Reflecting on the “NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US IS FOR US” Webinar on National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

March 10th is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and we here at Achieving Together Texas would like to honor that day by reflecting on a recent webinar hosted by the Black Women’s Affinity Group of the Texas HIV Syndicate. Black women represent 10% of people living with HIV in Texas and represented 8% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2018 in Texas. The CDC provides an informative fact sheet as well about women living with HIV in the United States.

Since Black women are one of the five vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by HIV in Texas, the Black Women’s Affinity Group and the Texas Black Women’s Health Initiative work to address health issues affecting Black women in Texas. The affinity group recently kicked off a webinar series entitled, DYK (Did You Know?). As part of the series, they hosted a webinar on February 8th addressing medical mistrust in the Black community, medical research for HIV/Covid19 involving Black women, and how to identify “good” research. The webinar included a panel of experts who each presented on different topics. Presenters included:

  • Mandy Hill, DrPH, MPH, Director of Population Health and Associate Professor, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s McGovern Medical School & Delta Sigma Theta
  • Teriya Richmond, MD, Chief Medical Officer, AIDS Foundation Houston
  • Shanterra McBride, Alpha Kappa Alpha
  • Jennifer Jones, Zeta Phi Beta
  • Camille White, MD, Sigma Gamma Rho
  • Karen Shores, community advocate

The webinar included a mixture of presentations, interactive polls, and open discussions and prompted some great questions and responses from attendees. One organizer, Sattie Nyachwaya, a Community Engagement Coordinator with Prism Health North Texas, shared her thoughts on the webinar afterwards:

“Being a part of this webinar was a huge honor for me. Being in the space with some powerful Black women involved in this work for many years continues to inspire and motivate me in my long term personal and professional development. One of the things I took from this webinar was empowerment behind medical research. I was never aware that Black women are needed to be a part of medical research, and that we take back the power and break barriers by being active in our own health. I believe that mental health is a part of the foundation of Black women’s health, and by having open conversations with our providers and asking questions we make sure we are at the table with conversations of change. I learned that mistrust lives among misinformation, and it is so important in my own health to empower myself to ask and speak up.”

As part of the work of Achieving Together, the Black Women’s Affinity Group works to empower their community through social justice, education, and advocacy, while working towards the goal of eliminating health disparities and HIV in Black women and all Texans.

You can watch the entire webinar below:

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Sex Ed 2021: Pandemic Edition. Promoting Safe(r) Sex During COVID-19

“I have a confession: I’ve had sex since social distancing began. With someone I met on Tinder, someone I don’t live with. And I know friends doing the same. 

With the pandemic still a major concern across the United States, people having sex or even just wanting to have sex may feel shame — even more shame than usual in this Puritanical wasteland. We’ve been told to abstain from pleasure and release at a time where we need it most.”

This is the opening to Anna Iovine’s article “The practical guide to mid-pandemic sex, because abstinence isn’t cutting it.”    While the safest approach is to abstain from sex with partners outside of you household, this doesn’t work for many people.  Like early messages about HIV prevention, abstinence may be the ideal but we’ve learned that for most people, negotiating safety when it comes to sex is the most practical strategy.  Sexual harm reduction approaches have long been a staple in the HIV world, but now those approaches are expanding to help guide people during the COVID crisis.

Achieving Together is excited to partner with Kind Clinic to share their strategies and approaches to supporting communities during this time of uncertainty, particularly around sexual health and wellness. Kind Clinic’s approach to education is non-judgmental, sex positive, and playful in order to develop educational but relatable messaging. We’re excited to share their efforts to help inform and shape other work across the state in supporting communities.

From Kind Clinic:

Safer sex practices have been and always will be vital to the community’s sexual health, but having responsible, safe sex is even more important now during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 has introduced new challenges to sexual health education and outreach. At Texas Health Action’s Kind Clinic, we are educating the community on how to reduce the risk of contracting HIV, STIs and COVID-19, while STILL enjoying a healthy sex life. The most effective tools for us have been colorful, fun, and easy to read graphics. Our “Safer Sex During COVID-19” infographic is a great example.

Additionally, Kind Clinic has actively used traditional media such as the Austin Chronicle to highlight and share information on negotiating sexual health during the pandemic.  Holly Bullion, a nurse practitioner and director of clinical quality at the clinic, has taken opportunities to share information when possible.  In the Austin Chronicle article Kissing Is Out, Glory Holes Are In for Students During Pandemic, Bullion continues the practice of sharing critical information in a relatable and non-judgmental fashion as can be seen in the excerpt below.

(Holly Bullion, Kind Clinic; photo courtesy of Austin Chronicle)

Holly Bullion, nurse practitioner and director of clinical quality with Texas Health Action, the parent organization of Kind Clinic, says during the pandemic sexual “playtime” should be focused below the waist. COVID is transmitted through respiratory droplets, so kissing and sexual activities that involve the mouth come with increased risk of viral spread.

“It’s really best to keep your mouth out of any kind of in-person sex play,” explained Bullion. “Or really diligently use barrier methods like dental dams or external or internal condoms.”

