#nwghaad

The federal health department has removed HIV educational material from a government website because the material included  “unapproved” images of condoms, reports Kaiser Health News.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had a fact sheet removed from the department’s Office on Women’s Health. The material was dated 2017 and wasn’t publicly linked on the agency’s WomensHealth.gov site, but it included images that had previously been used on social media to promote National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD), which is observed each March 10.

March 10 is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a reminder to get educated, get tested and get treated.

HIV and Women in New York City

In 2018:

430 cisgender and transgender women were newly diagnosed with HIV in New York City.

82% of new diagnoses among women were attributed to heterosexual contact.

34% of women newly diagnosed were born outside the United States.

Black and Latina Women accounted for the majority of new HIV diagnoses in women.

Of the approximately 26,000 women with HIV living in NYC in 2018, 77% had a suppressed viral load.

Women comprised a larger proportion of new HIV diagnoses in the Bronx and Staten Island than in other boroughs.

Take charge of your health.

Did you know that there is a pill that can help prevent HIV? Pre-exposure prophylaxis (also known as PrEP) is a daily pill that greatly reduces your risk of HIV infection, especially if you don’t always use condoms. PrEP can be an important HIV prevention option for women. If you are HIV negative, talk to your health care provider about whether PrEP may be right for you. You can also use the NYC Health Map to find a PrEP provider.

Click here to find National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day events in NYC where you can learn more about how to stay healthy, whether or not you’re living with HIV.

For more information on HIV in NYC:

Get Tested: Visit a Sexual Health Clinic, call 311, click “HIV Prevention Services” on the NYC Health Map or text “TESTNYC” to 877-877 to find local testing sites. Outside of NYC? Here’s the AIDS.gov testing locator.

Get Treated: If you are living with HIV, you can protect your health and your partners’ health by getting treated. Remember that if you are on treatment and maintain an undetectable viral load for at least six months, you will not transmit HIV through sex. Undetectable = Untransmittable! Text “CARE” to 877-877 for help finding HIV care or support services in NYC.

Learn More about PrEP and PEP: Daily PrEP is a prevention option that women can control; emergency PEP can stop HIV infection if started within 72 hours of exposure. Visit our PrEP and PEP page to get more info. 

in 2006, a quirky sitcom about two half sisters who reconnect as adults and grow their relationship while living in the same apartment building, claimed their spot in hiv television history.

since the onset of the hiv epidemic in the 1980’s, tevleision sitcoms have attempted to use both humor and heart to inform the masses about basic prevention and stigma. many of these “special episodes”, how they were promoted then, often came across as “preachy” and reinforced the narrative that the person living with AIDS, which was usually a white gay male, should be loved because he can be “redeemed.” in addition, very few dealt with disclosure in a way that wasn’t fatalistic.

“half & half”, ya know the show with the dope ass theme song, premiered on UPN in 2002 and was the fourth most watch show on the network before it was canceled in 2006 when the network merged with the WB to create what is now the CW.

in one of the show’s final episodes, michelle williams of destiny’s child, guess stars as naomi, secondary characther spencer’s love interest. after a few dates, spencer is confused if naomi is even interested in him romantically. naomi then discloses that she is hiv positive. prepared to be dumped by spencer, she is surprised when he says “it doesn’t matter. we may have to do some things differently, if we decide to do some things.” when i first saw this episode, i was floored because i have never seen a sitcom one: handled hiv discosure so beautiful and two: still center intimacy, consent and pleasure. 13 years later, no other sitcom to my knowledge) has successfully done the same. and what is amazing about this episode if that it also models conservations about disclosure that are not portrayed as “bad” and “horrific” news.

“[To] any positive girl or woman in the world, I would say own whatever experience you’re having. You hold space too, you are important too. No one else can write this outline of your life better than you."

For more stories, visit mystoryoutloud.org

Annual awareness days help to educate the general public and specific communities about HIV/AIDS. Since the virus affects people from all walks of life, the number of awareness days has increased over the years. Display this poster to remind you of upcoming awareness days, and use the hashtags shown to promote them on social media.

March 10th is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Before I get into why NWGHAAD is important, just a reminder that RC is having a FREE COMMUNITY HIV AND STD TESTING DAY tomorrow for NWGHAAD! It’s during normal Drop-In hours, but again, it’s open to everyone! If you’re sexually active, it’s considered best practice to get tested every 3 to 6 months - and it’s important to get tested anyway because you can still get HIV without having sex. https://fb.me/e/1sTifgyrw

According to the CDC, women account for every 1 in 5 new US HIV diagnoses - and we know that HIV disproportionally affects transgender, Black, and Latina women. Initiatives like NWGHAAD are part of the grander plan to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the US by 75% by 2025 - and end the HIV epidemic as a whole by 2030.

You may not know anyone who’d been personally affected by HIV - young LGBTQIA+ people such as ourselves very likely do not know anyone who’s died due to HIV, which makes it harder to be concerned about - especially when our local school systems hardly teach about queer history. It is because of HIV that we currently hardly have any queer elders.

Instead, I would like you to think about COVID-19, especially with how the Trump administration treated it. It was fake, liberal propaganda, not worth masking for, etc. The entire first half of the pandemic was Trump’s administration ignoring science and disregarding the lives of those dying. We’re currently still in the pandemic because of governmental inaction - consider if Trump’s administration had taken COVID seriously and we really did just have to quarantine for those initial two weeks rather than being here like, three years later.

COVID has recently shown us as young people how devastating governmental disregard can be - the insane number of people of color who have been killed, the number of disabled and vulnerable people now lost just because the GOP couldn’t stand to tell people to wear masks and get vaccinated.