18
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE November 29, 2002
'World AIDS Day is every day'
A conversation on the annual observance
by Isis Tiffany Soul-Lamar
December I is World AIDS Day. As the day grew closer, I had the opportunity to interview a few well-known African Americans from the community about life. HIV and AIDS in 2002.
Lady Deception has entertained throughout Ohio. In addition to holding many titles: Deception is also an outreach worker at the AIDS Taskforce of Cleveland Indigo Diamond has also held many titles and works in the health field. Tina Capri relocated from Milwaukee five years ago, and was a firend of the late Big Mama Harold Tume: and Darryl Maxwell better known to most as Mama Darryl have been an inspiration to many in the community
Here are just a few things that Lady Deception. Indigo. Tina. Harold, and Mama Darryl had to say.
Isis Tiffany Soul Lamar: What are your thoughts and feelings about younger people the generation under you --in relation to HIV and AIDS?
Tina: They're not as concerned about HIV and AIDS as they should be. It's hard to think about your own mortality when you're younger.
Harold: The younger generation still thinks AIDS can't happen to them that it only touches people my age or older. Deception: They're not taking it seriously the message is out there, but I'm afraid they'll only take it seriously when it hits home.
Indigo: I'm surprised at how many people still think they can pick out who has it.
Mama Darryl: Some young people are comparing AIDS to a common cold. You can just take some medicine and everything's okay
Isis: In your travels to other cities, do you think others are doing more about HIV and AIDS than Cleveland?
Harold: Right now none of the other cities in Ohio is doing more than Cleveland.
HIV
Case Management • Child Care Assistance • Dental Services ⚫ Home Delivered Meals • Home Health Care • Hospice Care •
Medical Laboratory Testing • Mental Health Counseling • Nutritional Counseling •
Outpatient Primary Medical Care⚫ Substance Abuse Treatment ⚫ Support Groups •
Transitional Housing Assistance •
Transportation Assistance •
For most of America, the only time HIV and AIDS are even mentioned is when a celebrity dies.
Deception: There is greater LGBT unity in other cities they can get more things done
Indigo: I agree. The gay community doesn't stick together here, and I think the gay and straight communities need to work together better to fight AIDS. It makes me angry that the state of Ohio and Cleveland spend more for sports teams than saying a human life at risk of HIV.
Mama Darryl: There's more outreach here in the club scene
Isis: What do you think the government can do to improve HIV prevention efforts? Tina: Go out into communities, spread the word, distribute condoms.
Deception: More public service announcementsa lot of people won't get the information any other way. Do advertisements on safer sex.
Harold: Take active steps to lower the costs of medications. Everybody should be able to afford them.
Mama Darryl: Increase the funding for research and scientific study of HIV. Indigo: It all comes down to more fund-
ing.
Isis: Most people have heard about “the cocktail." Do you think the medications have helped contribute to the attitude that AIDS isn't such a terrible disease after all?
Tina: The cocktail has definitely meant that some people have lived longer---but it has also caused people to be more careless. It's been a double-edged sword.
Isis: As a transgender person, as a gay man ---what's important to you?
Tina: To accept myself, and live the best life I can.
Deception: Respect--not just as a transgender, but as a human being.
Indigo: To be secure with myself no matter what society, family, friends tell me about myself or who I should be.
The Ryan White
Title I Program
offers free medical,
dental and social support services to persons living with HIV/AIDS who are uninsured and underinsured in northeast Ohio.
we can
help
For additional information about eligibility, services and local service providers:
216.348.3986
All Inquiries
Services are funded by and Human Services, The Cuyahoga
U.S. Department of Health
cas Administration.
Mama Darryl: Acceptance. Respect. Isis: What does World AIDS Day mean to you, and what will you be doing that day? Deception: World AIDS Day is every day to me---we should be spreading the message of prevention all year long.
Indigo: To me, World AIDS Day is a time when we can all come together and unite about one very important cause. I'll be educating and promoting safer sex, helping raise funds to find a cure.
