POZ December 2019

A SMART+STRONG PUBLICATION DECEMBER 2019 POZ.COM $3.99

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CELEBRATING TRANSGENDER, GENDER-NONCONFORMING AND NONBINARY ADVOCATES From left, standing: Racquelle Trammell, Maria Louise Roman-Taylorson, Tori Cooper, Marissa Miller and Julisa Abad; seated: Keiva Lei Cadena, Ja’Mel Ashely Ware and Tyree Williams

A SMART+STRONG PUBLICATION DECEMBER 2019 POZ.COM $3.99

H E A L T H ,

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CELEBRATING TRANSGENDER, GENDER-NONCONFORMING AND NONBINARY ADVOCATES From left, standing: Racquelle Trammell, Maria Louise Roman-Taylorson, Tori Cooper, Marissa Miller and Julisa Abad; seated: Keiva Lei Cadena, Ja’Mel Ashely Ware and Tyree Williams

Photos from the first National Trans Visibility March on DC, clockwise from top left: Participants assemble for the march; Bamby Salcedo fires up the rally; advocates gather at a POZ-sponsored banner; marchers finalize signs; a diverse crowd displays trans flags; Angelica Ross poses before her speech at the rally.

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CONTENTS

EXCLUSIVELY ON

POZ.COM #POZ AT 25 SILVER ANNIVERSARY When POZ launched in 1994, effective treatment was still two years away.

Much has changed for the better since then, but as stigma and lack of access to treatment both demonstrate, Y E A R S many challenges still remain for people living with HIV. Go to poz.com/25 for a look back at our coverage over the years, from celebrity profiles to personal stories.

D

#UNDETECTABLE SCIENCE, NOT STIGMA The science is clear: People who have an undetectable viral load can’t transmit HIV sexually. In addition to keeping people healthy, effective HIV treatment also means HIV prevention.

Go to poz.com/undetectable for more.

D

Several POZ 100 honorees, pictured in Washington, DC

#ADVOCACY MAKE A DIFFERENCE

POZ DIGITAL READ THE PRINT MAGAZINE ON YOUR COMPUTER OR TABLET

28 25 YEARS OF PERSONAL STORIES Amplifying the voices of people on the front lines of the fight against HIV

BY ALICIA GREEN

36 THE POZ 100 Our 10th annual list honors transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary HIV advocates.

3 FROM THE EDITOR

19 EVERYDAY

People Have the Power

Milestones in the epidemic

4 POZ Q+A

20 CARE AND TREATMENT

Marissa Miller, lead organizer of the first National Trans Visibility March on DC, urges HIV advocates to mobilize for 2020.

Extensive drug resistance is rare • HIV’s ties to age-related illnesses • focusing on trans women’s needs • treat opioid addiction, prevent hepatitis C reinfection

6 POZ PLANET

Selfies fighting stigma • an overview of plans to end the epidemic • POZ at 25: a look at December issues from the archives

13 VOICES Andrew Spieldenner asks how people with HIV fit in with plans to end the epidemic.

25 RESEARCH NOTES The FDA approves once-daily Descovy as PrEP • a long-acting injectable that lasts two months • new findings about a genetic mutation could help HIV cure research • young people and med adherence

60 HEROES Go to poz.com/digital to view the current issue and the entire Smart + Strong digital library.

14 SPOTLIGHT Social media buzz on the first National Trans Visibility March on DC

George Ayala of MPact advocates for men who have sex with men—and he wants them to take a global health survey.

POZ (ISSN 1075-5705) is published monthly except for the January/February, April/May, July/August and October/November issues ($19.97 for an 8-issue subscription) by Smart + Strong, 212 West 35th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Issue No. 240. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to POZ, 212 West 35th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Copyright © 2019 CDM Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher. Smart + Strong® and POZ® are registered trademarks of CDM Publishing, LLC.

COVER AND ABOVE, POZ 100 HONOREES: JONATHAN TIMMES; COVER, NATIONAL TRANS VISIBILITY MARCH: DANIEL SWARTZ; (MAGNIFYING GLASS AND GAVEL/BOOKS) ISTOCK

Fighting against HIV/ AIDS has always been a struggle.

Much work remains to end the epidemic. POZ encourages you to get involved in advocacy. Go to poz.com/advocacy to find the latest news and learn how you can make a difference in the fight.

FROM THE EDITOR

People Have the Power

Y E A R S

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ORIOL R. GUTIERREZ JR. MANAGING EDITOR

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I

AM A CISGENDER GAY MAN, but for most of my adult life, I have believed in the idea of belonging to a larger LGBT community. What we have in common as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is greater than what we do not.

Notice I said most of my adult life. There was a time when I believed that I could will myself into becoming straight, if only I tried hard enough. Back then, I also believed that trans folks could be cis folks, if they just applied themselves. Needless to say, I was very wrong twice over.

Once I accepted myself as gay, I was able to better understand trans people. As someone who aspires to be an ally, I can never fully know what it’s like to be trans, but I can commit to supporting and standing with trans people. For me, the first step was believing in LGBT people as a community.

My understanding of trans people didn’t truly deepen, however, until a good friend I knew growing up came out to me as trans.

I hadn’t seen them in a few years, so reconnecting was an event for both of us. I will always be grateful they reached out to me.

That personal touch made a difference.

Coming out—as HIV positive, as gay or as trans—not only empowers us but also inspires others. In that spirit, we are thrilled to announce this year’s POZ 100 honorees.

Our annual list spotlights the work of HIV advocates. However, each year the list highlights different demographics, such as long-term survivors, youth and women.

The 2019 POZ 100 list honors transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary advocates from across the country. Some are living with HIV, others are HIV negative, but all our honorees are making a difference in the fight against the virus.

Eight of our honorees grace the cover. In alphabetical order, they are: Julisa Abad, Keiva Lei Cadena, Tori Cooper, Marissa Miller,

Maria Louise Roman-Taylorson, Racquelle Trammell, Ja’Mel Ashely Ware and Tyree Williams. Go to page 36 to read more about them and the work of all our other honorees.

In addition to being a POZ 100 honoree, Marissa Miller was the lead organizer of the first National Trans Visibility March on DC, which took place Saturday, September 28. Go to page 4 to read more about the march and why action is needed by advocates in 2020.

In fact, all the folks on our cover were leaders in the march. We photographed them at the headquarters of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), which hosted an awards ceremony honoring trans advocates the night before the march. POZ thanks NGLCC for the help and hospitality.

Thousands of people attended the rally at Freedom Plaza before the march, and many more joined the march down Pennsylvania Avenue. Go to page 14 for social media highlights from the rally and march.

For our 25th anniversary, POZ has published chapters from our retrospective book, POZ at 25: Empowering the HIV Community Since 1994. Go to page 28 for the final excerpt, which spotlights personal stories.

ORIOL R. GUTIERREZ JR. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF editor-in-chief@poz.com

Want to read more from Oriol? Follow him on Twitter @oriolgutierrez and check out blogs.poz.com/oriol.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 3

POZ Q+A

BY ORIOL R. GUTIERREZ JR.

Crowds gather at the first National Trans Visibility March on DC.

TRANS POWER

M

ARISSA MILLER WAS THE LEAD ORGANIZER OF THE FIRST National Trans Visibility March on DC, which took place Saturday, September 28, in the nation’s capital. Thousands attended the march down Pennsylvania Avenue, which was preceded by a rally at Freedom Plaza. Miller is also a 2019 POZ 100 honoree (see page 36).

Miller is currently the CEO of Transsolutions Consulting, a global resource center that advocates for safety and universal health access for transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people across the country. For more than a decade, she has worked in public health with a focus on HIV. As a Black transgender woman living with HIV, Miller has both personal and professional experience with the virus. She has worked with such groups as Howard Brown Health, AIDS United, Positively Trans and the Transgender Law Center.

Most recently, Miller was a program coordinator in the leadership division of the National Minority AIDS Council. She stepped away from that role just before the 2019 march to focus on planning the 2020 march.

How did the idea for the trans march originate?

In 2018, the Positive Women’s Network–USA had its third National Leadership Summit in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. There was tension between some cisgender women and some trans women. It got rowdy, and it kind of scared me because I’d never been in a setting where people who were fighting for the same cause were so able to let words separate us.

As a result, Lynn Morrison, a trans advocate from Atlanta, suggested during the summit that we needed a trans march. About six months after that, Dejanay

4 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

Stanton, a trans woman from Chicago, was killed. She died three days before she was supposed to start a class that me and my business partner, Tatyana Moaton, who has a consulting business in Chicago, were conducting. We were going to mentor 10 Black trans women from the sex industry.

Out of emotion—very disappointed at the system and at myself for not getting to Dejanay a little bit sooner—I posted on Facebook that we should have a trans march in 2019. The idea caught fire with tons of likes and shares.

Why was 2019 the time for the march?

The Trump administration has made it abundantly clear that trans, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people are not included in their narrative of who we are as a country.

They’ve made it difficult for trans people to access medical care. They’ve begun making it possible for folks to tell us that we can’t have jobs or access businesses and other services because we’re not really protected under the law.

DANIEL SWARTZ

The lead organizer of the first National Trans Visibility March on DC urges action by HIV advocates in 2020.

We wanted to let them know that we have a right to exist. They are trying to erase us, so increasing the visibility of trans people right now was important.

If they were not going to count us in the U.S. census, then at least they were going to count us in the streets.

Tell us about the rally and the march.

JONATHAN TIMMES

We originally wanted the march to take place on National Trans Visibility Day, which is March 31. As a result of underestimating the costs—as well as having the original date coincide with April Fool’s Day—we delayed. In the end, postponing the march helped us raise additional funds and bring in support to make it the best event that we could.

People from across the country attended both the rally and the march. Our opening reception was hosted the night before in DC by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, where we honored 16 advocates at our Torch Awards.

One of the people we honored was actress and activ ist Angelica Ross [from Pose on FX] for the work that she’s done as founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises over the past decade, including sponsoring our virtual march. She wanted the trans march to reach everybody, so the virtual march made that possible.

The day before the march, we held workshops for march participants at our official hotel. Subjects ranged from financial equity and social media to health and wellness. They were designed to support participants in their advocacy.

The rally motivated the participants to get energized for taking our call to action to the streets. In addition to several musical performances, Angelica Ross and Lynn Morrison were among the many amazing speakers.

The march itself saw thousands of participants walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, right past the Trump Hotel, all the way up to the Capitol Building.

Both at the rally and at the end of the march, you urged participants to get involved with the 2020 march. Why?

The 2019 march was a great start for our trans advocacy, but since 2020 is a crucial election year, the next march

will be even more important.

Our community partners—such as Rock the Vote, Human Rights Campaign and GLA AD—as well as our trans march ambassadors nationwide will be spreading the word about the importance of voting in 2020.

Get out the vote efforts will be happening from now through 2020, up to and including election day.

The details of the next march haven’t been finalized, but we are confident it will take place in September 2020.

button, someone the device owner preprogrammed into it will be notified that their friend needs assistance.

