We used adult diapers as a tablecloth and quietly chowed down. There was so much that I wanted to say, so much that I needed to say, but I chickened out. I was not ready to say goodbye. I was not ready for the ritual of death. Instead, I jumped up and said that I would see him soon and abruptly exited. Not my best moment.

I wasn’t ready to tell Carl how much I loved him, to tell him that his life changed the world. His friendship made me a better person. I will, just not today. It was too soon, and I wasn’t ready. The plane back to DC is packed. Thankfully, everyone is wearing masks, so no one pays attention to the old Asian man crying. He wants to be strong but sometimes it is so hard.

Yours in the struggle,
Paul Kawata
NMAC