CHAMP Activists Bring HIV Prevention Justice to the Heart of Creating Change

Like any good revival, Creating Change generated spirits on fire, weeping and dancing for AIDS activists and LGBTQ leaders across the generations.  CHAMP facilitated eight sessions exploring the facts, fictions, politics and deeply rooted social causes of the epidemic in this country.  And we took action then and there at the largest annual advocacy meeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people and allies from across the country held in Denver last week.

Together we are working to address the ways that institutionalized fear and hatred of sexual diversity makes our communities more vulnerable to HIV by supporting and strengthening local community leadership, weaving national networks, and building the movement for HIV prevention justice to challenge this deep and persistent structural vulnerability.

And the community at the conference was ready and enrapt.  In Saturday’s session, The Heart of Our Epidemic, the room of 40 became so interlinked in passion and planning that approaching participants stayed at the door silently to avoid breaking the circle.  CHAMP facilitated a discussion on The Young and The Evil, a short film featured at this year’s Sundance Film Festival that chronicles a day in the life of a young Black gay man testing the limits of sexuality, marginalization, spirituality, disease and desire in a community facing one of the highest rates of HIV in the world.

“The anti-gay, gender-normative and racially-biased policies that marginalize us in schools, employment, health care and in the eyes of the legal system create conditions where bias and even violence are widespread, and HIV is flourishing.  Meanwhile, right-wing pressure has led to the quashing of research and policies on sexuality, stigma and public health, allowing LGBT people and people with HIV to remain in harm’s way,” explains Charles Long, a CHAMP Board member and Director of Development and Communications at the New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN) who will lead the discussion after the screening.

At the main plenary on HIV/AIDS, Kenyon Farrow, wearing his Project UNSHACKLE sticker, took us deeper into racial injustices driving the vast disparities in infection rates and access to treatment and care.   And he taught how the new economic crisis is not only making things worse but also inspiring radical action.

CHAMPsters walked the aisles of the plenary to distribute and collect postcards to send to federal lawmakers urging them to “fund a stimulus plan for the fight against HIV/AIDS” and implement a National AIDS Strategy.  (In fact, Julie Davids did a session on the NAS with Gay Men’s Health Crisis on the last day first thing in the morning, and people came and participated!)

The conference was held in Denver, Colorado, where more than two decades ago, a group of AIDS activists took the stage of another conference to declare the human rights and dignity and necessary leadership of people living with AIDS in this fight.  The Denver Principles remain a radical statement against the social stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS that still inhibits testing, prevention, disclosure and access to treatment that always has been linked with homophobia and transphobia. 

David Munar of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and our partner in the Prevention Justice Alliance, gave a talk at the plenary rooted in the Denver Principles - watch here.

And to see David’s video of me telling how we did- watch here.