One of the things that we realized from having conversations about the device is that we didn’t want it to police the people who were using it. So that is why we envision it as a buddy plan.

All the hate crimes and murders affecting not only the trans community but also the LGBT community at large have made prioritizing safety a must.

In addition to the next march, please tell us about your other efforts.

You tested HIV positive in 1990. As a long-term survivor, please share your insights on living with the virus.

I left NMAC to focus on the next march, but I am working on more projects.

There is just so much work to do when it comes to trans advocacy in general.

One of those projects is working as

After I tested positive in the prison system, I just laid in my cell. At that time, I didn’t have a whole lot of information about HIV, and I certainly didn’t think that I would be celebrating my

Marissa Miller

“We wanted to let them know that we have a right to exist.”

a consultant to TransTech Social Enterprises. I’ll be assisting Angelica Ross to build their conference.

I’m also working with TransTech to develop a safety device. For transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people, the issue of safety is a primary concern. We’re going to pilot the device in 10 major U.S. cities.

We talk about HIV prevention and adherence to treatment for the virus.

We know that equity and opportunity are part of the formula for ending the HIV epidemic by 2030. However, if we’re not safe, or don’t feel safe, all the other discussions become secondary.

The device is not an app on a smart phone. It is a separate device that can be carried or worn discreetly. When activated, which will be as simple as pressing a

50th birthday in 2020. I thought that I would be dead before I was 30.

Some of the cis-masculine individuals that I had in my life back then were always connected to HIV. They pushed me to be better. They pushed me to embrace living with HIV and to not let the virus tear me up.

Their encouragement led to my being put in positions of decision-making at the table. In turn, that allowed me to have broader conversations about transgender people and HIV. From my perspective, leadership was never about others following me.

Leadership was always about me taking people on a journey with me.

My advice to folks living with HIV is to keep living. Stay at the table—and if there is no table, create a table. Q

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 5

POZ PLANET

BY TRENT STRAUBE

SELFIES FIGHTING STIGMA People with HIV make their own artistic statement in the photo-storytelling project Through Positive Eyes.

Since 2007, the Through Positive Eyes workshops have put cameras in the hands of people living with HIV and taught them to express their lives and fight stigma through photography.

This World AIDS Day, December 1, sees the publication of images and paired stories by 130 workshop participants in a book by Aperture. A related exhibition, which includes live performances, is up through February 16 at the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Both of the projects are titled Through Positive Eyes, and both of them predominantly feature self-portraits, taken selfie-style or with a tripod and self-timer.

Launched by UCLA’s Art & Global Health Center and helmed by photographer Gideon Mendel and David Gere, PhD, professor of AIDS/arts activism and world arts and cultures, the project has included a total of 10 workshops in cities spanning the globe. POZ emailed Gere to discuss the project.

For the full interview and to view more artwork, visit POZ.com.

How have the workshops and photography affected the participants? So many of the participants—we call them “artivists,” part artist, part activist—report that photography has created a crucial outlet for their thoughts and emotions.

What themes and narratives have surfaced through the project? Stigma and its effects are everywhere in these images. Gordon, from London, photographed his “bag of shame,” a clear plastic bag literally stuffed with all the nasty words he has been called. The heart of the project is a photo

by Priya, in Mumbai. She is lying on a mat on the floor, snuggling her pet goat. She tells us that all her closest relatives have rejected her, but Julie, the goat, loves her unconditionally.

[Contrasting with that] are delightful and humorous photos.

We’ve noticed that stigma is particularly visible in communities where access to [antiretrovirals] is spotty or difficult. Humor, pleasure and joy come more easily to those in the [developed world], where, on account of better treatment, it’s possible to forget about HIV for long spans of time.

How does art like these photos tackle stigma? The culmination of the exhibition is the Banishing Stigma room, where the artivists speak and share their photos. If stigma is what keeps so many of us from getting tested and treated, banishing stigma opens up the possibility of radical self-care. I see that happening in the exhibition.

6 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

CHRISTIAN, WASHINGTON, DC, 2012 Soon after I was diagnosed, my mom told me she and my stepdad had been diagnosed HIV positive three months before. She just didn’t know how to tell anybody. We became really good friends and just went through it together, until she passed. I wish we had bonded earlier in life, but it was so good to have that family relationship at that time.

(BOOK) COURTESY OF APERTURE (PORTRAITS) COURTESY OF THROUGH POSITIVE EYES/UCLA ART & GLOBAL HEALTH CENTER

GUGU, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, 2010 At school one day, the teachers [gave] the children an assignment, “Who is your hero?” When I was checking my daughter’s books, I saw that she had written about me, not Nelson Mandela. That’s why I love her so much. Sometimes I tell my daughter, “I will not die until you finish your school and your university.”

In the meantime, I will stay strong. I’m not the dying type.

ILSA, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, 2008 The first time I dressed as a woman, I felt I was another person. My gestures no longer provoked laughter. I don’t care any longer about the way others react. I am a person who matters.

PRIYA, MUMBAI, INDIA, 2013 When I told my husband that I am HIV positive, he said, “How have you contracted HIV? Who have you been with?” And with these words, he left me. As soon as my parents heard about my illness, they abandoned me. I have four children, and they left me as well. People used to call me names. “She is diseased. Don’t go near her.”

It was then that a lady came to me wanting to sell her goat, and I bought it for 2,000 rupees [less than $30]. I decided I would look after animals. The lady who sold me the goat didn’t realize it was pregnant, and six months later, it had a kid. Now I have three animals with me: Julie, Mariye and Shera. The four of us, we live as a family.

My animals are my human beings. My family, my husband, my children have all betrayed me, but these animals have not.

I was very nervous about taking photographs. I had never held a camera in my life. I remembered what they told me about the self-timer, so I thought I’d give it a go. I set up the tripod, attached the camera and set up the 10-minute timer.

I went to lay my head on the pillow. Julie came to me, nudging me, and fell asleep in my arms. I held her. She pushed her head up, and the timer went off.

ISAAC, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, 2015 I became HIV positive by having great condomless sex with somebody who was positive. Nothing more, nothing less. I just want to say to everybody out there, “If you have preconceived ideas about positive people, just forget them.” We are sexual beings with rights. I choose not to be stigmatized.

I say pants-in-the-mouth to stigma.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 7

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY® This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

(bik-TAR-vee)

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including: ` Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section. ` Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY. ` Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY. ` Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. ` Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain. ` The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).

` Worsening of Hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you

have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains: ` dofetilide ` rifampin ` any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY Tell your healthcare provider if you: ` Have or have had any kidney or liver problems,

These are not all the possible side effects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY.

including hepatitis infection. ` Have any other health problems. ` Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby.

Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY. ` Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed.

Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

` Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-

GET MORE INFORMATION

counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. ` BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other.

Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

Get HIV support by downloading a free app at

MyDailyCharge.com

` This is only a brief summary of important information

about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more. ` Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5. ` If you need help paying for your medicine,

visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP PUSHING, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies.

Version date: December 2018 © 2019 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0102 01/19

PZA517871.pgs 10.24.2019 14:45

ESA

KEEP PUSHING. Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.

BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you.

To learn more, visit BIKTARVY.com.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the previous page and visit BIKTARVY.com.

PZA517870.pgs 10.24.2019 14:43

ESA

POZ PLANET

BY TRENT STRAUBE

PLANS TO END THE EPIDEMIC An overview of strategies and successes This year has witnessed a flurry of news articles about plans to end the HIV epidemic. Here’s a breakdown of three types of strategies and their goals.

90-90-90 Targets and Fast-Track Cities Launched in 2014 by the United Nations AIDS program UNAIDS, 90-90-90 programs and the related Fast-Track Cities initiative challenged cities and countries across the globe to achieve three goals by 2020: Get 90% of people living with HIV to know their status; get 90% of those who know their status connected to care and on antiretrovirals; and get 90% of those on HIV meds to reach an undetectable viral load. Zero stigma and discrimination is a fourth goal. Baton Rouge, Louisiana;

10 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

Clockwise from top: Health officials in Minnesota unveil “End HIV MN” in June; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015 launches the state’s blueprint to end AIDS; the CDC’s Robert Redfield, MD, discusses the federal plan with MSNBC’s Joy Reid at USCA in September. Below: the states and counties targeted in Trump’s “Ending the HIV Epidemic” initiative

San Antonio and Dallas; and Boston are among the U.S. cities zeroing in on these goals. A group of Alabama researchers and doctors aims to achieve the 90-90-90 targets in their state.

And earlier this year, health officials in southern Nevada also took up the 90-90-90 challenge, though aiming for 2030, if not years before.

Local Strategies to End HIV/AIDS Many states and cities are creating their own plans to tackle their epidemics, often with goals similar to the federal and global initiatives. The past 12 months, for example, saw the launch of Minnesota’s “End HIV MN” and Connecticut’s “Getting to Zero CT.” Since embarking on what became known as its “Getting to Zero” campaign in 2013, San Francisco has seen major improvements, including rapid declines in HIV rates. A recent report showed 197 new diagnoses in 2018, a low point for the city since the epidemic’s peak (though Black and Latino men and homeless people remain disproportionately affected).

In 2015, New York state officially launched the “Blueprint to End the AIDS Epidemic,” with targets including seeing no more than 750 new HIV diagnoses a year and lowering HIV-related deaths to near zero. Data from 2018 show a record low number of new HIV cases—2,481—and a huge jump in people on PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, to prevent HIV. This led Governor Andrew Cuomo to declare that the Empire State is on track to meet its goals by 2020.

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“Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America” President Trump announced this federal initiative in February (set aside, if you can, the fact that his administration also aims to demolish the Affordable Care Act, remove insurance protections for preexisting conditions and allow discrimination against LGBT people, among other attacks on health care). The federal initiative’s goal is to lower HIV rates nationwide by 75% in five years and by 90% in 10 years.

How? One way is to channel federal resources to the 48 counties (plus Washington, DC, and San Juan, Puerto Rico) that account for more than half the new HIV cases in the country; in addition, seven states with a high proportion of HIV in rural areas will also receive federal help.

These are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina. The federal plan focuses on four key pillars—diagnose, treat, prevent and respond—and uses current HIV data to identify where the virus is spreading so resources can be deployed quickly.

Robert Redfield, MD, who leads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been traveling to these HIV hot spots to discuss Trump’s plan and how local communities can collaborate. The Cherokee Nation is already a partner.

This year’s United States Conference on AIDS (USCA), held in September in DC, focused on the federal plan and how jurisdictions can set up their own plans in order to qualify for federal funding. During a plenary discussion with Redfield, protesters stormed the stage and voiced concern about the government’s collection of HIV surveillance data, especially in states that criminalize HIV. Meanwhile, the policy and advocacy group AIDS United offers its expertise to communities seeking to develop, implement and strengthen plans to end their local HIV epidemics.

In 2018, AIDS United released “Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States: A Roadmap for Federal Action,” with the goal of ending the epidemic by 2025. Many of its elements were incorporated into Trump’s federal initiative.

