AIDS service providers tend to agree: When it comes to fighting HIV infection rates among transgender populations, one of the biggest obstacles might just be connecting them with health services, period.
A dearth of statistics exist to prove it, but it is generally believed that lack of unemployment, high rates of discrimination, and a scarcity of gender-affirming healthcare providers mean that many transgender people live without access to necessary medical care.
That reality was subject of a May 19 conference, "TransActions: Increasing Access to Care," organized by AIDS Foundation of Chicago.The day-long sessions, comprised mostly of healthcare providers and therapists, focused on obstacles facing transgender people accessing care and in protecting themselves against HIV/AIDS.
Keynote addresses were given by three renowned transgender figures: Joanne Herman who wrote Transgender Explained for Those Who Are Not, Amanda Simpson's whose role advising President Obama has made her the first openly transgender appointee of a U.S. presidential administration, and Jamison Green, Ph.D., an international expert in Transgender Health from University of California.
All three speakers seemed to suggest that combating discrimination against transgender people was key to opening up access to healthcare.
"We change the world when we change our attitudes and change our behaviors," Green said. "We change the world when we speak up."
Green noted that transgender men especially are left out of research on HIV/AIDS and healthcare, despite the fact that many are having unprotected sex with other men. He worries that transgender men are not being reached at all in study or in healthcare because they have historically been categorized as a group not at-risk.
Amanda Simpson focused on divisions within the LGBTQ community that often marginalize transgender people and said that elevated rates of HIV among transgender people were a "symptom of a greater illness in society." Simpson said that symptom was bigotry, even from gay people.
"Every time we divide ourselves, we move further away from our goals," Simpson said.
Simpson spoke only briefly President Obama and gay issues, noting that it was not her field of expertise and that she was not representing the administration at the conference. Still, she named Obama's memorandum that same-sex couples be allowed hospital visitation as well as the fact that governmental anti-bullying site www.stopbullying.gov has an LGBT link as advancements for the LGBT community.
The conference also showcased local advocacy efforts in transgender care. Presenters from Broadway Youth Center's TWISTA (Trans Women Informing Sista Trans-women on AIDS) Program, talked about methods they have used to successfully ally with young transgender women of color in preventing HIV.
TWISTA presenters said that they used a peer-based approach in working with transgender youth to build transgender and ethnic pride and educate youth about HIV and STDs. The latter is especially important for transgender women, said LeVea-Tyler Nole, a facilitator for TWISTA.
Nole said that it's not just unsafe sex that can place transgender people at risk of HIV infection. Sharing of needles for hormone injections and "pumping," an unlicensed and often dangerous practice in which silicone is injected directly into the body to provide more feminine features, can put many transitioning people at risk of infection as well.
Other workshops were facilitated by the Chicago Department of Public Health, Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois, and the Young Women's Empowerment Project. The AD Host Committee was comprised of representatives from Chicago Department of Public Health, Howard Brown Health Center, TransActions and AIDS Foundation of Chicago.
Civil-union
protest May 27
To protest Illinois' civil-unions bill, a group headed by Peter LaBarbera (president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality) and "ex-gay" Linda Jernigan will stage a demonstration Friday, May 27, at St. Peter's Church, 110 W. Madison, at 11 a.m. The rally will be followed by a march to the Thompson Center.
Several pro-LGBT groups, including LGBT Change and the Gay Liberation Network, plan to stage a counterdemonstration at the same site.
See www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2011/05/illinois-defense-of-marriage-initiative-more-bad-pr-for-the-protect-marriage-movement.html .
