D.C.’s LGBT AIDS programs get mixed reviews

published on December 6, 2017 by Lou Chibbaro Jr., in Washington blade

Although the D.C. government is making good progress toward its ambitious goal of reducing the overall number of new HIV infections in the city by 50 percent in 2020, some of those at most risk for HIV/AIDS, especially LGBT people of color, “have been overlooked” in the city’s fight against AIDS, according to one of two independent reports released last week.

The report making the latter assertion, “Reclaiming The Right To Live: Reducing HIV/AIDS Disparities for LGB/Trans People of Color,” was prepared by student attorneys enrolled in Georgetown University Law Center’s Community Justice Project-Health Justice Alliance.

The report says the research on which its findings are based was conducted in partnership with Casa Ruby, the D.C. LGBT community services center that works closely with the transgender community. Its focus was on the city’s HIV/AIDS prevention efforts “as they relate to the LGB/Trans community and communities of color,” according to the report.

“Despite efforts to combat the epidemic in the District and general success with decreasing the number of cases in the last decade, these communities are disproportionately high risk for HIV,” the report says. “So while the District has had general success in fighting and preventing the spread of HIV, the most vulnerable and historically marginalized groups have been overlooked,” it says.

The report provides a number of recommendations for improving the city’s outreach to trans women and LGB people of color, including suggestions for improving the city’s data collection, which it says lumps transgender people together with gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.

It points out that a recent report by the D.C. Trans Coalition found that a staggering 20 percent of transgender people reported they were living with HIV, with 75 percent of them being people of color. The report also notes that D.C. data show that black men who have sex with men contracted HIV in 2016 at a rate of one in four compared to white men who have sex with men, who had an infection rate of one in eight.

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D.C.’s LGBT AIDS programs get mixed reviews

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