By Laura Franklin
In recognition of World AIDS Day on Dec. 5, the Office of Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy at the University of Maryland hosted a panel Thursday, featuring Washington Blade journalist Lou Chibbaro Jr. and sexual health advocate Kaniya Walker.
Walker is a member of Heart-to-Hand Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes awareness of human immunodeficiency virus and other sexually transmitted infections, in addition to providing services for those in need in Prince George’s County. The group came to campus Thursday and provided free HIV testing for students.
“Living with HIV doesn’t mean dying with AIDS,” Walker said.
By providing HIV testing, the group is destigmatizing the act of getting tested for HIV.
“HIV doesn’t discriminate,” said Walker, adding that “it’s better for people to detect HIV in its early stages.”
HIV is a condition that weakens the body’s immune system by destroying the white blood cells that protect against infection. HIV, if unchecked, can progress into AIDS, resulting in a badly damaged immune system that leaves one vulnerable to dying of typically minor ailments.. Although HIV is a lifelong disease, the development of AIDS can be prevented by early detection and medication.
Jenna Beckwith, a sexual health coordinator at this university, said that there are a variety of resources that the university offers to protect students, including free HIV and STI testing, contraceptives and peer education sexual health programs.
Chibbaro is a senior news reporter at the Washington Blade — an LGBT newspaper located in D.C. — and has reported on the LGBT civil rights movement for over 30 years. In the panel, he discussed the history of the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic, and how it affected the LGBT community.
Before the HIV virus was discovered, Chibbaro said its outbreak had been widely percieved as a “gay plague,” resulting in a societal stigma against those who had HIV.
When the true nature of HIV was acknowledged, Chibbaro said that he had to report stories about the discrimination that people with HIV faced, including getting kicked out of their apartments and getting fired from their jobs.
Underrepresented groups in the LGBT community, including black and trans people, experienced compounded discrimination.
“The trans community is not part of the conversation most of the time,” Walker said. “As far as black trans women, I feel like we have it the hardest.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a stark racial disparity in HIV diagnoses within the transgender community. An estimated 44% of black trans women have HIV, while only 7% of white trans women are diagnosed with HIV, according to the CDC.