POZ AT 25 A look at December issues from the POZ archives

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2004

1999

1

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4

2009

2014

1994

1. DECEMBER 1994/

2. DECEMBER 1999

3. DECEMBER 2004

4. DECEMBER 2009

5. DECEMBER 2014

JANUARY 1995 COVER: Native American activist Lisa Tiger.

INSIDE: A look inside San Francisco’s Cannabis Buyers Club; a feature delving into the AIDS funeral pickets organized by the Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church; POZ editor-in-chief Richard Pérez-Feria interviews actress, activist and ally Judith Light about her role in the fight.

PLUS: Hollywood’s biggest AIDS moguls.

COVER: From riots to ribbons, a collection of 99 monumental moments of the AIDS epidemic during the ’90s. INSIDE: A guide to the new world of adherence high anxiety; catching up with former cover subject Mary Fisher; will a structured treatment interruption make your holiday season jolly, or is it a folly? PLUS: Meet Ferd Eggan, the radical AIDS czar of Los Angeles.

COVER: Aiming to escape side effects and preserve future options, more people with HIV are daring to live with a detectable viral load. INSIDE: To commemorate Day With(out) Art, four HIV-positive artists share work about life and love with HIV; a new exposé on the greed and corruption of big pharma. PLUS: What it’s like to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro while living with HIV.

COVER: Nokhwezi Hoboyi, an activist from the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa who is HIV positive, bears witness to the stigma of AIDS. INSIDE: Seth Berkley of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative talks about vaccine research; comic book creator Darren Davis is doing super, despite HIV. PLUS: Portraits from Infected & Affected by photographer Joan Lobis Brown.

COVER: The POZ 100 celebrates youth power by highlighting 100 individuals who are younger than 30 and fighting against HIV/AIDS. INSIDE: Texas fundraisers help people with AIDS get home for the holidays; youth with HIV record their own stories for the Voices project at St. Jude’s. PLUS: Olympic diver Greg Louganis reflects on making a documentary about his life.

Go to POZ.com/25 for more 25th anniversary coverage! poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 11

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VOICES BLOGS AND OPINIONS FROM POZ.COM

ALL OF US? In a blog post titled “Ending the Epidemic: What Happens to Us?” Andrew Spieldenner, PhD, vice chair of the U.S. People Living With HIV Caucus, asks where folks with the virus fit in. Below is an edited excerpt.

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s more regions and jurisdictions develop Ending the Epidemic (EtE) plans, I am left wondering what happens to us, the community of people living with HIV? How do we mobilize people living with HIV to participate and get our diverse voices and needs heard in these initiatives?

Or are we relying on a few key leaders?

Most of the EtE plans in the United States focus on these pillars: increasing HIV testing so everyone knows their status, increasing clinical access and usage for both HIV prevention and treatment, and increasing surveillance so resources can be directed. While these are laudable goals, I am a little skeptical that these particular programs will end the HIV epidemic.

I understand the science behind each of these strategies. I get how—in an ideal world—they would operate in a complementary way to reduce HIV transmission and improve HIV health. But I also recognize the limits of these strategies in dealing with our actual lives.

How do these EtE plans address the structural conditions (such as poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism—just to name a few) that made us vulnerable to HIV in the first place? Treatment will not change these larger structural contexts.

I take my HIV meds daily (unless I forget!). But I also understand that my HIV meds will not ameliorate financial stress, help with my feelings of social isolation, pay for my therapist and ensure a livable wage and job security.

In HIV, we used to understand that we could not separate how people lived from their HIV health outcomes. We fought for housing and Ryan White support services. Now, it seems we are reduced to people who take pills.

This can change. If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) required health departments to meaningfully engage community groups (and funded it), then the EtE plans might have a chance at success. If the health departments reached beyond the few people who sit on various planning councils and permitted these community voices to have real power in decision-making, then there could be some innovative policies and actions.

Instead, I am afraid of the same-old, same-old: plans with vague HIV testing initiatives, linkage to care services, a few standard HIV prevention behavior change interventions and an aggressive surveillance system that targets the most marginalized people living with HIV; plans that are meant to augment health departments and not build up

community-led responses.

The CDC can hold health departments accountable to community engagement. It is a common tactic to require grantees to conduct activities in a certain way. The CDC has required health departments to conduct names reporting in HIV surveillance, have advisory groups to approve HIV health promotion materials and implement certain activities as part of their HIV portfolio (such as community planning, HIV testing, surveillance, linkage to care and behavior change interventions).

Why can’t the CDC provide more robust demands for community engagement?

I am worried that our needs as people living with HIV are reduced to treatment adherence. What about treatment access? Harm reduction and mental health services? Poverty reduction and affordable housing? Eliminating HIV criminalization laws? Support for immigrants? Sexual and reproductive health?

Our issues are broader than our meds.

Access and adherence are contingent on considering the context of our lives.

The CDC and health departments cannot “end the epidemic” without the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV. And that means seeing us as partners in developing, implementing and evaluating the EtE plans. Q

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 13

SPOTLIGHT

BY JOE MEJĂ?A

Trans Equality Attended by approximately 3,000 transgender, gendernonconforming and nonbinary individuals and their allies, the first National Trans Visibility March on DC took place September 28. Demonstrators marched to raise awareness of the challenges that trans people face, such as housing and job discrimination; health inequities, including high rates of HIV; and, worst of all, physical violence.

National organizing director Marissa Miller, a Black trans woman living with HIV, emphasized that the march was also intended to honor the lives of the 18 trans women murdered this year who are believed to have been targeted because of their gender identity and expression; 17 of those killed were women of color.

Miller, actress Angelica Ross, Human Rights Campaign director Alphonso David, TransLatin@ founder Bamby Salcedo, Congresswoman Eleanor Norton and other speakers kicked things off with a rally at Washington’s Freedom Plaza. From there, marchers traveled south along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House, home of an administration that has unleashed several political attacks against trans people. But, as the march proved, despite being vulnerable, the trans community is also resilient and, now, very much visible.

Posts may be edited for clarity and/or space.

14 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 15

Introducing the new and improved

POZ.com

WEBSITE FEATURES INCLUDE: • Responsive design optimized for smartphones and tablets • Faster site for quicker load times • Redesigned for easier readability and navigation • Improved search function

EVERYDAY

BY JENNIFER MORTON

Jeff Getty, a 38-yearold man living with AIDS in San Francisco, is INJECTED WITH BONE MARROW REMOVED FROM A BABOON. The hope is that the transplanted marrow cells, believed to be resistant to HIV, will take root in his severely damaged immune system. (1995)

December 14 1 The World Health Organization (WHO) launches WORLD AIDS DAY. (1988)

With support from United Colors of Benetton, ACT UP Paris slips A GIANT PINK CONDOM over the city’s Luxor Obelisk, located in the center of the Place de la Concorde. (1993)

Retail chain H&M announces the launch of the new clothing line FASHION AGAINST AIDS, aimed at spreading global HIV/ AIDS awareness among young people.

(2007)

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces it will LIFT ITS 30-YEAR BAN ON ALL BLOOD DONATIONS BY MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN and institute a policy that allows them to donate blood if they have not had sexual contact with another man in the previous 12 months. (2015)

21

President Clinton hosts the first WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON HIV/AIDS. (1995)

6

ACT UP New York holds its controversial “STOP THE CHURCH” DEMONSTRATION outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. In collaboration with Women’s Health Action Mobilization, protesters challenge the Catholic Church’s messaging around HIV/ AIDS. (1989)

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17

THE LATINO COMMISSION ON AIDS is formed in response to the lack of HIV prevention and care for the Latino community. (1990)

Congress passes a spending bill that permits states and local communities, under limited circumstances, to USE FEDERAL FUNDS TO SUPPORT SYRINGE SERVICES PROGRAMS. (2015)

18

The journal Science announces the HPTN 052 STUDY—which showed that HIV treatment also prevented HIV transmission to sexual partners—as its 2011 Breakthrough of the Year. (2011)

23

New Jersey enacts a law that will MANDATE HIV SCREENING FOR ALL PREGNANT WOMEN in the state beginning in 2008. (2007)

26

A Los Angeles Times poll finds that a majority of Americans FAVOR QUARANTINING PEOPLE WHO HAVE AIDS. (1985)

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AIDS is an everyday experience. These dates represent milestones in the AIDS epidemic. Some dates are known globally; others commemorate individual experiences. AIDS Is Everyday is an ongoing art project produced in conjunction with Visual AIDS to help break down the silence, shame and stigma surrounding HIV. Add a date about your history with HIV to our online calendar at poz.com/aidsiseveryday-submit.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 19

CARE AND TREATMENT

BY BENJAMIN RYAN

EXTENSIVE DRUG RESISTANCE IS RARE HIV that is resistant to an extensive array of antiretrovirals (ARVs) and drug classes has become increasingly rare, according to a study of roughly 27,000 people receiving HIV care in the United States between 2000 and 2017.

The study defined individuals with multidrug resistance as those who had taken ARVs and whose virus was susceptible to a maximum of two drug classes, including a maximum of two effective drugs in each class.

During the early study period, about 5% of the cohort members had multidrug-resistant virus. This figure peaked at 8% in 2004, then declined to nearly 2% in 2007 and stabilized at 1% by 2012.

A lower lowest-ever CD4 count and a higher initial viral load were each associated with a greater likelihood of developing multidrug resistance.

“The study is encouraging, since it shows that patients now have highly effective and tolerable medications that can result in longstanding viral suppression,” says study coauthor Kenneth H. Mayer, MD, the medical research director at Fenway Health in Boston.

HIV’s Ties to Age-Related Illnesses A new medical literature review has identified a roster of aging-related health conditions associated with HIV. The researchers reviewed 20 studies that covered HIV’s potential link to 55 health outcomes.

They found that four aging-related outcomes had a statistically significant association with HIV, meaning the connection is unlikely to have been driven by chance. These include shortness of breath, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, a chronic inflammatory lung disease that obstructs airflow to the lungs), anemia and bone fractures.

Two additional aging-related conditions had a highly statistically significant association with HIV: cough and ischemic heart disease (a narrowing of the arteries that supply the heart).

“With the increase in life expectancy of those living with HIV, there is an increase in older adults living with the condition,” says the study’s lead author, Lee Smith, PhD, of the Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences in England. “In this regard, lifestyle issues are becoming more and more important in this population as they seem to be disproportionately affected by noncommunicable chronic diseases.”

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ALL IMAGES: ISTOCK

Focusing on Trans Women’s Needs Interventions that address the important needs of HIV-positive transgender women of color are associated with improved rates of viral suppression.

Researchers studied outcomes among nearly 700 such women who participated in an initiative to provide them with screening, referrals and various services in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. Most were Latina or Black, unemployed and had low incomes.

The goal was to improve the participants’ engagement with and retention in HIV care. When appropriate, the participants received referrals and services for HIV primary care, mental health and substance use treatment, assistance with housing and food, legal advice, and support around education, job training and finding work.

By the study’s two-year mark, the proportion of participants linked to medical care for HIV increased from 45% to 78%, the rate of retention in ongoing care increased from 33% to 40% and the rate of viral suppression increased from 23% to 35%.

