Not Alone

Quinton Harper, NCAAN Community Organizer

When I was a sophomore in college, a good friend who left college and moved back home the previous year confided in me his HIV positive status. 

That year, Black men represented 88% of the new HIV infections among male college students in North Carolina, according to a report by UNC-Chapel Hill researchers. As a Black man reared to fight becoming simply another statistic, what hurt me the most was knowing that that my friend had become a statistic in that report. And that he had gone through this alone.  

I made two promises to him – and I’ve kept them.  I was tested for HIV, and I have worked diligently ever since to make sure that no one close to me has to deal with this alone.

He is my friend. She is my friend’s mom. He was my classmate. He was my uncle. She is an ex-girlfriend’s home girl.  He is an ex-lover.  She was a colleague’s mother. These people, nameless to you, are the reason why I began my work with HIV/AIDS.  They are why I do what I do. HIV has no name, but their reflection increasingly reflects an image similar to mine. They are me.

We are all affected by HIV and AIDS. Our strength is in our collective power; we must continue to fight together.  

After a summer of “having that conversation” with friends, and the recent passing of “a soldier” in the war, my heart is heavy. But what I told my friend as an undergraduate, what I’ve told my brothers over the past years since then, and what I would tell anyone fighting this war is this: “You are not alone.”

National HIV Testing Day Congressional Call-In to Support Domestic HIV/AIDS Programs

image by pouwerkerk via Flickr Creative Commons

Can join people around the country for this national call-in day? Just call your Senators today, June 27, and ask them to fully support programs vital to people living with HIV/AIDS in Fiscal Year 2014.

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee plan to vote on the federal spending bill that supports Fiscal Year 2014's domestic HIV/AIDS programs in early July. As a part of National HIV Testing Day today, June 27, we need to let Senators know that in addition to HIV testing, they should support full access to HIV prevention, care, treatment and research. Urge Congress to fully fund these programs now!

CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW: 

Dial the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for one of your Senators. Our NC Senators are Kay Hagan and Richard Burr. If you don't live in NC, you can find out who your Senator is here.

Use this message:
Hello, my name is [you name] and I am a constituent in [your hometown]. I am calling on National HIV Testing Day to ask my Senator to fully fund and prevent additional cuts to HIV prevention, care, treatment, and research programs.

[Please add one or more of the messages below]

• Supporting access to HIV testing means supporting access to the full continuum of HIV programs needed, including HIV prevention, care, treatment, and research.
• Early identification through HIV testing, and reliable access to effective HIV care and treatment helps people with HIV live healthy and productive lives and is cost efficient. Investing in HIV prevention today translates into fewer new infections and less spending on care and treatment in the future.
• In my state, such programs already have been cut and are greatly needed, because (insert local details or tell personal story).

If you have questions, please contact Donna Crews, Director of Government Affairs at AIDS United, at dcrews@aidsunited.org or (202) 595-4165. Thank you!

This alert is being sent by the AIDS Budget and Appropriations Coalition (ABAC), a working group of the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership (FAPP). ABAC is a coalition of over one hundred national and community-based HIV/AIDS and public health organizations that represent people living with HIV/AIDS, HIV medical provider and researchers, and advocates, as well as community organizations that provide critical HIV related health care and support services. ABAC advocates for increased resources for domestic HIV/AIDS programs across the federal government.

We can't stop now: Why I'm defending ADAP

Guest post by Michelle Stinson, CNA

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and if it wasn’t for people who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Now the General Assembly might cut $8M from that program. We can’t let that happen.

I just came back from a retreat where many people were newly diagnosed with HIV, and I was struck by how much they are hurting – not because of stigma, but because of fear. Fear of their diagnosis. Fear of telling others. I have been there. I know what it was like. We were able to rally around those people. We told them “Life is going to be OK.” We told them “You will be able to go on.”

This is my fear – without enough funding for ADAP, how are we going to be able to help people who are newly diagnosed to live? We’re going to have to put them on a wait list.

