USCHA Needs Your Help – Abstracts Due July 17

The United States Conference on HIV/AIDS had over 1,200 registrations on the first day and 2,100 registrations one week later. Now we need your help. At its core, USCHA is a peer to peer training opportunity that prioritizes community learning from the experiences of other communities. The 2020 meeting will have 60 workshops and we hope you will submit an abstract. Please register for the 1 PM (eastern) July 2nd webinar on Abstract Submissions.

Tracks for the 2020 meeting include: Race, Federal Track, HIV Prevention During COVID-19, HIV Care & Wrap Around Services During COVID-19, Next Steps for Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE), Reaching Communities Hardest Hit by HIV, HIV Policy, Community Organizing during COVID-19, Expanding HIV Services to Address COVID-19 Testing, and Track En Espanol.Last week more than 600 people registered to attend one of the three webinars that NMAC hosted to discuss the virtual platform and to get feedback on priority workshops. Attendees shared that they wanted workshops that address:

  1. How to provide HIV services in a COVID-19 world, and
  2. What does Black Lives Matter mean to the HIV Movement?
How to Provide HIV Services in a COVID-19 World
Per feedback received, attendees are looking for guidance on what HIV services they should prioritize and how to provide those services. Community especially wants and needs guidance from funders about what they will support in the next iteration of our work. Here are some of the topics that were suggested:
  • How to Reopen and Keep Your Staff and Clients Safe
  • Liability Issues if Someone Gets COVID-19
  • How to do HIV Testing, Treatment, Care, and Wrap Around Services
  • Providing Services to People Over 50 Living with HIV
  • Mental Health and Depression Challenges
  • Reaching the Transgender Community
  • Next Steps for Ending the HIV Epidemic in a COVID-19 World

Please consider submitting an abstract if you have experience on any of these topics. USCHA has guaranteed workshop slots for HHS, CDC, HRSA, SAMHSA, IHS, OAR, NIAID, and HUD. We’ve asked them to address their agency’s vision for moving forward during these challenging times. Additionally, there will be a Federal Village in the virtual Exhibit Hall.

What does Black Lives Matter mean to the HIV Movement?
Participants on the webinars also said they were looking for concrete steps for their agencies to stand in support of Black Lives Matter. Everyone agreed that the work starts with education about race and racism. Here are topics participants said they would like as workshops:

  • Understanding Race and Racism
  • Learning About White Privilege
  • What is Unconscious Bias and How Does it Impact HIV Service Delivery?
  • Policies and Procedures that Build Antiracist Organizations
  • Staff Training Needs on Race and Black Lives Matter

Workshops are one hour long. The first 30 minutes will be recorded in advance and the last 30 minutes will be a “live” Questions & Answers during the meeting. The “data” section for workshops will be recorded starting after Labor Day (September 7th) until the first week of October. Presenters will be required to sign a release that allows USCHA to put the workshop online for up to one year. Handouts and PowerPoint presentations will be uploaded to the conference platform for attendees to download starting on October 19th.

Each workshop will be assigned a technical assistance lead staff. This individual will work with abstract presenters on their recordings and facilitate the “live” portion of the workshops on Oct 19-21. Workshops will be recorded on Zoom, then transferred to the USCHA platform. In August, USCHA will host a webinar and provide a training manual for presenters. Our goal is to support presenters to create amazing workshops.

As you can read, virtual workshops require much more advance work. This is not something that can be done on the plane to the meeting. Thousands of people will attend this year’s meeting, and even more will view it online after. USCHA needs your help to make this a memorable and informative experience. Thank you.

 

Yours in the struggle,

 

Introduction to Virtual USCHA Session 2

Introduction to Virtual USCHA Session 3

My Blackness Doesn’t Diminish Based On My Trans* Identity

Written by: Derek Baugh, TGNC CAP NMAC

Foreword: Carmarion D. Anderson, TGNC CAP NMAC

In light of the most recent killings of unarmed Black people, I have found myself in the midst of a sea of emotions. These emotions have ranged from anger and fury to fear and hopelessness. In the wake of the murders of both George Floyd & Breonna Taylor, the Black Trans community has rallied alongside our cisgender/heterosexual counterparts in several ways. Whether it is Black Trans people organizing protests, providing resources to protesters, or physically putting their bodies on the front line for a community, Black Trans identified individuals are fighting at the forefront of a movement from which we feel separated and treated as outcasts.