After adjusting the data to account for various differences among the study participants, the researchers found that the following factors were associated with a two- to six-fold increased likelihood of achieving viral suppression after 24 months: screening for mental health issues and food insecurity, referral to HIV primary care services, mental health care and food assistance, retention in care counseling and employment assistance.

“Continued efforts to scale up the adoption of these interventions by outpatient HIV clinics that serve transgender women of color are critical to meet national goals for treatment and prevention,” says study author Jessica Xavier, MPH, an independent health consultant who formerly worked for the Health Resources and Services Administration.

TREAT OPIOID ADDICTION, PREVENT HEP C REINFECTION People with a history of injection drug use who receive medication-assisted treatment (MAT)—such as methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone— for opioid use disorder have a low hepatitis C virus (HCV) reinfection rate after they are cured of the virus.

Researchers recruited 141 participants from a randomized controlled study that assessed various means of providing care to people with an injection drug use history who were receiving MAT in the Bronx in New York City.

A total of 114 of the participants, all of whom were cured of HCV, made at least one of the study follow-up visits, which were scheduled every six months for up to two years. Following the 24-week mark after they completed their hep C treatment, 19% of these individuals reported ongoing injection drug use.

Three people, all of whom reported injecting drugs during the follow-up period, were reinfected with HCV during a cumulative 246 years of followup, yielding a reinfection rate of 1.2 cases per 100 cumulative years of follow-up for the group as a whole—considered a low rate. However, among those who reported ongoing injection drug use, the infection rate was much higher, at 7.4 cases per 100 cumulative years of follow-up.

The study authors found that reinfection with hep C was associated with reported ongoing injection drug use, a lack of confidence in the ability to avoid contracting hep C, homelessness and living with a person who injects drugs.

According to the study’s lead author, Matthew J. Akiyama, MD, MSc, an assistant professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, the low overall reinfection rate among the participants suggests that “concerns about reinfection should not limit HCV treatment” for people who inject drugs, especially if they are receiving MAT. “Treatment as a form of prevention may be even more important among those who continue to inject drugs while on [MAT] to reduce HCV transmission,” he says.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 21

Got Ink? An estimated 3–5 million Americans are living with hepatitis C. Most don’t know it.

Get tested today.

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Find out how at hepmag.com.

RESEARCH NOTES

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BY BENJAMIN RYAN

PREVENTION

TREATMENT

CURE

CONCERNS

PrEP, Take Two

2-Month Dosing

Mutation Protection

Youth Adherence

In early October, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved once-daily Descovy (tenofovir alafenamide/ emtricitabine) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)— but not for those at risk of acquiring HIV through receptive vaginal or frontal sex. Gilead Sciences’ Descovy contains an updated version of the drug tenofovir that is associated with improved biomarkers of kidney and bone health compared with the version in Truvada (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/ emtricitabine). An FDA advisory panel had previously recommended that Descovy PrEP be approved for cisgender men who have sex with men and for trans women—the groups included in the major trial that proved Descovy is as effective as Truvada for PrEP. That trial did not enroll cisgender women, and the advisory panel was unimpressed with Gilead’s assertion, based on research into how Descovy is metabolized in the body, that women could piggyback on the findings of the trial.

The long-acting injectable regimen of ViiV Healthcare’s experimental integrase inhibitor cabotegravir and Janssen’s non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor rilpivirine (sold in daily pill form as Edurant) is as effective when given every other month as when administered monthly. Two major studies have shown that the regimen, when given at monthly intervals, is highly effective among those starting HIV treatment for the first time as well as those switching from other antiretroviral regimens.

Clinical trial participants have reported high levels of satisfaction with the regimen. In a new large trial, researchers randomized participants already taking antiretrovirals to switch to injections of the long-acting regimen administered either every four or every eight weeks. After 48 weeks of treatment, rates of viral suppression were comparable between the two study groups. An FDA decision about the monthly regimen is imminent.

Early humans adapted a genetic mutation that for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years likely protected them against the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that plagued their primate cousins. But at some point in recent history, SIV evolved to outmatch this human mutation.

Researchers analyzed an intertwined complex of three proteins—Nef (which SIV expresses), tetherin and AP-2—that develops in SIV-infected primates.

Tetherin is supposed to prevent new viral copies from escaping from the surface of immune cells. But Nef and AP-2 draw tetherin into the tightly wound complex, which the cell then digests. Human tetherin mutated to evade capture by the complex. But then SIV acquired a new protein, Vpu, that in humans was able to capture tetherin where Nef had failed. This likely allowed SIV to cross into the human population at last. Such findings may aid HIV cure research.

Many young people born with HIV have difficulty adhering to their antiretroviral treatment as they get older.

As a group of nearly 400 youth ages 8 to 22 were followed for a median of three years, the proportion not adhering sufficiently to their meds increased from 31% to 50%, while the rate of unsuppressed HIV increased from 16% to 40%.

Factors associated with nonadherence included, for all young people, side effect concerns; for early adolescents, being Black; and for middle adolescents, alcohol use, having an unmarried caregiver and exposure to various major life stressors, such as violence and stigma.

Factors linked with unsuppressed HIV included, in early adolescents, a lower household income and an early lack of awareness of their HIV status; in middle adolescence, side effect concerns and a lower income; and during late adolescence and young adulthood, distressing physical symptoms and side effect concerns.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 25

Years

of Personal

Stories AMPLIFYING THE VOICES OF PEOPLE ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV

Since 1994, POZ has featured countless people living with HIV in its pages. The subjects in these stories—everyone from everyday people who beat the odds to headline-grabbing advocates who spoke truth to power—have inspired readers throughout the country to take action, be resilient and remain optimistic even in dark times.

28 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

FRAMES AND WRITING: ISTOCK

BY ALICIA GREEN

Clockwise from top left: Dawn Averitt and her daughter Maddy, Nelson Vergel, Antonio MuĂąoz, Stacy Latimer, Shana Cozad, Fred Bingham

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“POZ was a nexus for the PLHIV [people living with HIV] self-empowerment movement,” said founder Sean Strub in an interview for the 25th anniversary issue.

“I’m really proud of the people we featured in the magazine who were previously unknown to a large audience,” he said.

“We consciously sought out people living with HIV doing great work and intentionally shined a spotlight on them as a strategy to amplify their voices and bring attention and resources to their work.”

The folks highlighted here represent just a tiny fraction of the personal stories POZ has shared over the years. However, they serve as examples of the many diverse groups affected by HIV, including long-term survivors, transgender people, women, Latinos and African Americans.

These are their stories.

Fred Bingham In 1981, when Bingham was diagnosed with AIDS, he changed his lifestyle. He experimented with herbs, stopped using street drugs and started taking Antabuse to combat his alcohol use disorder.

He also took massive amounts of antioxidants to restore sulfur-containing amino acids, and he learned everything he could about AIDS. In 1987, AZT became the first drug approved for the treatment of HIV. However, its side effects were so terrible that many of those who took it stopped using it altogether. Like a lot of other people back then, Bingham relied instead on alternative treatments to fight the disease.

But in 1989, the professional horticulturist started using drugs and alcohol again and abandoned his health regimen.

He experienced severe thrush and neuropathy, weight loss and stress. He was also diagnosed with dementia and wound up in the hospital with a CD4 count of 39.

Bingham requested AZT to help treat the neuropathy that was affecting his body (even though now we know AZT causes neuropathy) but soon stopped taking the medication because of its toxicity. That’s when he began to develop his own long-term intervention to manage his AIDS. Once he got back on track, doctors were stunned to find that Bingham had reversed his condition. In 1994, Bingham, who then had a CD4 count of about 900, told POZ, “Technically, I’m in remission.” He also believed that “the one-drug, one-bug, one-million-dollar mentality [was] not serving people with HIV and AIDS very well.”

30 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

In response, Bingham founded Direct AIDS Alternative Information Resources, a nonprofit group that promoted self-empowered healing from HIV and its related illnesses. He operated it from his apartment. It was this do-it-yourself advocacy that the HIV community best remembered when he died in 2015.

POZ coverage, clockwise from left: Veronika Cauley, Dawn Averitt, Stacy Latimer

Veronika Cauley A Black HIV and transgender activist from San Francisco, Cauley was determined to make the health care system work for the transgender community.

Since the start of the epidemic, transgender people have had to fight to make their voices heard. In 1999, POZ wrote its first extensive story on this population. The article highlighted alarming HIV rates in San Francisco among transgender African-American women as well as discrimination and other barriers to care faced by people of trans experience.

The article also shone a light on Cauley, who began her transition in 1978 after leaving the Navy. She turned to sex work before becoming addicted to crack cocaine and getting arrested while living in New York City.

Cauley then fled to Indiana, where at the local Veterans Administration hospital she learned she had HIV—and doctors told her she had only five years to live. But Cauley continues to outlast her presumed expiration date.

After relocating to San Francisco, she lobbied to be appointed to the city’s veterans affairs (VA) commission to update HIV treatments in VA hospitals.

In 2018, Cauley—now Veronika Fimbres—hoped to become

California’s fi rst African-American transgender governor as a write-in candidate for the Green Party.

As she told POZ 25 years ago: “I have hope for the future— that they will fi nd a cure, that transgenders will no longer be devalued. Because I think it’s the world’s diversity that makes it a better place.”

Dawn Averitt When Averitt was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 at age 19, she didn’t think motherhood would be an option for her.

She recalled coming across a statistic proclaiming that a pregnant woman with HIV had a 70% to 100% chance of transmitting the virus to her baby. But Averitt really wanted to be a mother.

Then, in 1996, the advent of effective antiretroviral (ARV) therapy for HIV meant that a mom with the virus no longer had to fear that her children would be orphaned in the near future. But was it safe to give birth? Averitt worried that the meds would be harmful to a fetus.

The reassuring answer to Averitt’s question came in the form of a 2001 study that revealed that taking ARVs during the fi rst trimester of pregnancy did not increase the risk for birth defects. Further research showed that HIV treatment combined with good health care and bottle-feeding guaranteed that 99 out of every 100 women with HIV could become

mothers with virtually no risk to their baby.

So Averitt decided to become a mother. In June 2002, she and her husband welcomed into the world an HIV-negative daughter, Maddy. Averitt and Maddy graced the cover of POZ’s December 2002 issue. That same year, Averitt founded The Well Project, a nonprofit that works to improve the lives of women living with HIV. For long-term survivors, Averitt has this bit of advice: “Integrate HIV into your life. If you let HIV be a tumor, an invader, a growth, then the burden is too heavy. Once it is a part of your life (and not the sum total of your life), HIV becomes more manageable.”

The Reverend Stacy Latimer Latimer, one of our 2007 cover subjects, is an HIV-positive minister and military vet who has relationships with men.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 31

The South Carolina native grew up in a religious family and had known from childhood that he was attracted to men. He kept this hidden throughout his adolescence, causing him much pain.

In 1987, while enlisted in the Army, Latimer learned he was HIV positive via a letter from the Red Cross about a blood donation he’d made. After sharing his diagnosis with a commanding officer, he was sent to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, which housed servicemen with HIV in a special ward.

