We need a plan that will break through those barriers, allowing people to know their status and to be linked to medical care. President Obama agrees.

 

On July 15, in honor of the three-year anniversary of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the President signed an Executive Order outlining his latest plan to help us reach an AIDS free generation. The National HIV/AIDS Strategy pledged to reduce new HIV infections and improve health outcomes for those living with HIV/AIDS. To help fulfill that pledge, the Executive Order establishes a new, interagency HIV Continuum of Care Working Group, which is charged with meeting three main goals: 1) increasing HIV testing (especially for people ages 15-65); 2) ensuring earlier treatment for HIV-positive people after their diagnosis; and 3) providing them with access to care.

 

President Obama recognizes that because of advancements in research and treatment, we are in the greatest position we have ever been to end the epidemic. Yet it will only happen if we take the necessary steps, and the President gave the Working Group 180 days to recommend evidence-based solutions that effectively address these goals.

 

The President’s plan instructs the Working Group to identify impediments to improving outcomes along the HIV care continuum, particularly for populations at greatest risk, and then identify opportunities to tackle those impediments.

 

As the Community Organizer at GMHC, I work with women and men affected by HIV and AIDS every day to help them identify and overcome impediments to living healthier lives. These include access to stable housing, obtaining medications while incarcerated, finding work after extended unemployment, and battling insurance companies. Each year we fight budget cuts at the city, state, and federal level that threaten our nutritional hot meals programs and reduce supportive housing options, among other critical services. GMHC’s clients will tell you that improving health outcomes is about a lot more than just having access to medication.

 

Recognizing this need to fight HIV on all fronts, The President’s new Working Group includes representatives from the Departments of Justice, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs.

 

You may ask what the Department of Justice (DOJ) has to do with the HIV epidemic. It’s simple – HIV is four times more prevalent in incarcerated populations than in the general public. Once released, previously incarcerated people suffer from a lack of resources and are less likely to have health care. Therefore, they are less able to effectively control their virus.

 

You may ask what the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has to do with the HIV epidemic. Well, due to the high cost of medications and higher rates of unemployment (because of discrimination or health-related absences), 50% of people living with HIV are at risk of becoming homeless and need access to financial support that helps keep a roof over their heads. Many people who come to GMHC are homeless or living in untenable situations. GMHC has to resolve their housing situations before they can be successfully connected to care, and begin to get their HIV under control.

 

The HIV epidemic has always been interconnected with issues beyond physical health. GMHC salutes the President for including the DOJ, HUD and many other federal agencies as a part of the Working Group – their participation is critical to achieving success. All agencies (from local to federal) must create policies, programs and services that positively affect the lives of not only people living with HIV/AIDS, but also those most at risk of infection.

 

Moving forward, this plan is not just an opportunity for bureaucrats to make recommendations. The White House is offering $30.7 million in grants to turn policy recommendations into practice. In an environment where funding for HIV services is being cut at all levels of government, this support is crucial to meeting the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

 

The President’s comprehensive solution to ending the epidemic is much-needed and long overdue. The structure of the cross-departmental Working Group, in combination with new funding, will help turn innovative ideas into action. This makes me optimistic that we will begin to see more traction in fighting HIV and AIDS on a domestic level. In this era of budget cuts, people living with HIV are struggling more than ever to find resources that enable them to stay healthy. This plan is an important next step to reaching an AIDS free generation.

As the Managing Director of Development, Communications, and Marketing at GMHC, I supervise the team of amazing people that raise money to support GMHC’s programs, and work to get the word out about GMHC’s groundbreaking work.  As a fundraiser for social justice causes for well over a decade I spend most of my time asking people to contribute money, time, and other resources to help people in need.

 

I actually rarely talk about my own giving, but today GMHC is launching a video campaign titled, “Where Does Your Money Go?” asking people to give to support individuals living with and affected by HIV.  I feel like I owe it to our supporters to share my philanthropy story - to come out of the closet, so to speak, about why I give to GMHC.  Last year my husband and I donated $100,000 to GMHC, and we are committed to doing the same this year.  I give to GMHC to honor my past, present, and future.  Let me explain.