She emphasized there are many places for people to get tested and treated for STIs without feeling stigmatized. People should not avoid getting tested for fear of judgment for having sex during the pandemic.

“For many of us, sex is a really important outlet,” said Bullion. “Being sex positive and empowering yourself and knowing what your resources are, I think is the most important thing.”

To complete their messaging, the clinic has created and shared numerous fun social media posts that reflect their emphasis on harm reduction and safety.  We are sharing several to highlight the frank and honest approach.

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Reflections on the Achieving Together Long-Term Survivors Webinar

On June 5, 2020, in celebration of Long-Term HIV Survivors Day, Texas HIV Syndicate member Barry Waller led a panel discussion with three long-term survivors here in Texas. Participants came from across the state and had a combined experience of 88 years of living with HIV: Gary Cooper, Austin; Glenda Small, San Antonio; and Steven Vargas, Houston.

When I tested positive for 1985, there were no services or treatments for HIV – only fear, government indifference, and the threat of being rounded up and quarantined. Friends were dying all around me, friends far more accomplished in life than I had been.

-Gary Cooper

Long-Term HIV Survivors Day, started by Tez Anderson of Let’s Kick ASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome), in 2014 recognizes the resilience and strength of long-term survivors of HIV. Tez chose June 5 because it is the anniversary of the first reporting of cases by the CDC of what would later be known as AIDS.

Long-term HIV survivors are defined as those who have been living with HIV for more than 20 years. Currently, there are almost 19,500 Texans who have been living with HIV for more than 20 years.  These long-term survivors represent two out of every ten Texans living with HIV.

Hopefully we can get together and do this thing right and become as one and realize that everyone is a human being, and everybody deserves to live, and everybody deserves to have a chance.

-Glenda Small

We want to celebrate the long-term survivors currently living in Texas.  Long-term HIV survivors bring so many strengths with them to the fight to end HIV.  Many also face a number of unique challenges, including medical care, medication, housing, social isolation, and more. 

I had to do my part. I had to step up and use what I learned to help other people. And so I did.

-Steven Vargas

You can watch the webinar here and listen as these three individuals share their unique stories, perspectives, and wisdom:  

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Black Lives Matter and Achieving Together

Our country is at a crucial point in our collective history as communities across the nation engage in organizing, protesting, and confronting the systemic racism that plagues Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color in America. 

The Black Lives Matter movement continues to lead the call for social justice by confronting the murder of Black men, women, and children by law enforcement and the dismantling of white supremacy in our culture.

Today, July 13th, is the 7 year anniversary of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Achieving Together Texas stands with and supports Black Lives Matter. 

Social justice is a core value to the Achieving Together plan.  Many HIV organizations across Texas have now publicly taken a stand against systemic racism and in support of Black Lives Matter. They have committed themselves to the fight to end White supremacy in our country.

As we work together to stand with Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, we must also work to support those community members who are intersectionally marginalized in the fight for justice.  These communities are often most vulnerable to being unrepresented in the broader movement for change.

As a group dedicated to addressing social justice, the Achieving Together community must continue to support and amplify the voices of Black women and Black LGBTQ communities to ensure that their issues and experiences are heard. 

In her interview with Dissent Magazine, Marcia Chatelain, professor of history at Georgetown University, creator of the #FergusonSyllabus, and author of South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration, discussed the role of Black women and queer communities in the broader Black Lives Matter movement:

“I think any conversation about police brutality must include black women. Even if women are not the majority of the victims of homicide, the way they are profiled and targeted by police is incredibly gendered. There are now renewed conversations about how sexual violence and sexual intimidation are part of how Black women experience racist policing. You don’t have to dig deep to see how police brutality is a women’s issue—whether it’s the terrifying way that Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw preyed on black women in low-income sections of the city, or the murder of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones inside her Detroit home. We know that girls and women of color are also dying.”

Combating violence against Black LGBTQ communities has always been a part of the Black Lives Matter movement.  It is vital to continue to call out attacks on these communities, particularly the crisis of murders of Black transgender women.  The HRC recorded 26 transgender murders in 2018 and 27 in 2019, the majority of who were Black transgender women.

This year, there have been 18 transgender women killed including the recent murder of Merci Mack, a 22 year old Black Transgender woman killed in Dallas.

In the article BLM Turns Inward to Ask About LGBTQ Bias, Ariel Hall writes that “Historically, LGBTQ+ members of the Black community have experienced ostracization, bullying, isolation and violence, according to studies. LGBTQ youth of color and transgender teenagers report the highest levels of rejection and isolation”

As a movement dedicated to ending HIV and fighting for social change, the Achieving Together community must continue to advocate for and support communities of color and challenge ourselves to elevate the voices and issues faced by Black women and Black LGBTQ people.

To learn more about racism as a public health crisis, we encourage you to watch Racism: The Ultimate Underlying Condition, and to participate in the rest of the American Public Health Association’s Advancing Racial Equity Series.

You can also watch the short video The Intersection of Black Lives Matter and Public Health: Moving from Conversation to Action in Addressing Health Disparities to see examples of the work being done in San Francisco to address racism through public health.

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