Latimer spent so much of his time at the hospital comforting those who were critically ill and had been abandoned that patients assumed he was a volunteer.

However, Latimer still had his own demons to face. Struggling to process his HIV diagnosis, he turned to drugs and alcohol to help him cope. But Latimer says God came to him one night and showed him his purpose. He soon quit drugs and studied to become a religious leader.

Latimer went on to establish his own AIDS ministry and work closely with other pastors and faith leaders who have tested positive for the virus.

Most important, he has traveled to Black churches and helped take on the difficult topic of HIV in their own congregations. He accomplishes this by sharing his own testimony and inspiring others to do the same.

“Our stories [of living with HIV], told with sincerity and integrity, carry the power to heal,” he told POZ. “They share wisdom, usher in peace and impart strength.”

Antonio Muñoz Muñoz was diagnosed with HIV in 2008. At the time, he was about a year into his job at The Manhattan Club, a boutique hotel in New York City, and didn’t think he needed to disclose his status to his employer.

Between 2007 and 2011, Muñoz was such a model employee that he received the Exemplary Manager Award, several raises and positive evaluations from supervisors.

As his health declined, Muñoz’s doctor prescribed Sustiva, a drug known to cause drowsiness. This concerned Muñoz, who knew he could no longer work nights at the hotel. He asked for a shift change and submitted a doctor’s note explaining his health problems but was initially denied. Eventually, he was switched to a day shift.

But soon, the hotel put Muñoz back on the night shift.

When he complained about it to human resources, his supervisors retaliated against him. Then, in 2011, after someone made an anonymous complaint about him, he was fi red from his job.

Muñoz fi led a civil lawsuit against The Manhattan Club for discrimination. In its counterargument, the hotel characterized Muñoz as a lazy complainer who didn’t do

32 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

his job. Muñoz rejected that idea Coverage by POZ, from left: and said he was only trying to Antonio Muñoz, take care of his health.

Shana Cozad, In April 2013, a jury ruled in his Nelson Vergel favor in federal court. Muñoz was awarded $500,000 for wrongful termination as a result of HIV discrimination.

But it was never just about the money for Muñoz. It was about telling his story and being heard. As he told POZ readers in 2014: “You have to have determination to believe in yourself.”

Shana Cozad A member of the Kiowa tribe in Oklahoma, Cozad has lived with HIV for more than two decades and is one of the fi rst Native American women to speak openly about her HIV status. She is also one of nearly 4,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives estimated to be living with the virus.

While in college, Cozad contracted the virus from her boyfriend, who was only her second sexual partner. But it

wasn’t until their breakup that he admitted to having AIDS. She didn’t believe him and assumed it was just a desperate ploy to keep them together.

A friend eventually convinced Cozad to get tested. It took three positive test results for Cozad to fi nally accept her diagnosis. Unfortunately, she also learned that her CD4 count was 189 and she was living with AIDS despite feeling fi ne.

Following her diagnosis, she turned to her tribal elders for help. They guided her through traditional healing ceremonies and overnight rites that lasted 12 to 15 hours. These ceremonies, Cozad said, helped release her anger at HIV. Today, Cozad’s virus is undetectable. For this, she credits not only her antiretroviral medication but also her spiritual advisers, who taught her how to approach the disease and her body in a positive manner. In 2018, she told POZ, “HIV is a teacher for me. It has transformed my life. It has humbled me. I don’t feel cured, but I feel healed because I’m at peace with this disease.”

Nelson Vergel When Vergel immigrated to the United States from Venezuela in 1984, he had a lot of dreams and plans. But they were all cut short when he tested positive for HIV just three years later. He considered his diagnosis a death sentence.

But Vergel never gave up. Instead, he told POZ in 2018, he became a certified HIV counselor who worked as a

chemical engineer during the day and as a volunteer at a local clinic at night.

The virus caused Vergel to experience HIV-associated wasting, so he turned to anabolic steroids to help him regain weight. His success led him to advocate for these drugs for people living with HIV. In 1994, he cowrote Built to Survive, a guide to anabolic therapies, nutrition and exercise, and founded the Program for Wellness Restoration (PoWer) to help improve the quality of life for those with HIV. When Vergel’s HIV became resistant to multiple drug therapies, he campaigned for salvage therapy—the development of entirely new meds—as a last resort for those like him. Luckily, he began to take Trogarzo, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2018 for the treatment of multidrug-resistant HIV among people whose current regimen is failing.

Since 2013, Vergel has had an undetectable viral load.

But he still has a low CD4 count. This has prompted him to join an activist coalition that pushes for the development of immune-boosting therapies to reduce health risks for immunologic nonresponders, or people with limited or no recovery of CD4s despite viral suppression.

“Long-term survivors have a lot of knowledge as a community,” Vergel shared with POZ in 2018. “Somebody could tap into the power we have. We really are useful and still relevant.” Q

An excerpt from POZ at 25: Empowering the HIV Community Since 1994 by Smart + Strong.

Copyright © 2019 by CDM Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Go to POZ.com for more. poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 33

What is SYMTUZA® Used For? SYMTUZA® is a prescription medicine that is used without other antiretroviral medicines to treat Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) infection in adults who: • have not received anti-HIV-1 medicines in the past, or • when their healthcare provider determines that they meet certain requirements.

HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). It is not known if SYMTUZA® is safe and effective in children under 18 years of age.

Take SYMTUZA® exactly as your healthcare provider tells you.

Do not change your dose or stop taking SYMTUZA® without talking to your healthcare provider. If you have difficulty swallowing, the tablet may be split using a tablet-cutter. After splitting the tablet, the entire dose (both halves) should then be taken right away. Do not miss a dose of SYMTUZA®. When your SYMTUZA® supply starts to run low, get more from your healthcare provider or pharmacy. This is very important because the amount of virus in your blood may increase if the medicine is stopped for even a short time. The virus may develop resistance to SYMTUZA® and become harder to treat.

What are the most serious risks with SYMTUZA®?

SYMTUZA® can cause serious side effects including: Worsening of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV before starting treatment with SYMTUZA®. If you have HBV infection and take SYMTUZA®, your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking SYMTUZA®. If you stop taking SYMTUZA®, your healthcare provider will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months to check your HBV infection or give you a medicine to treat your HBV infection. Tell your healthcare provider about any new or unusual symptoms you may have after you stop taking SYMTUZA®.

What are the important warnings?

• SYMTUZA® may cause severe liver problems that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, vomiting, or stomach area pain • SYMTUZA® may cause severe or life-threatening skin reactions or rashes. Stop taking SYMTUZA® and call your healthcare provider right away if you develop any skin changes with the following symptoms: fever, tiredness, muscle or joint pain, blisters or skin lesions, mouth sores or ulcers, and/or red or inflamed eyes, like “pink eye” (conjunctivitis) • SYMTUZA® can cause new or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure What should I tell my healthcare provider?

Before taking SYMTUZA®, tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you: • have liver problems (including hepatitis B or hepatitis C) • have kidney problems

• are allergic to sulfa (sulfonamide) • have diabetes • have hemophilia

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

SYMTUZA® should not be used in pregnant women. It is not known if SYMTUZA® will harm your unborn baby

• Are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. You should not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV to your baby.

Do not breastfeed if you take SYMTUZA®

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Some medicines interact with SYMTUZA®. Keep a list of your medicines to show your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Do not start taking a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider.

Who should not take SYMTUZA®?

• Do not take SYMTUZA® with any of the following medicines: alfuzosin, carbamazepine, cisapride, colchicine (if you have liver or kidney problems), dronedarone, elbasvir and grazoprevir, ergotcontaining medicines (such as: dihydroergotamine, ergotamine tartrate, methylergonovine), ivabradine, lomitapide, lovastatin or a product that contains lovastatin, lurasidone, midazolam (when taken by mouth), naloxegol, phenobarbital, phenytoin, pimozide, ranolazine, rifampin, sildenafil when used for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), simvastatin or a product that contains simvastatin, St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) or a product that contains St. John’s wort, or triazolam • Serious problems can happen if you take any of these medicines with SYMTUZA® What are the possible side effects of SYMTUZA®?

SYMTUZA® may cause serious side effects including: • Immune system changes (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen in people taking HIV-1 medicines • Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis) which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat • Diabetes and high blood sugar • Changes in body fat can happen in people taking HIV-1 medications • Increased bleeding in people with hemophilia, which can happen when taking protease inhibitors.

The most common side effects are: • gas • stomach problems • diarrhea • rash • nausea • fatigue • headache These are not all of the possible side effects of SYMTUZA®. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

What important facts should I know?

This information is not complete. To get more information: • Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist • Visit www.SYMTUZA.com to read over the FDA-approved product labeling and patient information cp-60855v5

© Janssen Therapeutics, Division of Janssen Products, LP 2019 07/19 cp-60835v5

Please read above Important Brief Summary, including important warnings for SYMTUZA®, and discuss any questions you have with your doctor.

You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or to Janssen Products, LP at 1-800-JANSSEN (1-800-526-7736).

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STAY YOU

BE RESILIENT

Your resilience matters. So does your HIV treatment.

It’s important to take your HIV medication every day, because missing even a few doses may lead to drug resistance and may cause it to stop working.

SYMTUZA® is a treatment with a high barrier to drug resistance to help you keep fighting HIV with just one pill a day.

Ask your doctor about

DON’T RISK RESISTANCE. TAKE THE KNOW YOUR RISK QUIZ—visit SYMTUZA.com/Quiz

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CELEBRATING TRANSGENDER, GENDER-NONCONFORMING AND NONBINARY ADVOCATES

36 POZ SEPTEMBER 2011 poz.com

ALL PORTRAITS: JONATHAN TIMMES

T

HIS YEAR’S POZ 100 celebrates advocates who are transgender, gendernonconforming and nonbinary, or TGNCNB, as the community is often known. This population has seen some of the highest HIV rates in the country.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 14% of all transgender women, and about 44% of Black trans women, have HIV. The CDC does not give an estimate for trans men. In 2017, trans people tested positive for HIV at three times the national average.

Thankfully, this year’s POZ 100 honorees are working in their communities to raise awareness about HIV and advocate for those living with and at risk for the virus.

The 10th annual POZ 100 arrives as the FX series Pose and its cast receive both accolades and eyeballs, bringing transgender storylines, often including HIV, into countless homes across

the globe. Then there’s Jonathan Van Ness, the nonbinary Queer Eye star who put HIV back in headlines and Twitter feeds when he recently disclosed his status.

This was also the year the Trump DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ ODXQFKHG H͞ RUWV WR allow discrimination against trans people in the military and under the $͞ RUGDEOH &DUH $FW DQG LW ZDV WKH year in which 18 trans women were murdered (as of press time). On a EULJKWHU QRWH PDUNHG WKH À UVW National Trans Visibility March on DC (read more on page 14), proving that the TGNCNB community is reVLOLHQW DQG UHDG\ WR À JKW As always, the POZ 100 list is not PHDQW WR EH GHÀ QLWLYH 7KDW ZRXOG EH impossible. But it is representative.

