National Transgender HIV Testing Day: Raising Visibility to End HIV
Sunday, April 18, is National Transgender HIV Testing Day (NTHTD), an opportunity to recognize the importance of routine HIV testing and knowing your HIV status, as well as access to HIV prevention, treatment, and quality, gender-affirming health care for transgender and gender non-binary people.
Transgender women are among the groups most affected by HIV in the U.S., with trans women of color placed at particularly high risk. Because of discrimination and other socioeconomic factors, transgender individuals don’t always receive quality sexual health services, including HIV prevention tools like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which is over 90% effective in preventing HIV transmission. The situation is improving, however, as more providers are educated about transgender health, and as more transgender non-conforming (TGNC) people enter the health care profession.
Amida Care recently spoke with members of the trans community, including one individual who plans to become a physician, about their lives and aspirations.
Watch their videos and read their interviews:
“One thing I would like to think I am able to create is community space and fellowship in difficult circumstances.”—Gaines Blasdel, Research Associate, NYU Langone Health
“Life is what you make it, and you have to be the best at what you do. Just keep doing whatever you have to do to stay safe from negative things.” –Naomi Vassor, Amida Care Member
“Our community has provided an example, a real living and breathing look at what it’s like to live beyond the binary and cultivate a life of affirmation.” – Vibianno (Vib) Gonzalez, TGNB Surgery Doula, and Patient Navigator, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center