Tina: To me World AIDS Day is a time of reflection, a time to remember those who have already passed on and pray for those living with and at risk of HIV.
Harold: It means the whole world will recognize AIDS. ✓
Isis Tiffany Soul-Lamar is an outreach worker with the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.
Team Latino reaches out to
a growing population
by David Dalton
Cincinnati-Carrie Schmid, a new case manager with AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati, is speaking a different language than the rest of the staff. That's because she is the case manager focusing on the growing Cincinnati Latino population.
Census figures show that Hamilton County's Hispanic population ballooned from 5,198 in 1990 to 9,514 in 2000. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that in the Cincinnati area, a 135% increase in the Hispanic population occurred during the last decadejumping from 9,419 to 22,124.
Team Latino, a new initiative accompanying the Latino outreach program at AVOC, has been created to assist in reaching this population. The program is designed to recruit Spanish speakers, or individuals interested in working with the Latino population, to work as a "team" and disseminate crucial HIV and AIDS information to the Latino community. Members are encouraged to utilize their knowledge of the Latino community and their Spanish language skills in
order to reach the emerging Greater Cincinnati Latino population.
Some of Team Latino's activities include: • Translation of educational materials into Spanish:
•
Accompanying people to HIV testing sites and assist in translation;
•Participating in Spanish radio interviews, media events, or promotions;
• Outreach at local cultural festivals, businesses, social gatherings and communities;
Establishing collaborative ties with local social service agencies;
·
HIV and AIDS education in Spanish to community groups.
If you are interested in working with the Latino community and would like to be part of Team Latino, please contact Carrie at 513618-2019. We will work with you to find out where your interests lie and utilize your enthusiasm and skills to better serve the Latino community.
David Dalton is the communications operations manager of AVOC and edits AVOC in action, their quarterly newsletter.
'Abstinence-only' edges out real sexuality education
by Mary O'Shea
Over a half billion tax dollars have been spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. But unlike many comprehensive sexuality programs, these have not been proven to be effective in changing sexual behaviors, reducing teen pregnancy, nor reducing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted discases.
In November 1999, opponents of sex education and reproductive rights secured an additional $50 million in federal funds for abstinence-only education, requiring programs receiving the funds to teach, among other things, that “sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects." President Bush is seeking an additional $135 million for 2003. The programs are prohibited from discussing contraception or condoms as a way to prevent unintended pregnancy and the spread of STDs, with the exception of their failure rates.
As you might expect, this amount of money has had a great influence on what schools actually teach. Legislators in the state of Ohio actually sent back money from the Centers for Disease Control slated for HIV education because the CDC required tested, effective curricula.
Nationally, local school policies overwhelmingly encourage abstinence. Districts that switched their policies during the 1990s were twice as likely to adopt an abstinencefocused policy as to move in the other direction. Although morethan fine in ten teachers believe that students should be taught about
contraception,
to teach the subject. Even if t
allowed to devES
use and birth
because they
tion. More than one-third report such con-
cerns.
The growing body of research highlights a troubling disconnect: While politicians promote abstinence-only education, teachers, parents and students want young people to receive far more comprehensive information about how to avoid unintended pregnancy, HIV and STDs.
Abstinence-only programs may indeed result in riskier behavior by young people when they do have sex, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This study was, the first ever randomized, controlled trial comparing a more comprehensive program that stressed condom use, an abstinence-only program, and a control group who received a general health education program.
After a year, all three groups of the African American teens studies reported similar levels of sexual activity, but those teens in the abstinence-only program reported a higher number of incidents of unprotected sexual activity than did those in either of the other groups. Additionally, of those teens that were already sexually active when the research began, those in the abstinence-only group and the control group reported more frequent sexual activity than those in the comprehensive risk-reduction program.
The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) has launched a campaign to fight increased federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. You can access the campaign, “No New Money,” and speak out on the issue at the website www.nonew money.com.
1 is director of community Planned Parenthood of Cleve-