Some honorees are living with HIV; others are not. Some are trained professionals; others are grassroots activists. But they all share a dedication to ending this epidemic—and they all inspire us along the way.

Opposite page, top: Tori Cooper, Maria Louise Roman-Taylorson and Julisa Abad; bottom: Ja’Mel Ashely Ware and Racquelle Trammell; this page: Marissa Miller, Tyree Williams and Keiva Lei Cadena

poz.com SEPTEMBER 2017 POZ 37

THE POZ 100 Julisa Abad Julisa is the director of transgender outreach and advocacy at Fair Michigan, which advocates for LGBTQ crime victims and works with local prosecutors. A former sex worker, she leads a workshop on trauma, recovery and empowerment for fellow trans women of color. She works to provide emergency housing and health care for the LGBTQ community and helps members of the trans community obtain correct gender markers on official documents. Anytime her community cries for help, Julisa is there to provide love and support.

Jacob, a disabled, queer trans man, is the deputy editor of The Advocate and Plus magazines (for the LGBT and HIV communities, respectively).

He and his wife, Diane AndersonMinshall, run Retrograde Communications, and in 2015, they coauthored an award-winning memoir, Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders, that recounts their journey from a lesbian couple to husband and wife after Jacob’s transition in 2005. He’s the recipient of several journalism fellowships, including a Marguerite Casey Foundation–funded grant for an investigative series on the intersections of race, poverty, gender, criminalization and HIV.

Giuliani Alvarenga

Alexandra Billings

New Orleans, LA

Hollywood, CA

Giuliani regularly uses journalism to advocate for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. Diagnosed in 2015, Giuliani—who identifies as genderfluid and uses gender-neutral pronouns—is passionate about raising awareness of the bureaucratic hoops that members of the HIV community often have to jump through just to access care. Giuliani is a contributor to TheBody.com, and in 2019, they received a Marguerite Casey Foundation scholarship to report and write a story on the chronically ill Latinx women of Los Angeles. Giuliani was featured on the April/May 2018 cover of POZ and has also appeared on CNN en Español and in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “Start Talking. Stop HIV” campaign.

Alexandra made history as the first transgender woman to play a transgender character on television with her role in the 2005 TV movie Romy and Michele: In the Beginning. Since then, she has appeared on ER, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and Transparent. Alexandra was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and speaks frequently about her experiences living with the virus. She credits her survival to her wife, Chrisanne, and the friends she made in the Test Positive Aware Network support group. In 2016, Alexandra was honored with a Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award for her continued efforts to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS.

Highland Park, MI

“All God’s Children” campaigns.

Blossom was also part of the Greater Than AIDS “Empowered” initiative, which highlighted the power of all women. A documentary about her journey, One Life to Blossom, is in the works. Those who know her agree she deserves to be recognized for her passion and work.

Keiva Lei Cadena Honolulu, HI

A native Hawaiian and proud mom and grandmother, Keiva Lei is the community engagement coordinator at the Hawai’i Health & Harm Reduction Center, where she specializes in HIV testing and counseling and linkage to care for newly diagnosed individuals.

Diagnosed with HIV in 2004, Keiva Lei also organizes the People Living with HIV (PLHIV) leadership network POP Ohana (People Organizing Positively; ’ohana means family), the purpose of which is to cultivate leadership and advocacy among other HIV-positive people. Since its formation, POP Ohana has helped appoint several members to the community planning group of the Hawaii Department of Health’s Harm Reduction Services Branch and recruited many volunteers to serve local AIDS service organizations. A graduate of NMAC’s Building Leaders of Color program, Keiva Lei is a member of Positive Women’s Network–USA (PWN-USA) and sits on the national advisory board of Positively Trans. Fun fact: She is also an award-winning hula dancer!

Blossom C. Brown Los Angeles, CA

Jacob Anderson-Minshall Los Angeles, CA

Storytelling remains one of the most powerful tools for advocacy and education, especially when that story is written by someone like Jacob. His work has spanned many formats and genres—including talk radio, freelance reporting, literary fiction (Swimming Upstream) and serialized graphic novels.

38 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

Joaquín Carcaño Durham, NC

Described as a “staple in the transgender community,” Blossom is a preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) retention navigator at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. She works to keep individuals on the once-a-day HIV prevention pill and educates folks about the virus. She’s a longtime supporter of the Human Rights Campaign and appeared in its “Americans for the Equality Act” and

The passage in 2016 of North Carolina House Bill 2, also known as “the bathroom bill,” required transgender people to use public bathrooms that matched their assigned sex at birth; it also outlawed antidiscrimination policies that protect LGBT people. Joaquín soon became the lead plaintiff in the fight to overturn the law and the so-called

compromise bill HB 142 that followed the original legislation. He’s currently the director of community organizing at Latinos in the South, a program of the Latino Commission on AIDS. He serves as a board member of Equality NC and the Southern AIDS Coalition and is on the LGBTQ community advisory board of El Centro Hispano in Durham. Joaquín started working in the HIV field as a volunteer at an AIDS hospice and is passionate about improving health outcomes for his community.

Dee Dee Chamblee

ALL NATIONAL TRANS VISIBILITY MARCH IMAGES: DANIEL SWARTZ

Atlanta, GA

In 2001, Dee Dee founded LaGender, Inc., to address the unique needs of the transgender community surrounding issues such as HIV/AIDS, homelessness, incarceration, mental health, wellness, discrimination and hate crime violence. Dee Dee is a member of the Black- and trans-led coalition Solutions Not Punishment, which works to end the passive genocide, incarceration and criminalization of Black trans women, trans/queer people and the Black community. In 2011, President Obama selected Dee Dee as a Champion of Change to commemorate the AIDS epidemic’s 30th anniversary. She was also the fi rst trans woman to be inducted into SisterLove’s 2020 Leading Women’s Society. And this year, she received the Positive Leadership Award at AIDSWatch 2019.

Elia Chino Houston, TX

After losing so many close friends to AIDS, Elia took action in 1994 and created Fundación Latinoamericana de Acción Social (FLAS). She’s currently the executive director of the organization. FLAS provides HIV education, counseling, testing and treatment referrals to Latinos affected by the virus.

Elia is a former member of the Houston HIV Prevention Community Planning

Group and former chair of the city’s Latino HIV Task Force. She has forged a reputation as a determined health and wellness advocate who works tirelessly to educate people about preventable diseases, behavioral health and mental illness.

Cecilia Chung San Francisco, CA

In 2001, Cecilia became the fi rst transgender woman and fi rst AsianAmerican to be elected president of the board of directors of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration. Today, she is an internationally recognized civil rights leader who advocates for HIV awareness and care, LGBT equality and social justice. She has worked with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, the U.S. PLHIV Caucus, the Global Network of People Living with HIV, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, The Sero Project and AIDS United. Currently, Cecilia serves as the Transgender Law Center’s senior director of strategic initiatives and evaluation. She’s also a health commissioner in San Francisco. In 2015, she launched Positively Trans, a national network of transgender people living with HIV that focuses on storytelling, policy advocacy and leadership development. Her life story was one of many dramatized in the

The first National Trans Visibility March (NTVM) took place in Washington, DC; inset: Tori Cooper

ABC miniseries When We Rise, which examined advances in LGBT rights from the 1970s onward.

Thomi Clinton Cathedral City, CA

Thomi began working on human rights issues in 1988 and has advocated for LGBT equality ever since.

She’s currently the CEO of the Transgender Community Coalition (TCC), which advocates for open access to health care, housing and employment for transgender, intersex and gendernonconforming people in the Inland Empire. She’s also the CEO of TCC’s sister organization, the Transgender Health and Wellness Center, which opened in 2018 and offers medical treatment for gender dysphoria as well as mental health services. Thomi has collaborated with the National Center

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 39

THE POZ 100 for Lesbian Rights, Transforming California, Equality California, Riverside County Public Health, TruEvolution, Desert AIDS Project and the Transgender Law Center. Thomi focuses her vast experience and skills on policy reform on behalf of the trans community. She has received certificates of recognition for her work from the cities of Palm Springs, Indio and Cathedral City as well as from the United Nations.

Worth chapter of PWN-USA as the trans coordinator earlier this year, Jamie was already sitting on several community advisory boards, including the Ryan White Planning Council. She is currently the policy representative for the PWN Texas chapter. She educates people about HIV wherever they are—be it church, a town hall meeting or a drug rehab center.

Billie Cooper Jamie Collins

San Francisco, CA

Dallas, TX

Jamie Collins was an advocate for trans women living with HIV well before her own positive diagnosis in 2012. In 1992, while living in Shreveport, Louisiana, her best friend, also a trans woman, became sick and sought treatment for HIV at the local hospital, but the experience was neither welcoming nor affi rming. It was then that Jamie started championing for reform in the delivery of health care services for trans people living with HIV. By the time she joined the Dallas/Fort

“I’m like a lighthouse,” Billie told Out magazine. “I’m that beacon to help guide people to safety.” A long-term HIV survivor, she knows about navigating treacherous waters, including addiction, sex work, homelessness and cancer. In 2013, she founded TransLife, a support program of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

She’s also active in the Shanti Project’s Honoring Our Experience, which hosts events for long-term survivors.

Her newest project is ensuring that the upcoming International AIDS

Conference (AIDS 2020), to be held in San Francisco and Oakland, includes trans people of color. No wonder the city honored the 61-year-old legend by naming her a grand marshal for its 2019 Pride Parade.

Tori Cooper College Park, GA

Tori has worked as a prevention specialist, health educator and trans health coordinator and cocreated a leadership and advocacy course for trans folks to increase their HIV knowledge and improve their health outcomes. Last year, Tori, who provides capacity building to agencies across the country, was named to the NBC Out #Pride30. She sits on the Atlanta Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Board as well as on the boards of Positively Trans, SisterLove, Project Affi rm and PozVets USA. As the founder of and a health and equity consultant for Advocates for Better Care, she provides educational trainings throughout the United States.

She’s also a subject matter expert and content creator for TWIST, the only CDC intervention for transgender women living with HIV.

Alex Corona Milwaukee, WI

Alex is an ambassador for the Wisconsin HIV Project’s Statewide Action Planning Group, a PrEP advocate and a content creator for LetsPrEPWI. She’s also a spokes-

Angelica Ross (left) and Marissa Miller at the march rally; inset: Keiva Lei Cadena

person for the Milwaukee ad campaign “HIV in Real Life.” As the transgender resource coordinator for the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, she runs a support group and hosts events for local transgender and gender-nonconforming people and their families. In 2016, Alex was featured in the AIDS Foundation of Chicago campaign “Salud y Orgullo Mexicano” (“Mexican Health and Pride”), which focused on raising awareness of HIV treatment and prevention methods among the Mexican LGBTQ+ community. As an advocate, Alex speaks out about intersectional disparities in HIV care and prevention and helps further the conversation around the normalization and destigmatization of people living with HIV.

