Strategy Lab update from CHAMP

On the third Wednesday of every month, CHAMP (Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project) holds a call to discuss current topics, articles, and other issues that relate to the HIV/AIDS community.

First up was a discussion on a paper that was created titled "LGBT Marginalization Brief" by the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance.  The HIV Prevention Justice Alliance is a sub working group from CHAMP.  This paper wishes to address the focus that needs to be placed on LGBT individuals and the overarching issues that effect this community that contributes to the high rates of HIV infection.
The HIV Prevention Justice Alliance is looking for comments on this brief, so feel free to go to the website above and leave your comments.  Comments need to be in by JULY 6th. Some parts of this paper I wanted to point out by section is:

Statistics:

1.  Gay and Bisexual Men including other MSM comprise 48% of the one million people living with HIV and 54% of the 56,000 new HIV infections in the U.S.

2.  Gay and Bisexual men are 50 times more likely than any other group in the U.S. to become HIV positive.

3. HIV prevalence rates among transgender women exceeds 25 percent nationwide. 

LGBT Marginalization as a Driver of HIV

1.  Focus on the effect of Family marginalization of LGBT youth and the results of high rates of violence towards LGBT youth by family members, homelessness among LGBT youth and how this can relate to mental health issues that is shown to increase the rates of High Risk behavior this group will partake in.

2.  Invisibility of Same Sex relationships by society pushes these relationship issues "underground"  Discrimination by Health Care Providers towards LGBT individuals leads to inadequate health care for this population and inadequate means to address high risk activities individuals in this community may be experiencing. Also the lack of research surrounding the LGBT community and all encompassing life situations/behaviors that can contribute to HIV infection.

Recommendations for Action:

1. Heath and Human Service should implement a comprehensive anti-stigma and anti-discrimination initiative focused on eliminating disparities in health outcomes of LGBT populations.

2. Improve sexual health programming and hold HIV Prevention more accountable.

3.  Provide more strategic programming for LGBT populations.

4. Reform and Repeal laws and policies that reinforce stigma and discrimination including repealing Section 2500 of the federal Public Health Service Act ("No Promo Homo") which hinder HIV prevention by prohibiting the open discussion or "promotion" of any type of sexual behavior.