The June mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando that stole the lives of 49 people, most of whom were Latino, underscores just how vulnerable we LGBTQ people are – and continue to be – despite legal and social advances. It is a wake-up call, as urgent as the call for justice launched at Stonewall in 1969. Stonewall was a tipping point for us in the LGBTQ community and helped launch the modern gay rights movement. We have made historic progress in the 47 years since, such as the right to marry and serve openly in the military, and many states now assuring protections from discrimination in employment or housing.
While Orlando reminds us that some hearts and minds are resistant to change, it also is a stark reminder of just how resilient LGBTQ people are. We’ve stepped out from the shadows and together recommitted ourselves to fighting for our fundamental rights and fighting for our health – and in some ways we are still fighting for our lives.
There are many questions left to be answered about the Orlando shooting, and perhaps some answers will never be found. One theory is that the shooter was motivated by fear of HIV combined with his repressed sexuality. Whether this is true or not, what we do know is that our community has yet to effectively combat the stigma related to HIV, and we still have much to do to fight the epidemic itself.
Thirty-five years ago this summer, the first cases of what would later be known as HIV and AIDS were identified. And while science has made great progress understanding and treating the disease, we LGBTQ people must face the stark reality that the epidemic continues to grow among our population like no other, especially among transgender women and gay and bisexual men.
The sad truth is our knowledge of HIV is stuck in the 198’s even though we have 21st-century solutions and biomedical advances. According to a 2014 Kaiser survey, most gay and bisexual men are not aware of current HIV treatment recommendations or that men who have sex with men in this country continue to experience startling increases in new HIV infections. The majority did not know that a virally suppressed person with HIV has a greater than 96 percent chance of never transmitting the virus to someone else, something we call treatment as prevention. Moreover, eight in 10 gay and bisexual men surveyed had heard little or nothing about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the use of preventive medication by HIV-negative people that can lower their risk of contracting the virus to nearly zero. Most surprisingly, three-quarters said they rarely or have never discussed HIV with friends or even sexual partners. Never? How can this be true after 35 years of HIV affecting our people!