JD Davids Brooklyn, NY

An HIV activist stalwart since joining ACT UP Philadelphia in the ’90s, JD has been a community organizer at Health GAP and director of strategic communications and senior editor at TheBody.com. He cofounded Project TEACH at Philadelphia FIGHT and founded Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project. He was instrumental in lowering HIV drug prices worldwide, forging a U.S. national HIV strategy and developing an online portal for trans health, including HIV prevention and treatment, and helped found a national network of trans trainers and strategists. He currently runs JD Strategies: Liberating Possibilities for Power and Justice and lives in Brooklyn with his partner, two children, two cats and a Creamsiclecolored corn snake.

Dietz New Orleans, LA

Dietz sits on the Louisiana Ending the HIV Epidemic Steering Committee as well as the Access to Care Subcommittee. They have played a role in many initiatives focusing on health

care for people living with HIV, prison reform and social justice. Until recently, they were the cochair of the Transgender Advisory Committee for Crescent Care Health in New Orleans and chair of the New Orleans Regional AIDS Planning Council. This year, they received the Equity Award from Louisiana Integrated Preventions and Services for their work.

Teo Drake Greenfield, MA

Teo’s involvement in HIV activism began before his own diagnosis. But his visibility as a “blue-collar, queeridentified trans man living with AIDS” allows him to better advocate for and build community with other trans people living with and at risk for HIV. He’s the cofounder of Transforming Hearts Collective, which supports space for LGBTQ people to access healing and spirituality. Teo serves on the national advisory board of Positively Trans and the board of Phallacies, a theater project that aims to help men in college dismantle patriarchy and counter gender-based violence.

Terry Dudley Chicago, IL

Terry is part of a new generation of HIV activists, those who came of age in the era of effective antiretroviral treatment but must contend with the stark racial disparities regarding access to such medications. As the sexual and reproductive health outreach coordinator for Chicago’s Howard Brown Health, which specializes in LGBTQ and trans and gender-nonconforming health care, Terry does his part to remedy such inequities by educating marginalized Black and brown LGBTQ youth about HIV risk, testing and treatment. Additionally, Terry has contributed to research exploring the determinants of health inequities among LGBTQ youth in Chicago’s gay neighborhood, Boystown—specifically, housing instability, racism and

aging out of youth programming before achieving fi nancial independence.

Kiala Emmons Tampa, FL

Kiala is passionate about helping others build healthier and happier lives, so it’s fitting that she’s a trans services navigator at Metro Inclusive Health, where she helps trans folks in Florida’s Hillborough and Pinellas counties connect to health care and supportive services, regardless of their HIV status. An inspiring advocate, she’s also skilled at conducting HIV and hepatitis C tests, facilitating support groups, organizing community outreach and speaking at public events. Kiala leads by example to raise awareness of trans women of color and is an asset to the entire Tampa Bay area community.

Ashley Figueroa Orlando, FL

A project manager at Orlando’s Bliss Healthcare Services, which provides testing and treatment for HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), Ashley co-facilitates the TRANSformation Program, a six-week educational course that focuses on empowering transgender individuals and helps community members complete their legal name and gender marker changes and access health care. She also works to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the trans community. Last year, she spoke out in the local media after police misgendered Sasha Garden, a slain transgender woman. In addition, Ashley serves as an advisory council member for TRANS Action Florida and as a planning committee member for Orlando’s Trans Collective.

Cecilia Gentili Queens, NY

An outspoken activist and advocate, Cecilia has been featured in The

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 41

YOU MATTER AND SO DOES YOUR HEALTH That’s why starting and staying on HIV-1 treatment is so important.

WHAT IS DESCOVYÂŽ?

DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people who weigh at least 77 lbs (35kg). DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. DESCOVY combines 2 medicines into 1 pill taken once a day. Because DESCOVY by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1, it must be used together with other HIV-1 medicines.

DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking DESCOVY. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance QH UGZWCN EQPVCEV YKVJ DQF[ ĆƒWKFU 0GXGT TGWUG QT UJCTG PGGFNGU QT QVJGT KVGOU VJCV JCXG DQF[ ĆƒWKFU QP VJGO

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about DESCOVY? DESCOVY may cause serious side effects: • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking DESCOVY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking DESCOVY YKVJQWV ƂTUV VCNMKPI VQ [QWT JGCNVJECTG RTQXKFGT CU they will need to monitor your health.

What are the other possible side effects of DESCOVY? Serious side effects of DESCOVY may also include: • Changes in your immune system. Your immune U[UVGO OC[ IGV UVTQPIGT CPF DGIKP VQ ƂIJV KPHGEVKQPU Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking DESCOVY. • Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking DESCOVY if you develop new or worse kidney problems. • Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that

can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. • Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-coloredâ€? urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

The most common side effect of DESCOVY is nausea.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking DESCOVY? • All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. • All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how DESCOVY works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take DESCOVY with all of your other medicines. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

It is not known if DESCOVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking DESCOVY. • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about DESCOVY, including important warnings, on the following page.

Ask your healthcare provider if an HIV-1 treatment that contains DESCOVYÂŽ is right for you.

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IMPORTANT FACTS This is only a brief summary of important information about DESCOVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment. ®

(des-KOH-vee) MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DESCOVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF DESCOVY

DESCOVY may cause serious side effects, including: • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking DESCOVY. Do not stop taking DESCOVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

DESCOVY can cause serious side effects, including: • Those in the “Most Important Information About DESCOVY” section.

• Changes in your immune system.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.

• Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

The most common side effect of DESCOVY is nausea.

These are not all the possible side effects of DESCOVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking DESCOVY. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with DESCOVY.

ABOUT DESCOVY • DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people who weigh at least 77 lbs (35kg). DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others.

BEFORE TAKING DESCOVY Tell your healthcare provider if you: • Have or had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

• Have any other medical condition.

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed.

Do not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take: • Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

• Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with DESCOVY.

GET MORE INFORMATION • This is only a brief summary of important information about DESCOVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.

• Go to DESCOVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5 • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit DESCOVY.com for program information.

HOW TO TAKE DESCOVY • DESCOVY is a one pill, once a day HIV-1 medicine that is taken with other HIV-1 medicines.

• Take DESCOVY with or without food.

DESCOVY, the DESCOVY Logo, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. Version date: September 2017 © 2017 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. DVYC0085 11/17

PZA504606C.pgs 12.10.2018 16:14

ESA

THE POZ 100 Crowds gather for the rally before the National Trans Visibility March.

an orphanage for the children of women living with HIV.

Caleb Mikayla Goins-Robinson Columbus, OH

New York Times, HuffPost and NPR and has appeared on the TV series Pose. Soon after attending her fi rst support group for trans women at New York City’s The Center years ago, Cecilia volunteered for the organization, kick-starting her career as a fulltime advocate, particularly for trans Latinas with a history of sex work, drug use and incarceration. She has served as the manager of the transgender health program at the APICHA Community Health Center and as the managing director of policy for Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). Today, Cecilia is the founder and executive director of Transgender Equity Consulting, which aims to achieve equity for the transgender community by improving education and organizing around TGNCNB community advocacy. She continues to do volunteer outreach to sex workers in her home borough of Queens and is a member of Decrim NY, an advocacy group fighting to decriminalize sex work.

Masha Gessen New York, NY

Born in Moscow, Masha moved with her family to the United States in 1981 as a teenager. In 1991, she moved back to Moscow, where she worked as a journalist. In the decades since, she has also become an activist and an author. In addition to writing about Russia and LGBT rights, Masha—who identifies as nonbinary—has been a science journalist, writing extensively about HIV/AIDS. Her byline has appeared in The New York Times and The New York Review of Books, among many other prestigious outlets.

In 2014, she began contributing to The New Yorker and in 2017 became a staff writer for the magazine. Masha moved to New York in 2013 in the wake of threats by Russian authorities to take children away from LGBT parents. The eldest of her three children was born in Russia and adopted from

Caleb feels that telling the story of their experiences living with HIV is the best way to effect change when it comes to both public awareness and local, state and national legislation.

They work as a trans health navigator at Equitas Health, one of the nation’s foremost LGBT health care organizations. In 2018, they helped establish Ohio’s fi rst community center for young LGBT people of color. The center boasts everything from a gendervalidating clothes closet to a computer center. They serve as an adviser to the Ohio Department of Health on the Prevention Assistance Program Interventions (PAPI) program, which provides free PrEP to anyone who wants it. Caleb has also helped homeless trans women get off the streets and into care and is working on creating their own nonprofit. Their motto is “A negative can be turned into a positive, and a positive can be turned into a greater positive.”

Kellen Gold New York, NY

Kellen is a key member of the New York City–based progressive activist group Rise and Resist and has been arrested several times during civil disobedience actions protesting the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants and immigrants. In 2017, they coproduced an action for the Transgender Day of Remembrance. A member of the next generation of ACT UP, Kellen helped plan actions for World AIDS Day 2018 and took part in organizing protests against presidential candidates accepting money from Big Pharma. They currently are a student at Brooklyn College.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 45

THE POZ 100 Kayla Gore Memphis, TN

Kayla is a tireless advocate for transgender people in the South, working to connect them to a range of medical and social services to ensure that they survive and thrive. Her advocacy includes fighting for housing equity for trans folks and against the mistreatment of her community by law enforcement. She is also a state-certified HIV tester and sexual health counselor.

Kayla is a member of the core faculty at the Transgender Strategy Center, which builds trans justice through trans leadership. In addition, she is the Southern regional organizer for TLC@SONG, a national collaboration between the Transgender Law Center and Southerners on New Ground. In April, Kayla became the lead plaintiff in a case filed by Lambda Legal challenging a Tennessee law that prohibits trans individuals from changing their gender on their birth certificate.

Andrea Harrington Brookhaven, PA

An LGBTQ community activist for more than 20 years, Andrea, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, works on the HIV Behavior Surveillance Team as a field coordinator for the city of Philadelphia. She’s also the proud mother of the House of Lamour, a fluid group of LGBTQ youth she takes into her home and calls her “rainbow tribe.” She serves on the national steering committee for PWN-USA, whose Philly chapter she joined in 2009. An Army veteran, she is also a minister at the Whosoever Metropolitan Community Church of Philadelphia.

enced and passionate advocate, a longterm survivor and an educator. Since 2015, he has been project manager for the Benefits Resource Infectious Disease Guidance and Education team at Community Research Initiative in Boston. BRIDGE provides health insurance and benefits program enrollment, guidance, outreach and training to individuals and organizations throughout Massachusetts. George Henry has also worked for the Boston Public Health Commission, the Boston AIDS Consortium and Boston Living Center, which fosters the wellness of people living with HIV.

Kris Hayashi Oakland, CA

Kris is the executive director of the Transgender Law Center, the largest national trans-led organization advocating for self-determination for all people. TLC does what it takes to keep transgender and gender-nonconforming people alive, thriving and fighting for liberation. Kris’s first executive director position was at age 23, at Youth United for Community Action in East Palo Alto, California. He then led the Audre Lorde Project in New York City and helped launch the annual New York City Trans Day of Action. He also campaigned with coalition partners for the adoption of nondiscrimination policies by the city’s welfare agencies.