For years, Trans individuals have attended Trans Day Of Remembrance (TDOR) ceremonies, World AIDS Day activities, and various other community events. We have found ourselves in those spaces searching for those who call themselves our allies. In those solemn moments when we speak the names of our siblings, and now ancestors, which primarily consist of Black Trans women who die at the hands of cisgender men who are not unlike those they stand alongside when tragedies like this occur, and we wonder where our allies are. Where are the people who come and steal our culture and harness the talent from our community? Where are the people who throw around ballroom lingo but have no idea where it originated? Where are the people who see no issue with asking us personal questions or treating us like their own Trans glossaries? Where are our allies? Where is this fury and outrage when one of our Black Trans lives is senselessly stolen? Many of us are left angry and shouting that our Black Lives Matter Too, and yes, you would think this should be common knowledge. The exclusion of Black Trans individuals from this movement brings to mind a phrase, “I too am America”-Langston Hughes. We, too, are Black, and our lives matter.

When a sibling-like Nina Pop or Tony McDade is killed, it is painful for us, the Trans community-at-large.  It is doubly offensive when we are hushed and treated as shameful, confused, or embarrassing because of our gender identities by our cisgender counterparts. We are told or commanded to “be quiet” and “wait our turn” as if somehow these stolen Black lives are not as devastating or worth being upset about. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” The silence from those we march alongside is piercing, deafening, and painful. When our Black Trans sisters are killed, dangerous and false narratives suggest they have “tricked” someone.  Perhaps, if they had disclosed their gender identity earlier, their murder could have been prevented is the story that is perpetuated. Black Trans people are literally being told,” yeah, you can stay, just don’t be too loud.”

We ask those who are recipients of the rights, earned with the blood, sweat, and suffering of Black trans people to be true and intentional allies. Black trans people are educated, gifted, and talented, and by hiring this community allies will help create a path to leadership. Give up your seat at the proverbial table for a Black trans person. Don’t perpetuate false narratives. Have hard conversations. Call people out on their problematic statements. Do your own research. Compensate Black Trans people justly for their stories. My blackness doesn’t diminish based on my trans* identity; it diminishes when it is ignored!

The HIV Movement’s Problem with Race

NMAC logoNMAC (formerly National Minority AIDS Council) was founded in 1987 because minorities were disproportionately impacted by a new retrovirus. Back in the ’80s, AIDS was labeled a “White gay disease.” We created NMAC to give voice to People of Color. While much has changed, HIV health outcomes continue to expose our movement’s problem with race. In America the color of your skin greatly determines your HIV health outcome. People of Color are the majority of new cases of HIV,  the majority of people living with HIV, and  the majority of people who die from HIV. Yet 75% of the people on PrEP are White. Since PrEP is the major tool used to prevent HIV, the results of HIV’s demographics are more than mathematical; they are racist.

We’ve worked together for over 30 years, I’m not here to blame or shame, but to speak truth to our movement at a critical point in history. As our nation grapples with systemic racism highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement, it is important to remember that people living with HIV, people on PrEP, staff, boards, constituents, donors, and peers are watching. Will you be the leader your agency/movement needs to get us through these troubled times? Our movement needs to reexamine what justice and success mean in a world after COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and the unemployment of 40 million Americans that turned into a recession.

Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible-
even if you’re choking on it-until you let the sun in. Then you can see it’s everywhere.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Over $300 million in new HIV federal funding to end the HIV epidemic (EHE) is hitting the streets. This translates into thousands of new jobs and hundreds of new contracts for community-based organizations and others. Are federal agencies and health departments ready to distribute these funds in a fair and equitable way? Black Lives Matter is a call for justice for communities who too often are overlooked and ignored.

In addition to HIV health outcomes, our movement also lacks people of color in leadership positions. The Black AIDS Institute did a survey that found “White people hold 67% of the senior leadership positions in AIDS service organizations.” Questions about race, gender, gender identity, and the sexual orientation of our leadership are part of the much wider discussion on equity, fairness and justice for communities who suffered from generational racism and oppression. To be clear, I’m not saying fire all the White people. I am saying that White leaders working in the HIV field have a unique responsibility to address race and how they will work to dismantle racist systems.