When you’re dealing with an HIV diagnosis, it can be hard to get up out of the bed, put on a smile, and face life. If you have too many stressors, it makes it so you can’t put that smile on. It makes it harder to lead a healthy life. If you have to worry about where your medications are coming from – that’s big.

And if the state cuts certain kinds of medications out of the program, that’s big too. I know first-hand that when the state cut mental health medications, a lot of people got sick, got scared, hurt other people – but if the meds had just been there, those people would have been OK. It all ties together – mental, emotional, physical. If one piece is missing, it can make your whole life out of balance.

I’m living a healthy, happy life right now. I’m getting off many of my medications because my body is getting stronger. I’m getting healed from the inside out. I’ve got my CNA certification. I’ve been in the same home for seven years now. I voted for the first time last year. At one time, I didn’t think my life was that important. But now I am in the fight. I am not going back. I am here to stay. And I’m not afraid, because I’ve got too many people on my side.

This is not over. If we can get the General Assembly to put even part of that $8 million back in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, that will be worth fighting for.

Please send a message now. Tell our Representatives and Senators that we need ADAP. 

Make sure that our legislators notice us and know that “no” is not an option.

Think Tax Reform Isn’t an HIV Issue? Think Again.

original photo by justinsomina via Flickr Creative Commons

Access to health care is important for people living with HIV/AIDS - but so is having groceries, housing, childcare, and transportation. If these basic needs aren’t met, keeping up with HIV/AIDS treatment is much harder. According to the National AIDS Strategy, the best way to guess someone’s chances of getting to their doctor’s appointments and taking their medications is to know is whether they have a stable housing situation. In North Carolina’s HIV needs assessment, housing and transportation rank just below medication in the top needs for people living with HIV, and food is not far behind.

That’s why NCAAN is paying close attention to the tax reform plans currently under debate at the NC General Assembly. One Senate plan includes tax hikes on food, medication, and medical services, all of which are critical for people living with HIV. Under the House tax plan, all of us with incomes below the top 20% would pay more in taxes. The top 20% would pay less. And all three plans being discussed by lawmakers point our state in the same direction: less revenue from income taxes and more from sales taxes, which would place a heavier burden on the shoulders of lower and middle-income families.

As HIV advocates, we can’t sit idly by while elected officials take our state down a path that will make it harder for people living with HIV and communities disproportionately affected by HIV to lead healthy, productive lives. Over 5,000 people living with HIV in our state are at or below 150% of the poverty level. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program ensures they have access to medications, but they need more than medications to survive, let alone thrive. These tax proposals make it harder for people living with HIV to afford the stable life they need to stay healthy and keep up with their medical care. And these proposals put a heavy burden on communities worst hit by HIV, including rural, African American, and Latino communities across North Carolina.

Can you write a letter to the editor in your local paper about how the tax shift would affect your community? We can help! Email Claire Hermann at claire@ncaan.org.

Another step forward for harm reduction in NC

More good news from our friends at the NC Harm Reduction Coalition! A bill that will reduce the risk of transmission of HIV and hepatitis has passed the house and is on it's way to the Senate. Here's what they have to say about this great bill and how you can support it:

The NC House [has] passed HB 850, a partial syringe decriminalization/ needle stick prevention bill which NCHRC supports. The bill basically decriminalizes possession of syringes and other sharps if a law enforcement officer asks a person if he or she is carrying syringes or sharp objects prior to a search, and the person gives them up. This is a goodbipartisan bill and we need your continued support!  The bill will now go to the senate. We are asking our members to call their Senate members to ask them to support the bill.  To find out who represents you, please go to:  http://www.ncleg.net/representation/WhoRepresentsMe.aspx If you make a call please let me know.  Please ask them to support the bill and needle stick prevention efforts in NC.  Please send me a quick email to robert@nchrc.net if you can make a call.   Thank you,   Robert Childs Executive Director North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

Up to the Challenge

We did it.

