Empowered: Trans Women And HIV Series

One of the things I have been keenly aware of since 2000 and reading the Washington Transgender Needs Assessment is that trans women are at the highest risk for HIV/AIDS.

The US Centers for Disease Control and prevention reports that one in four trans women, and nearly half of Black trans women, are living with HIV.  Globally, trans populations in various nations are 50 times more likely to have HIV compared to other populations

That's unacceptable, and in response  to these sobering statistics, Greater Than AIDS is launching a video series entitled: Empowered: Trans Women and AIDS, a video series discussing love, life and HIV among #TransEmpowered women

Thanks to Phoebe, Blossom, Bre, Victory, and Joanne for telling their stories and being part of this video series, and here's the promo video for it.




In order for us to get to the international goal of zero new HIV/AIDS cases, eradicating the virus in trans populations needs  to expeditiously happen and we will need funding and resources allocated to trans led HIV/AIDS organizations to do the job.

Removing trans women from the MSM stats and counting trans people in our own HIV/AIDS statistical category instead of lumping us in with gay men is necessary.  We need to know the extent of the actual number of HIV cases in our community, and it will help immensely toward gathering statistics in the future and removing stigma.    

There are also societal fixes that need to happen of passing trans non discrimination laws so that trans women aren't forced to resort to escorting to pay their bills and we get another step forward toward getting new HIV cases to zero...