CHAMP NY Public Forums | Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project

CHAMP New York Public Forum Reports

CHAMP NY has been organizing an ongoing series of monthly forums on HIV prevention policy and activism in collaboration with the LGBT Community Center. These forums present important discussions aim to bridge HIV prevention issues with LGBT rights, reproductive rights, and other social justice issues.

We are making reports from each forum available to the public on this website so those who could not make it to the forum can find out what happened and join the discussion. Click on the links below to see the report and related presentation slides.

REPORTS FROM CHAMP NY FORUMS:
(Reports are listed in reverse order)

November 14, 2007: Housing as Prevention

HIV prevention isn't just about condoms and clean syringes. In order for these prevention tools to work, we must look at the ways that people are forced into high-risk environments. One of the most glaring reasons for the expanding HIV epidemic - despite decades of prevention messages - is what happens to people when they don't have stable housing.

Housing is one of our most basic needs. Unfortunately, housing is not treated as a human right. As a result, in New York City, there are significant numbers of homeless people moving day-to-day, bed-to-bed. This forum examined the connections between homelessness and HIV risk, demonstrating why HIV prevention doesn't work in a vacuum, and helped us understand why societal injustices must be addressed if we are to see an end to the AIDS epidemic.

May 1, 2007: HIV/AIDS and the Fight for Universal Health Care: Bridging the Movements

Nearly 50 million people in the United States do not have health insurance in our current for-profit, employer-based insurance system. The fight for a single-payer national health program draws on theories of social justice to advocate for health care for the poorest, the sickest, and the uninsured. What is the relationship between the fight for HIV prevention justice and the broader climate of health care in which we live? How do both HIV/AIDS activism and universal health care activism address issues of affordability and access to essential health services, resources and education?

April 03, 2007: From Social Service to Social Change:
Integrating advocacy into AIDS service organizations

As HIV/AIDS continues to impact our communities in the U.S. and abroad, thousands of us are responding directly to the epidemic in our daily lives and workplaces. Many of us are a part of the AIDS service sector; many of us are a part of the AIDS movement – an activist movement. But why do AIDS activism and service provision often seem so disconnected from one another? With most AIDS organizations relying on government and pharmaceutical industry money to survive, are these efforts to build a strong and visionary movement to end AIDS and fight for social justice limited or restricted?

This forum explores how we can bring advocacy and community organizing into AIDS service organizations. Panelists shared their own experiences in bridging activism and service, and helped us strategize together to build a more viable and sustainable social movement.

March 6, 2007: Gender Spectrum, Gendered Epidemic: The impact of sexism and gender discrimination on women, gay and transgender people in the HIV epidemic

When we look at who is most impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and around the world, it becomes clear that gender plays a significant role in who is infected and affected. Although sex and gender play out differently depending on the national and cultural context, there is no doubt that sexism and gender discrimination are global phenomena that deeply affect the lives of women and girls, transgender people, and gay men. What does this mean for the HIV epidemic? What do gender and gender identity have to do with a person’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS?

February 13, 2007: Black Gay Men and HIV: Next Steps in Research, Advocacy and Activism

In 2005, a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study concluded that approximately 46% of Black men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States are HIV positive. Why are the numbers so high among Black MSM and what is the federal government doing about it? In a climate of continued racial oppression and pervasive homophobia and stigma, how can we effectively respond to this epidemic?

This community forum addressed these questions and more. Speakers presented the latest research about Black MSM and HIV as well as explore what organizations and individuals can be doing to fight for prevention justice for Black gay and bisexual men.

December 12th, 2006: AIDS and Criminal (in) Justice: Incarceration, HIV transmission and human rights

Jails and prisons are an epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and around the world, with co-factors for HIV infection such as poverty, racial oppression, and drug-use also co-factors for incarceration. As communities of color are increasingly criminalized and policed, people living with AIDS are often criminalized for transmitting the HIV virus to others. An estimated one in four people living with HIV in the U.S. spends time behind bars each year. In an age of increasing numbers of incarcerated people, is a human rights approach able to tackle the mounting problems?