 

I am Jewish, and living in the United States I have always been able to openly practice my religion.  However, most of my grandparents were not so fortunate.  Three of my grandparents escaped Eastern Europe during World War II to flee persecution.  They fled in order to worship openly and be true to themselves.  They faced stigma and prejudice as a direct result of their religious beliefs.  My step-grandmother, who married my grandfather when I was a baby, had it much worse.  She was imprisoned at Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp.  However, after being liberated, she not only survived, but prospered.  She dedicated herself to making sure people remembered the Holocaust, and not only recorded her story, but donated her Auschwitz uniform to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.  The strength of my grandparents inspires and sustains me every day.  I give in memory of them and their legacy. They were discriminated against who they were, just as so many people living with HIV and AIDS are discriminated against simply because they have a virus.

 

I also give to honor the present, because the epidemic is not over.  Last week I met with a family whose son died of AIDS just thirty days earlier.  He was a young man in his early twenties who knew he was positive, but did not take his anti-retroviral medication.  His friends also told him that he did not need to take his medications, that he could take vitamins and stay healthy.  His family came to GMHC to make sure his story was told. Their story was devastating to me, but it doubled my resolve to fight the epidemic.  Far too many people do not know their HIV status, or are not connected to healthcare, or on medication to control their HIV.  Some just have incorrect facts about HIV and continue to put themselves at risk, un-necessarily.  We can do better as a society, and GMHC is the leader in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

 

Finally, I give to honor my future.  My husband and I are in the early process of adopting a child, and I often think of the world that I want my son or daughter to grow up in.  There are many things I want for my child, but one of the big things is that they grow up in a world where people are all treated with dignity and respect regardless of their skin color, religion, beliefs, or HIV status I want my child to know that there are people and organizations that are here to help in times of crisis, and that no one need ever be alone because they are LGBT or HIV positive.

 

Please understand I do not give out my money blindly, and I certainly do not donate to GMHC just because I work here.  Every organization has challenges, and right now GMHC is going through a transition as all healthy organizations do from time to time.  I know every inch of GMHC, and I still give because this organization does incredible, life-saving, ground breaking work that no other organization does as well as we do.  I have complete faith in the future of GMHC, and I will be a contributor as long as I am able.  I can think of no better way to honor my past, present, and future.

 

I hope you will join me in supporting a 31-year-old organization that continues to help, serve and love life every day.

 

Click here to watch my video.

As I sit here today employed by GMHC as a counselor, HIV tester, and outreach worker for at-risk youth, I think back on how I got here and what empowered me to take this path. I remember it like it was yesterday, my first time in the neighborhood of the West Village in Manhattan (also known as the Village).  It was the most heart-racing experience I could’ve ever imagined! I moved here to New York City, to find myself. I was at the basketball courts at the West 4th Street subway station trying to figure out where all the gay men hung out.  Standing there for a whole hour, I wanted to ask passing pedestrians where the “gay area” was but I was just too scared. Nervous and flustered, I saw a group of, let’s just say “very colorful” young men walk past me. I carefully followed the group, hoping they were going to this gay sanctuary I’d been told about. After several nerve-racking and curious blocks, I could see for certain that I finally arrived home. The Village including the Piers by the Hudson River where many young men hang out became my safe haven. I had never felt so alive, comfortable, and protected all at the same time--not only because the people there were just like me but because I was treated like family.  I knew then that I needed to help do my part in making this place safe and welcoming for others after me.  

