[Blog/Commentary] [USA] Transgender Women Do Not Need Funding! by Javier Rios

[Stephanie Stevens]

National Latino AIDS Action Network, USA


Transgender Women Do Not Need Funding! by Javier Rios

Jul 23, 2012 by Latino Caribbean AIDS 2012 Blog


Today, at Renaissance Hotel in Washington D.C., the Latino/Hispanic
HIV Community Research Forum: Creando una Red Para un Futuro Sin
VIH/SIDA began with Dr. Ángela Hernández’ presentation on the
epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. Latino Community. After the
presentation, it was noted that the epidemiological data presented
did not include transgender specific data much less data for
translatinas. Ok so what is the big issue here? There is no data
regarding HIV/AIDS and transgender women that was collected, presented
or discussed. Why should there be? After all we know that trasgender
people are MSM do we not? Oh, wait a minute. You do not know what MSM
stands for? Men who have sex with men! You know the name that so many
people collecting data give to the group of gay, bisexual,
transgender, questioning, straight, and other persons who are deemed
high risk for HIV/AIDS because they are all so similar and deserve to
be lumped into this great epidemiological category known as MSM.
Enough with the sarcasm :)

Until the United States decides to recognize the humanity and equal
rights of all its people, especially transgender individuals and gay
men I do not believe that throwing funding dollars at the symptoms of
legal discrimination, oppression, hate, bigotry, racism, homophobia,
transphobia, etc. will create a future without HIV/AIDS. We are human
beings. What is it going to take for this country to recognize that
living in a world that stigmatizes our communities and HIV/AIDS is no
longer acceptable? Certainly, as discussed in the forums throughout
this satellite meeting at AIDS 2012, a holistic approach to people
will be much more successful at creating a world without HIV/AIDS than
what has been happening for years in the fight against this incurable
disease.

In my opinion, what transgender people, immigrants, gays, women,
Hispanos/Latinos and all other groups of people need is to live in a
society that treats us with dignity and respect. We need a country
that stops shaming us and treats us as we deserve to be treated. How
can we truly begin to fight to end HIV/AIDS if we cannot even admit
that transgender people exist and are different from gay men? Or that
Latino/Hispano immigrants are our brothers and sisters? I believe that
the health disparities that continue to impact our immigrant,
transgender, Latino/Hispano, gay, Black, Native, Asian and other
communities will never change until we change how we live. Not just
we, as individuals, but we as a country.

It does not really matter how many degrees a person has or how much
data they have collected. Bambi Salcedo said it best during her
presentation when she talked about transgender data and funding, “We
are in a numbers game!” She is right and because we are playing a
numbers game instead of changing policies, laws and our approach to a
more holistic human way of dealing with HIV/AIDS, it appears that we
will continue to keep losing.

---
About the Author

Javier V. Ríos, loves working in New Mexico as Program Manager at the
Santa Fe Mountain Center where he manages the SFMC Harm Reduction
Program as well as two non-traditional HIV Prevention Programs,
Adventure OUT in Tesuque and N’MPower in Albuquerque. He earned his
B.A. in 2001 in Omaha, Nebraska from Creighton University in
Spanish/Theology with a co-major in Justice and Peace Studies. Javier
attained his M.A. in 2005 in Spanish: Hispanic Southwest Studies
History and Literature from the University of New Mexico. He looks
forward to visiting Washington D.C. as part of the AIDS 2012
Embajadores Program.
---


http://nlaan.org/main/2012/07/23/transgender-women-do-not-need-funding-by-javier-rios/