November 14th, 2006: The Fight Against AIDS Evolves (again):
How new developments in prevention research may change the way we do AIDS work

Over the last quarter century, the fight against AIDS has gone through significant changes. From the identification of HIV as the cause of AIDS to the discovery of treatments for HIV and opportunitistic infections, advances have saved countless lives. But lessons from past tell us that we must think critically about the who’s, where's, when's and how's of rolling out new scientific advances. Now, next-generation prevention research -- including rectal and vaginal microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and circumcision — brings a new set of promises, and challenges.

October 24, 2006: Lesson Plans for Homophobia: Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, anti-gay harassment, and HIV stigma in schools
Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are one of the few growth industries in the domestic federal budget, and are stripping real HIV prevention education from public school curricula. But are these programs also being used to promote "hetero-only" beliefs into the schools? What do they say to young people who are LBTGQ, or who have gay parents? And do they promote HIV stigma by saying that the only safe relationships are with an "uninfected" spouse?

September 26, 2006: Selling Us to Ourselves: Is social marketing effective HIV prevention?
From bus shelter ads to give-aways in our communities, social marketing is becoming a larger part of community HIV prevention efforts. But is marketing an effective public health tool, or is it just another facet of consumer culture that sells our lives back to ourselves? Is it a vital means for reaching those who are not in the loop of community organizations, a way of refreshing the messages on AIDS after decades of efforts? Do some social marketing efforts have unintended consequences of stigmatizing community members?

July 2006: The Politics of Sexual Health: The backlash against emergency contraception and HIV prevention technologies
From condoms to the morning-after pill, medical tools and technologies help people of all genders take control of our fertility and health, preventing unwanted pregnancies as well as HIV and other STDs. But political leaders and social conservatives in the U.S. and around the world are trying to stop their use, attacking the reproductive rights of women, the lives of LGBT people, and all sex outside of heterosexual marriage.

This forum explored the connections between the attacks on reproductive health and HIV prevention. Activists from the intersection of these movements shared vital information and lead discussion on debates and strategies to further our struggles for justice.

June 2006: HIV Prevention Big Brother Style? Current controversies in government testing regulations and guidelines, HIV reporting, and monitoring of community programs
Issues of confidentiality, monitoring, tracking and testing are among the most hotly contested of HIV/AIDS issues today. 25 years after the first cases of AIDS, are the original safeguards an impediment to care? Or do racial disparities, homophobia, and stigma remain the barriers to testing and care?

Where is the balance between program monitoring and the invasion of privacy when people with HIV have been prosecuted for sexual activity? And can a shared commitment to human rights bring us together rather than dividing us over these thorny issues?

May 2006: The Moment of Truth for National and International AIDS Policy: Immigrants, international solidarity and the battle against AIDS
“Abstinence-only-until-marriage” policies promoted in the United States have spread into a global net pushing stigma, anti-gay bias, misinformation and denial of access to education, condoms and needles. Current and proposed legislation on immigration threaten the lives of people with HIV/AIDS and LGBT people. HIV/AIDS issues, often rooted in policies of the U.S. Government, impact people across borders and communities.

As people around the world prepare for the second United Nation General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) in New York this spring, this timely public forum addressed global and domestic HIV/AIDS policies and immigrant rights. The UNGASS has promised an analysis of five years of efforts since the first gathering, and a commitment to new goals — but will it reveal half a decade of progress, or entrenchment into wrongheaded or insufficient efforts?

The forum also included selections from film, Pills Profits Protest: Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement, and information on the major protest scheduled during the UNGASS gathering on May 31.

April 2006: Popping a Pill to Prevent HIV: Can AIDS drugs stop HIV transmission?
This event was the nation’s first comprehensive public forum on the important research on the use of anti-retroviral drugs to prevent HIV transmission (known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis or PrEP). Topics included: Why are researchers pursuing PrEP as a possible effective intervention, and what are the current studies? What are the special issues in the LGBT community as we search for options beyond condoms or condemnation of our sexuality?