 

Years have passed since my first day in the Village and since then I have become a fixture there, doing outreach to young men who have sex with men, recruiting them to be tested for HIV and to receive sexual health education, as well as counseling services through the Outstanding Beautiful Brothers (OBB) program.  I have come to know the Piers and the people who frequent them. Yet I was not prepared for the horrific incident I witnessed a few weeks ago on the Christopher Street Pier.  As a friend and I were sitting having a conversation on the wooden benches at what is known as the “2nd Pier” when we saw a group of young black men who I had never seen before.  It was obvious to me that the men wearing red were not regulars on the 2nd Pier.  The group approached and asked us if we knew anyone who selling bud (marijuana) or nutcrackers (mixed alcohol sold on the street) and we replied no.  They then approached a young gay man who I had seen before, sitting alone on the pier eating Chinese food from a local eatery.  The group of young men exchanged words with him and in less than a minute the guy who was eating his food leaped up and ran to the end of the pier yelling “they got a gun!” As he ran, the group chased after him and the man leaped over the railing and off the pier into the river. The group chased him to the end and then looked over the railing to see where he disappeared to. 

 

All the people on the pier started running for their lives away from the wooden tables where the situation took place. A few minutes after someone yelled out, “I’m calling the police,” the group of young men fled towards the West Side Highway. My friend and I stayed to see if the man who jumped would resurface.  The guy eventually leaped back on to the pier dripping wet.  Trying to maintain some level of pride he yelled, “Where they at?” indicating he was ready to fight and walked off towards the highway.  I was beyond shocked and scared out of my mind at what I had just witnessed.  I felt it was a scene out of a rap music video.  The park police arrived about 15 minutes later. They approached people on the pier and questioned us about what we witnessed.  I was later informed by a few of the locals in the area that all the young men involved were frisked and placed under arrest.  

 

The hate crimes, violence, and stigma against LGBTQ people must stop! That is why the OBB program was created, to help young men of color who have sex with men stay healthy, and receive support.  Through access to HIV testing, mental health services, workshops on building healthy relationships and reducing bullying and domestic violence, OBB offers an opportunity for our young men to develop trusting bonds through brotherhood.   While more and more young men come through doors for the OBB program, sadly our funding has been reduced, which is another blow to the very limited spaces where young men of color can feel safe and at home to be themselves without judgment and harassment.  We as a community must continue to find ways to end hate crimes and increase funding for programs that work with LGBTQ youth.  Young gay men should not have to jump off a pier into a river to avoid homophobic attacks.

 

 

My name is David and I am HIV-positive.  When I first learned of my diagnosis in 1987, I felt terribly ashamed.

 

I thought I had disappointed all the people who had ever invested time in me—my teachers, mentors and friends.  I thought my life was over.  I was told I had a year and a half to live.  Most of my peers died of AIDS, many of whom were African American.  So many died, I lost count and I wondered why I was still living. 

 

I had thoughts of suicide and was fighting depression, staying at home with the covers pulled over my head. I was ashamed to admit that I needed help to survive. 

 

But I finally got enough courage to face the world and say “I am still alive and I plan to stay that way.” GMHC was essential in helping me.   I went to GMHC for legal help and the meals program when I wasn’t eating enough. I also started volunteering.  I trained to be a mentor, working with people who are newly diagnosed with HIV.

 

Volunteering as a mentor has been empowering because, as I lead, I am reminded about the things I need to do for myself.  

 

I have gained so much strength from being at GMHC.  I also receive a lot of support from my mother and friends.   If I didn’t have supportive people around me, I would not be here today.  To know someone is in your corner is essential to living.  I am now able to be fearless when I talk about my diagnosis and my journey. I can see how my story affects others and I understand the power of sharing the truth.  

 

So, when you walk the six and a half miles, tell your story.  Talk about your challenges and successes--especially with the issues connected to HIV and AIDS. The best way to fight stigma is to stay vocal and visible, every day. 

 

Your voice is needed.  Your walking is needed.  Your support is needed—especially for those who may be suffering in silence.  

 

I have been living with HIV for 25 years, and I have no shame about that. I stand here today, so pleased and proud to be able to share my story and celebrate my life with you. 

 

As Albert Einstein said, “Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.” Together we can act to end AIDS.

 

Thank you!