Yours in the Struggle,
Dear Mr. Fenton
- August 18, 2022
- NMAC
- Blog, Ending the Epidemic
- Comments are Closed
Yours in the Struggle,
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Thank you to everyone who registered early for the 2022 United States Conference on AIDS. The meeting had the largest number of early bird registrations. Close to 3,000 folks are on the list to attend. As a result, NMAC made the difficult decision to keep registration open for only 500 more delegates. It is first come first served and we will close when we reach capacity.
The conference made this difficult decision because it is unfair to take people’s money when there are so few reasonably priced hotel rooms still available in San Juan. USCHA has sold out of the group rate at five hotels. Hotel rooms are still available in San Juan, just not at the lower negotiated USCHA group rates. Now the gathering must refer people to Airbnb or more expensive hotels. While USCHA gets no support, most of Airbnb’s rental fees go to locals who can use the money. We will only provide buses between official conference hotels and the Puerto Rico Conference Center. Please make sure your Airbnb is close to an official hotel so you can catch the free USCHA bus.
Hotel rooms have been set aside for scholarship recipients. They do not need to worry. Thanks to our major sponsors Gilead, ViiV Healthcare, Janssen, and Merck, USCHA is giving away a record number of scholarships. However, we still turned down many very qualified applicants. Moises Agosto, NMAC’s Treatment Director, put together an article about the scholarship process for Thursday’s e-newsletter.
There is very limited exhibit space. Around 90% of the exhibit hall has been reserved. It will be sold out soon. Exhibitors get passes to attend the conference. Click here to reserve a booth. Given the challenges of shipping to Puerto Rico, we encourage them to use San Juan based companies for printing, booths, receptions, and give aways. Not only does this bring much needed resources to the local community, but it also lets you bypass shipping headaches. Many partners host private receptions, so please consider working with the local community to identify locations and businesses that support the HIV community. USCHA is the first large conference in PR to happen since COVID and locals are excited for our meeting.
As an example of working with regional providers, USCHA contracted with Connecting Paths to sew all the conference bags. Connecting Paths is a local nonprofit that fosters community entrepreneurship in Puerto Rico. Since hurricane Maria (2018) they have trained 87 women and 20 of these women are sewing the conference bags. Please watch their Spanish language YouTube video to learn more. USCHA is an opportunity to bring much needed economic development to Puerto Rico. Please support the businesses that support the local HIV community.
While space is very limited, we want to encourage our federal partners to send key staff to meet with attendees. The community desperately needs your leadership and partnership to complete our mission to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. Show up to show your support for the leaders on the frontlines. There may be budgetary issues since the meeting happens in the new fiscal year and NMAC is willing to work to make any needed accommodations. Please contact Tara Barnes-Darby for assistance.
NMAC wants to thank the local host committee co-chairs:
I’ve put hyperlinks to their emails so that you can contact them about restaurants, bars, and companies that support the HIV community in San Juan and Puerto Rico. NMAC also has staff who live in San Juan. Damian can answer questions about local agencies, culture, and community. Please email Damian with any questions.
It’s only July and the meeting is almost sold out. Most people will think it’s because we are going to PR. I want to believe our movement is committed to language justice, reaching the Latinx community, and learning in an environment when English is the second language. Building a movement is key to our ability to end the epidemic. USCHA is the place where we come together to check-in, learn, and nurture our family. The world is going crazy, and we need each other more than ever.
Damian Cabrera-Candelaria
Program Manger Treatment
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Yours in the Struggle,
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Yours in the Struggle,
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Yours in the Struggle,
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Yours in the Struggle,
Paul Kawata & my new best friend,
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Worth
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Yours in the Struggle,
Paul Kawata
NMAC
![]() The plane broke into spontaneous applause as we safely landed in Puerto Rico. I’d forgotten about this sweet custom and was reminded why I love the islands. Some folks think the applause is a thank you to the gods for arriving safely, others believe it is gratitude for being home with their people. I’m in San Juan to celebrate Pride and hold a board meeting/site visit for the 2022 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS.