It’s not just the leadership. Too many People of Color-focused HIV organizations have closed over the last 10 years. Just as we become the majority of the HIV epidemic, the agencies that were founded and led by People of Color are closing. Most of the initial funding for these agencies came from the Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI). Slowly, that money has been redirected and no longer prioritizes People of Color agencies per its original intent.

What role does racial bias play when reviewing funding requests from People of Color organizations? This bias was recently acknowledged by the University of California when they stopped using SAT or ACT scores for college admission because of the racial bias of those tests. This matters to the HIV movement because we are about to distribute millions in new funding. Look at who gets funded to understand how systems are biased against people of color and the organizations they run. If we keep operating in the same ways, how can we expect different results? It is not enough to make a statement supporting Black Lives Matter. Now is the time to create and implement systems that value the leaders and communities hardest hit by HIV.

This is where the hard work begins. Community-based organizations, health departments, national organizations, and federal HIV agencies who want to end the HIV epidemic must address racism and its structural impact on America’s HIV outcomes. The work to build antiracist institutions starts with education. Understanding White privilege, unconscious implicit bias, and structural racism are essential before building plans.

We are not any kind of role model. NMAC started our journey to build an anti-racist organization with the People’s Institute and their trainings on Undoing Racism for the agency’s board and staff. We had to educate ourselves before we could identify the changes needed at NMAC. This year there is a Track on Race at the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS. Your staff can discuss, argue, and hopefully better understand race and how it impacts HIV prevention, treatment, and care. At times this process can be very painful. Our movement has decades of history and misunderstandings.

NMAC was formed in 1987 because minorities were disproportionately impacted by AIDS. We are not going away. We are resolute in our commitment to ending HIV in a post COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and the unemployment of 40 million Americans world.

Yours in the struggle,

 

 

 

 

 

Launch Video

USCHA is Virtual & Free Online Oct. 19-21, 2020

The 2020 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS will be virtual and free for the first 4,000 registrations*. You can find the latest information at the USCHA website or register for one of our June 25th webinars:

10:00 am Eastern time
1:00 pm Eastern time
3:00 pm Eastern time

The 2020 meeting will have five plenaries, 60 workshops, 14 institutes, and a Virtual Exhibit Hall. Workshops and plenaries will be online after the meeting for everyone to view for free.

The 2020 meeting tackles the seismic shifts that are changing our world. COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter have forever changed our work and the delivery of HIV prevention, care, treatment, and wrap around services. Consider submitting a workshop abstract on how your agency is responding. The meeting will have 10 different tracks. The deadline for abstract submission is July 17th.

The meeting is free because it seemed tone deaf to ask for money when so many nonprofits are hurting and there are over 40 million people unemployed. Free registrations* are for community and only possible because our 2020 sponsors stepped up and continued to support the meeting. NMAC thanks our Presenting Sponsor Gilead, along with ViiV Healthcare, Janssen, Merck, and our Federal Partners, including the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. While registration is free, NMAC will ask for donations. You do not have to give, but I hope you will consider making a donation. Even with the sponsor fees, the board had to approve deficit spending to keep the agency whole during these challenging times.

The murder of George Floyd was another in a too long list of wake-up calls that Black Lives Matter. The issue is bigger than just the police. It was also a wake-up call for the HIV movement. The majority of people living with HIV are people of color and the majority of people on PrEP are white. Our HIV outcomes document the challenges that race plays in our field. NMAC challenges community-based organizations, health departments, health centers, national organizations and federal agencies to create and implement strategic plans to build antiracist HIV institutions.

New programs at the 2020 USCHA include a Virtual Jobs Fair. Over 40 million people are unemployed. USCHA hopes to bring people needing jobs together with the HIV organizations who are hiring. Over $300 million in new funding was in the 2020 federal budget to end the HIV epidemic and that means thousands of new jobs. NMAC is giving free booths to the 57 jurisdictions targeted to receive this money so they or organizations in those jurisdictions can share job openings. Hire people from the communities your efforts hope to reach, particularly people in senior leadership positions.

Virtual conferences are another result of COVID-19. While we’ve gotten more adept at Zoom calls, virtual conferences are new. NMAC will host a series of webinars to help attendees get the most out of the meeting. Please register now (space is limited) for the first webinar on June 25th. This webinar will go over plans for the 2020 meeting and seek your input into this new adventure. Future webinars include 1) how to submit an abstract, 2) how to set-up a virtual exhibit booth, 3) how to record a virtual workshop, 4) how to participate in a virtual jobs fair, and 5) how to get the most out of a virtual conference.

