The stigma related to HIV in the LGBT community on full display at CC16 plenary session
CHICAGO — The grand ballroom in the Chicago Hilton has played host to many moments in American history — as the elevator trivia screens reminded everyone. But changing the commitment to the fight against HIV by the LGBTQ community cannot be chalked up to one of those historical moments.
On Saturday, Jan. 23, The LGBTQ Task Force and Gilead Sciences sponsored a plenary lunch, called “AIDS: Mind the Gap,” as part of the Task Force’s Creating Change conference. While men who have sex with men and transwomen are significantly overburdened with this infection — particularly people of color — the attendance in the ballroom, which had enough space for 2,500, was abysmal.
About half the space was full, and as the program was just getting revved up, and lunch was done, the attendance dwindled even further — to about one quarter full. It’s the new normal for HIV and the queer community, the elephant in the community most don’t want to be reminded of.
“We are virtually breaking the back of HIV,” declared Phil Wilson, president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute.
But that’s not accurate. The tools to break the back of HIV are certainly available — what with PrEP and Treatment as Prevention — but the community, according to government data, simply is not availing itself of the options.
Despite being at least 92 percent effective — and math models say it could be as effective as 99 percent — PrEP, the once a day pill to prevent HIV infection, has been very slow on the uptake. In June 2014 the CDC issued broad new clinical guidance on the prescription of PrEP which ought to have extended the use of the drug to a half million or more men who have sex with men and transgender women. Instead, in November 2015, Gilead (the same company that sponsored the plenary lunch) reported that there were only about 25,000 prescriptions for the drug in the U.S.