Leadership means showing up for the communities hardest hit by HIV. Congratulations and thank you to everyone working to hold Pride events in-person. The world is an awful place and it’s easy to be overwhelmed and depressed. Public events are not for everyone. There are real risks for getting COVID or Monkeypox. As we learned from our safer sex days, abstinence from the world is the only sure way to be 100% safe. COVID showed me the challenges of being alone. I need to be in the world, traveling and experiencing life. That’s why I was so grateful for San Juan’s Pride.
The 2022 meeting has the largest pre-registration in history. Two hotels are already sold-out. Only 30% of the exhibit space is still available. People are ready for an in-person meeting. Our COVID protocols are stricter than Chicago. Everyone will be required to have initial vaccines and at least one booster. The meeting will also follow all local ordinances. Masking will be encouraged and celebrated. Rapid tests will be available for free for attendees. However, there are no guarantees. Of the 1,033 attendees at this year’s Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit, four people let us know they got COVID after the meeting. We’ve also had two people test positive at two different regional trainings (one per training). No one was seriously ill or went to the hospital. As a health organization that works with people who are immune compromised, we feel a duty to inform. As a gay man of color living in America, I understand risk. There is no one right answer for everyone. I hope you will join us this year, but completely understand if it is too soon. The world is crazy and that makes Pride even more important. I reject being labeled a groomer. It’s just the Right’s dog whistle for pedophiles. Make no mistake, they are coming after all of us. I stand with Pride, not only for my own mental health, but also as a “fuck you” to all who would deny my humanity. We are headed for war because nobody wants to go back into the closet. There need to be a NATO pact between the oppressed. When they go after abortion, Black Lives, immigration, Asian Lives, climate change, Trans Lives, limits on guns, and the LGBTQ community, we must stand together in our outrage. |
Yours in the Struggle,
Paul Kawata
NMAC
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Yours in the Struggle,
Paul Kawata
NMAC
![]() There are no playbooks for how to be the first leader of color of a mostly White agency. I know, because I was the first person of color in too many rooms during the early days of the epidemic. Suki Ports and I would joke that we were a caucus of two at most HIV conferences. Back then, leaders of color started their own agencies because they did not see their reflection in the boards or staffs of AIDS service organizations and/or health departments. The inequity became a flashpoint. It’s taken decades but change is happening. How should our movement support leaders of color? I talk about race because of its impact on leadership. Our movement needs to fund leadership development for people of color not because it is politically correct, but because it is the right solution. It is not easy to manage white people. I am still amazed at White fragility. Also, too many people of color living with HIV have fallen out of care. Too few people of color benefit from PrEP. I’m not saying throw the baby out with the bath water because there is lots of good. I’m just asking for leadership development to support people of color in key management roles in the organizations working to end the HIV epidemic.
Our community is so quick to judge when someone makes a mistake. As an executive director who has made many mistakes, I appreciate that my board understands the challenges of leading while colored and who understands that people are going to get mad because I lead with race and call out White privilege. It is a very difficult line that leaders of color must walk, particularly when they are new. Many are accused of overusing racism as an excuse but, once again, we all live in different worlds with very different realities. As a person who walks in both, some of you are not as “woke” as you think. It takes work to understand, work that too many are not willing to do.
As a highly educated individual, I think educational requirements for employment are bogus, particularly in the HIV field. Our work requires staff to know communities that you can’t learn about in textbooks. Sometimes lived experience is more important than a BA. It’s time to value community. Another reason I talk about race is that our work is missing too many. Systems led by community need to be supported and valued. Professional standards are not necessarily community standards. Existing systems retain 49% of all people living with HIV in care, but they do not reach everyone needed to end the epidemic. Once again, we need to keep the good and use new funding to figure out ways to reach those who have fallen out or are not reached by existing systems. It is time to expand our business model to include the urban market. My plea is not only to hire people of color, but to also give them the support and resources needed to succeed. Things you take for granted may not be their reality and vice versa. Too many executives of color have experienced horror stories of donors that are friends to the movement but less than understanding on race or gender identity. Unless you’ve been there, it’s almost impossible to appreciate the trauma these meetings create, having to smile while a person with wealth says, “you’re one of the good people of color.” This really does happen. I have too many stories and too many names of donors who just don’t get it.
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Yours in the Struggle,
Paul Kawata
NMAC