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Since 1980, 575,000 Americans, including approximately 300,000 gay and bisexual men, have lost their lives to AIDS. Each year, 56,000 Americans are newly infected with HIV. Inadequate funding and growing need has lead Florida and eleven other states to establish AIDS Drug Assistance Program waiting lists.
Against this backdrop, President Obama unveiled on July 13th the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), following a 15-month study and listening tour conducted by the Office of National AIDS Policy.
The NHAS has three primary goals: 1) reduce the number of people who become infected with HIV by 25 percent within five years; 2) increase access to care and improve health outcomes for people living with HIV; 3) reduce HIV-related health disparities.
The White House AIDS strategy represents an unprecedented acknowledgement of the prevention needs of gay males. When President Obama discussed the report at a reception honoring those fighting the epidemic, he directly addressed the urgency of combating the disease in the LGBT community. “We all know the statistics. Gay and bisexual men make up a small percentage of the population, but over 50 percent of new infections.”
At a White House meeting convened in June on black men and HIV, one topic discussed was the role of the black community in prevention efforts aimed at black gay and bisexual men. The July release of the report shows an Obama administration willing to tackle this issue directly: “What is sometimes less recognized is the extent to which the HIV epidemic among African Americans remains concentrated among black gay men, who comprise the single largest group of African Americans living with HIV. Fighting HIV among African Americans is not mutually exclusive with fighting HIV among gay and bisexual men.”
With one study finding that in five major U.S. cities, nearly 50% of all black gay men are living with HIV, the infection rate in this population is among the highest in the world. The gay and black communities both have vital roles in helping to curb the infection rates of gay and bisexual black males.
The NHAS report acknowledges “the U.S. cannot reduce the number of HIV infections without better addressing HIV among gay and bisexual men.” While the vast majority of HIV infections worldwide are transmitted heterosexually, gay and bisexual men continue to comprise the greatest proportion of domestic infections.
The new HIV strategy refocuses prevention efforts to targeted populations, including “gay and bisexual men and transgender individuals.” It encourages state and local governments “to expand access to effective prevention services” for “high-risk populations.”
The report places a priority on educating young people about HIV before they begin engaging in behaviors that place them at risk for HIV infection. Florida law contradicts this prevention strategy.
Six thousand Floridians become infected with HIV every year, with over half among gay and bisexual males. But Florida Statute 1003.46 implicitly forbids teaching gay students about HIV prevention, requiring that HIV/AIDS education in schools promotes “monogamous heterosexual marriage” and teaches “the expected standard for all students is abstinence outside of marriage.”
The YouTube video “Max’s Story” shows the destructive nature of such a policy. Max Siegel, a 24 year-old gay man, calls the abstinence only until marriage lesson he received as a student in Arizona public schools “nothing short of cultural genocide.”
Max’s words are tragically familiar: “Abstinence only education did nothing to protect me from becoming infected with HIV. My gym coach could have told me that gay people have value, that I could use condoms, that I should ask my partner about his HIV status, that I could be healthy even if I am not able to get married, but none of that was provided to me. I had no information. What I did know is that I couldn’t be healthy in a sexual way if I couldn’t get married, and that was the basic take-home message of abstinence only education.”
In Florida, homophobia has superseded the welfare of young people and responsible public health policy. Tallahassee needs to change Statute 1003.46 before a young, newly infected HIV positive gay man sues the state over mandates directing public schools to ignore LGBT students in HIV prevention programs.
Florida law should follow the prevention formula described in the NHAS report: “It is important to provide access to a baseline of health education information that is grounded in the benefits of abstinence and delaying or limiting sexual activity, while ensuring that youth who make the decision to be sexually active have the information they need to take steps to protect themselves.”
In the president’s remarks upon the release of the report, he rhetorically asked this: “When we fail to offer a child a proper education, when we fail to provide him with accurate medical information and instill within him a sense of responsibility, then how can we expect him to take the precautions necessary to protect himself and others?” We can’t, so instead we get a Max Siegel, infected with HIV at age 17.
With the release of this report, the Obama administration is bringing back a sense of urgency to ending our domestic HIV epidemic. Florida educators, public health officials and lawmakers have a responsibility to do the same.
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