Given these turbulent times, USCHA has decided to return to our 2017 theme, Family Reunion II. Family are more than blood. They are the people you want to hug when you should be socially distant. NMAC remains committed to Puerto Rico. The 2022 USCHA will be in San Juan on Oct 10-13, 2022 and there will be a Spanish language track at this year’s meeting. This Friday is Juneteenth and NMAC will be closed. On this day we celebrate the emancipation of the last enslaved African Americans by the Confederacy.

Yours in the struggle,

 

 

 

 

*Free registrations are for people living with HIV/AIDS, people on PrEP, activists, community organizers, students and people working or volunteering at nonprofits, community-based organizations, national organizations, health departments, health centers, universities, researchers, or health professionals. Per federal regulations and at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NMAC cannot offer free registrations to federal employees. The registration fee is $250 for federal employees and employees of for-profit companies.

The Indian Health Service and the Albuquerque Indian Health Board, with resources from the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund, and in partnership with NMAC, will offer free registration for USCHA. The free registration applies to (1) U.S. federal- and state-recognized tribal members/citizens, employees, contractors, and volunteers; (2) U.S.-based Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders; and (3) others directly affiliated with those communities.

Combating Trauma in a Time of Isolation

NMAC Hails Supreme Court Decision Preserving DACA

NMAC today hailed today’s Supreme Court decision that preserves DACA protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

“Today’s decision is a win not just for the immigrant community but for justice in immigration,” said Joe Huang-Racalto, NMAC’s Director of Government Relations and Public Policy. “After blatant abuses of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers by this administration, we finally have a voice of reason in the Supreme Court saying ‘enough.’ We hope that this is just the beginning of comprehensive immigration reform and of compassionate approaches to those seeking safety and a better life in the United States.”

NMAC leads with race to urgently fight for health equity and racial justice to end the HIV epidemic in America. Since 1987, NMAC has advanced our mission through a variety of programs and services, including: a public policy education program, national and regional training conferences, a treatment and research program, numerous electronic and print materials, and a website: www.nmac.org. NMAC also serves as an association of AIDS service organizations, providing valuable information to community-based organizations, hospitals, clinics, and other groups assisting individuals and families affected by the HIV epidemic.

NMAC Hails Supreme Court Decision In Bostock v. Clayton County

NMAC today hailed the Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County which protects LGBTQ workers from being fired or denied employment because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Today’s historic landmark decision by the Court ends decades of ugly behavior by employers who never valued a good employee and fired them because of who they are,” said Joe Huang-Racalto, NMAC’s Director of Government Relations and Public Policy.

By amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Court ruled that Aimee Stephens, a transgender worker for a funeral home in Michigan, and Gerald Bostock, a gay employee for Clayton County in Georgia, were covered under sex discrimination as outlined in the Civil Rights Act of 64.

“Yesterday, millions of LGBT Americans went to bed fearing the loss of their jobs because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Huang-Racalto.  As a result of today’s decision, those same Americans will go to bed tonight knowing that they no longer have to be fearful of losing their jobs. In the absence of a functioning Senate, we are sadly becoming more dependent on a conservative court for full civil rights. And, while today is an historic day for LGBT Americans, we know that this journey won’t be completed until the full spectrum of rights are afforded to LGBT individuals. We will continue to fight against this administration’s unrelenting attacks against transgender Americans, especially discriminatory health practices, and we will continue to fight against the ugly health crisis known as racism which continues to grip our nation.”

NMAC honors the life of Aimee Stephens, who sadly passed away on May 12, 2020.  While she was not alive to witness today’s landmark ruling, her courage and drive to improve the lives of transgender American’s will forever be memorialized.

NMAC leads with race to urgently fight for health equity and racial justice to end the HIV epidemic in America. Since 1987, NMAC has advanced our mission through a variety of programs and services, including: a public policy education program, national and regional training conferences, a treatment and research program, numerous electronic and print materials, and a website: www.nmac.org. NMAC also serves as an association of AIDS service organizations, providing valuable information to community-based organizations, hospitals, clinics, and other groups assisting individuals and families affected by the HIV epidemic.