We stopped the bill that would have made NC the only state in the nation to require parental consent for an HIV test and any other prevention, testing or treatment related to STDs, pregnancy, mental health or substance abuse – House Bill 693.

When the clock ticked over to midnight last night, the parental consent bill had still not come up for a vote in the General Assembly. Yesterday was the crossover deadline in the NC General Assembly. If a bill didn’t pass either the House or the Senate by yesterday, it won’t become law this year. We won.

We just proved that when thousands of committed people stand together, we can stop our lawmakers from making a dangerous, shortsighted decision. Action Team members sent a record number of emails and personal notes, made phone calls, wrote letters to the editor, blogged, tweeted, and went to the General Assembly in person to defeat this bill. As doctors, counselors, parents, students, and advocates, they spoke out about why the bill was bad for their clients, their families, and the young people of our state. 

We were joined by an amazing set of partners and friends: Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central NC, Covenant with North Carolina's Children, ARC of NC, ACLU-NC, NARAL NC, the NC Psychiatric Association, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of NC, The North Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and others.

The legislative session isn’t over. We still have the state budget fight ahead of us. We’ll need to protect funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which is threatened with huge cuts. We’ll need to fight for the basic voting rights of the people who are most affected by HIV in our state. And we’ll need to keep building power.

It’s sad that our state’s lawmakers would even consider a bill like HB 693. It’s scary that a bill like HB 693 would pass through committee and be scheduled for a floor vote. I don’t know what we’ll face next. But I know we are up to the challenge.

Not Broken: Why NC's parental consent bill is bad for teens

Guest Columnist Kevin Varner

My father had a saying, “If it ain’t broke, son, don’t fix it.”

House Bill 693 is an attempt to tinker with something that isn’t broken. North Carolina law already requires parental consent for teenagers to get an abortion. The new House Bill 693 would require parental consent for a minor to receive, among other things, testing or treatment for HIV and STDs. If passed, it would be the first law of its kind in the United States.

As Director of Prevention, Education and Testing at Triad Health Project in Greensboro, I see firsthand what a difference it makes for teens to have access to confidential health care. All the teens I counsel have two things in common: they are scared, and they are ignorant of their risks. They’re scared to go to Mom and Dad for fear of being judged, or thrown out of their homes. Many don’t know how STDs are transmitted.

In my first six months on the job, a 17-year-old boy tested positive for Gonorrhea, and a 15-year-old girl tested positive for Chlamydia. Both shared that without confidential testing and treatment, they would not have known where to turn. I scheduled appointments for treatment at the health department, counseled them on how to use condoms correctly and how to prevent STDs. I encouraged them to wait until they were older and in a monogamous relationship before having sex.

This week, a mother came with her daughter to get test results. The daughter had come for confidential testing three weeks prior by herself, concerned about HIV and STD risks.  Admittedly, I was surprised to see a mother and daughter for test results, so after giving the daughter good news that she was not infected, I asked them what prompted them to come together. The mother said, “I can’t always be around, and I don’t always know what my daughter is doing. I came to support her, but sometimes she won’t tell me everything she does because I’m her mother and I worry. I also don’t know all the facts about HIV like you do. I don’t feel as comfortable talking about sex and STDs. She doesn’t want to listen to her mother all the time.  But, Mr. Varner, she came on her own, and she listened to you. You didn’t judge her. You helped her. You tested her, educated her and gave her condoms.” The daughter added, “If my mom were to give me condoms, I’d be too embarrassed to take them. But taking them from you seemed easier. When you told me how proud you were that I came to get tested on my own, I got the strength to talk with my mom, and that’s why I wanted her here. I wanted her support. I feel more comfortable talking with her now. But, if I had to go to my mom first, instead of being able to come to you first, I would have been too afraid.”

If state legislators pass the new parental consent bill into law, they are not only taking away the choices and voices of our young people, they are taking away the voices and helping hands of the medical professionals, behavioral health professionals and health educators in our state.

That, finally, would be something broken that would need fixing for years to come.

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