In August 2018, he and other protesters shut down an intersection in Albuquerque to highlight the discriminatory policies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding LGBT and HIV-positive immigrants.

Luna Hernandez Minneapolis, MN

George Henry Hastie Boston, MA

A powerful and effective voice for people living with HIV, George Henry has been on the front lines of the epidemic since the early ’90s. He is an experi-

46 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

Nearly one in seven men who have HIV in the United States don’t know their status. That’s why the on-theground efforts of women like Luna are so important. As an early outreach navigator for The Aliveness Project, she provides free HIV testing and

education with a focus on Black and Latinx MSM—two communities at higher risk for HIV. She also puts her nightlife connections to work, hosting testing events at local bars and festivals. Luna also leads a support group for LGBT people with HIV at an inpatient treatment facility, helping them find a path to recovery, and hopes to apply these experiences to future work with the trans community.

Achim Howard New Orleans, LA

In 2014, Achim founded the nonprofit DC Trans Men Rising to provide trans men with a safe space to talk about HIV and other issues. In 2017, while attending the 22nd United States Conference on AIDS (USCA), he and four other trans people stormed the plenary stage to protest what they perceived as an erasure of trans people living with HIV from research data. Achim is the first trans person to minister at the Bethel Christian Church of Washington, DC, and the first trans member of construction workers’ union Local 891 Cement Masons. His experiences on the job have made him an outspoken advocate for trans-inclusive cultural competency training in the workplace.

He serves on the national advisory board of Positively Trans and is the volunteer coordinator for the LGBT Community Center in New Orleans.

Yasmyne Hunter Atlanta, GA

As an STI tester at the Georgia Health Department, Yasmyne collects and analyzes data from the National Behavior Health Survey to examine the behaviors that put trans women at risk for HIV. She’s also a brand ambassador for “@StopHIVATL,” an HIV prevention media campaign. Previously she was executive assistant at LaGender, Inc., a nonprofit advocacy group led by African-American transgender women.

There, she helped coordinate events and travel and developed ongoing

Showing strength in solidarity at the NTVM; inset: Julisa Abad

education trainings for staff members. Yasmyne is also a graduate of the TransActionGA Leadership Academy and is a consultant with Arianna’s Center in Florida.

to stardom, the model-author-actress has remained an advocate for the LGBT community, notably at the Bronx agency Destination Tomorrow.

menting PrEP in the New Orleans metro area.

Aricles “Wulf” James Ardmore, OK

Sy’ria Jackson Dominique Jackson

New Orleans, LA

New York, NY

As sharp-tongued house mother Elektra Abundance on the FX series Pose, Dominique (aka Tyra Allure Ross) is a ferocious, streetwise glamazon with a heart of gold (and a morbid secret in her closet). Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, Dominique endured discrimination and sexual abuse and attempted suicide. As a teen, she escaped to Baltimore then to New York, where she embraced living as a trans woman and found a new family in the house and ball scene. Along her path

Sy’ria wears many hats. She is the education coordinator with the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the empowerment coordinator with the New Orleans Regional Planning Council and the president of the board of directors of the LGBT Community Center of Greater New Orleans. She has been the C.L.E.A.R./ARTAS prevention specialist and overseer of The DollHouse, a safe space for African-American transgender women. She also worked with Tulane University as a program coordinator with a focus on imple-

Wulf identifies as a two-spirit/nonbinary man. They are a founding member and the resource coordinator of Southern Oklahoma LGBTQ+, an in-development nonprofit community action group that provides a range of mental and physical health care services—including access to PrEP and referrals to trans- and queer-friendly clinics—to LGBTQ+ people living in rural Oklahoma. Wulf is committed to eliminating the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS that persists in the area, and, with years of experience with HIV testing and sex education under their belt, they are fully prepared to do so.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 47

THE POZ 100 Mackenzie Jianelli Bradenton, FL

The lead HIV and STI prevention specialist at CAN Community Health in Sarasota, Mackenzie has overcome depression, suicide attempts and substance use to become a leading advocate for the region’s LGBTQ community. In his job, he oversees daily outreach, testing and grouplevel intervention in seven counties in the area. His goal is to create a safe network that will improve access to care for people living with HIV. Mackenzie’s dream is “to be a warrior against stigma, an instrument of change that will allow the existing and future generations to live and be a part of a unified world filled with opportunities and fairness to all no matter status or gender.” We say he’s off to a good start.

Courtney Johnson Jackson, MS

Born and raised in Mississippi, Courtney is a proud Black trans woman who has survived homelessness (as a result of her parents’ nonacceptance) and substance misuse and previously worked as a professional escort. She is also a dancer and through it all has maintained her love of the performing arts. Courtney was diagnosed with HIV in 2016 and is committed to being a voice for trans youth and educating the community on issues related to HIV and health. She is currently a full-time nursing student at Hinds Community College in Jackson.

Tamika “Devinity” Jones Cleveland, OH

As a trans woman of color, Devinity uses her own experiences to build strong connections to the community.

She is currently the trans wellness and HIV prevention coordinator at the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, where she schedules onsite HIV testing and education sesssions

48 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

and coordinates the distribution of safer-sex kits. Devinity is also putting her passion for HIV prevention and transgender rights to use in the center’s recently launched trans wellness program. The program provides participants with the social support, education and resources they need to thrive and reduce the risk factors that can lead to high HIV rates within the trans community.

Evonné Kaho Jackson, MS

A survivor of domestic violence, Evonné is a Black trans woman and the mother of a teenage daughter.

She’s also the founder and CEO of Love Me Unlimited 4 Life, an advocacy and support group for the Mississippi LGBTQ community and those living with HIV. She serves on the national advisory board of Positively Trans and is a cofounder of SHERO (Sisters Helping Every Woman Rise and Organize). She’s also a Black Women’s Ambassador for The Black AIDS Institute. Evonné is currently working to open a shelter for LGBTQ and HIVpositive youth. She also plays a key role in Mississippi’s AIDSWatch Legislative Day at the state capitol.

Kelly Kline Cedar Park, TX

A trans woman from Texas, Kelly first learned about HIV in 1985 when her best friend was diagnosed with the virus. From that day on, she vowed to work as hard as she could to eliminate HIV from the world. She uses her platform as the Wonder Woman of Drag to entertain as well as educate, and she encourages people in her home state to get tested for HIV, participate in local AIDS Walks and do their part to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. She has helped raise money for many nonprofit organizations, including AIDS Services of Austin, the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, the Valley AIDS Council and

the Q Austin. Kelly also helped to open Austin’s Kind Clinic, which offers free and confidential HIV testing.

Aryah Lester Washington, DC

An award-winning author, speaker and educator, Aryah currently works as the deputy director of the Transgender Strategy Center in Washington, DC. She has served as the twoterm chair for the State of Florida Health Department’s Transgender Work Group, chair-elect of the MiamiDade HIV/AIDS Partnership and a member of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) Transgender Networking Group. Currently, she’s a board member of Equality Florida’s TransAction Florida committee and of the DC chapter of STARR, the nation’s first transgender organization. She was recently inducted into the national Trans100 list. Aryah is an advisory board member of The Well Project, Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare.

Octavia Y. Lewis Bronx, NY

Octavia is a community ambassador for Amida Care and the transgender health coordinator at Montefiore Medical Center. She also serves on the board of Positively Trans and PWN-USA and is a member of the Manhattan chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Previously, Octavia, who holds a master’s degree in public administration, worked as an HIV prevention specialist for Planned Parenthood of New York City and as an education specialist in transgender programming for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a Manhattan-based social services organization that prepares LGBT youth for college. Octavia is an advocate for the LGBT and TGNCNB communities who is looking to make her mark in politics and leave behind a legacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Arianna Lint

Devin Michael Lowe

Nikki Araguz Loyd

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Bronx, NY

Humble, TX

Arianna is a passionate trans educator and activist. Originally from Peru, she immigrated to the United States to escape persecution for being transgender. Since learning she was HIV positive in 2006, Arianna has committed herself to advocating for transgender people and people living with HIV. In 2015, she founded Arianna’s Center to empower and uplift the trans community of South Florida.

She previously worked at the Florida Department of Health and at the social services agency SunServe, where she developed the fi rst program to provide direct services to the transgender community in Florida. Arianna is the head of the South Florida chapter of the TransLatin@ Coalition and is a member of the national advisory boards of The Well Project and the TransLatin@ Coalition. She’s also an Undetectable Equals Untransmittable, or U=U, ambassador.

A peer navigation ambassador at New York’s longtime HIV/AIDS agency GMHC, Devin is a JamaicanAmerican originally from Houston.

A community advocate and organizer in New York City for more than six years, he is the lead facilitator for multiple LGBTQ and trans-masculine support groups in the area. He was the fi rst trans-masculine model for GMHC’s “Spotlight Stories,” a campaign highlighting young people to promote post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), PrEP and HIV/STI testing and care. Devin is also an actor and fi lmmaker and currently hosts Transmasculine & Healthy, a web series developed by Callen-Lorde and New York City’s health department.

Nikki has been publicly advocating for HIV awareness and prevention since 1993, coming out as an openly HIVpositive transgender woman on talk shows such as The Maury Povich Show, Sally Jesse Raphael and The Jerry Springer Show as well as 20/20 and Inside Edition. She has promoted HIV testing, distributed condoms, worked at food banks and answered the hotline at AIDS Foundation Houston.

After her husband’s death, she waged a public legal battle for benefits as a fi refighter’s spouse. She has since remarried and is a mother of two children. These days, Nikki can be seen on her YouTube channel in the original docuseries Nikki’s American Dream. She plans to release her autobiography next year.

Adrian Lowe Philadelphia, PA

Adrian has been a staff attorney with AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania since he graduated from law school in 2012. His clients are people living with HIV who need help with public benefits appeals, legal name changes, estate planning and probate matters. Adrian has represented clients before administrative agencies and in federal and state court in a number of HIV-related civil rights cases, including United States v. Safehouse, Beckett v. Aetna, Jones v. OSS and Jones V. Diamontoni.. In addition, he sits on the steering committee of the Pennsylvania HIV Justice Network and is active in the campaign to end HIV criminalization at the local, state and national levels.

Waving the trans flag during the march; inset: Maria Louise Roman-Taylorson

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 49

THE POZ 100 Tiommi Jenae Luckett Little Rock, AR

Tiommi was fi rst honored on the POZ 100 in 2016 for her work to end the epidemic by highlighting the obstacles faced by Southern trans people of color affected by the virus. These days, she works for PWN-USA as the communications and training assistant.

She also volunteers with the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus and is a member of the board of Positively Trans and the community advisory board of The Well Project, an online HIV resource dedicated to women and girls. She’s a powerful speaker and presenter and hopes that her story can inspire hope in others.

The crowd at the rally; inset: Ja’Mel Ashely Ware

How to Be You, a best seller that is part memoir, part self-help workbook.

Monique Mackey New York, NY

Jevon Martin

Monique is a senior community health outreach worker specializing in transgender services at New York’s Amida Care. Born with HIV, she advocates for the rights of all trans and nonbinary people in the health care field.

A former drug user and sex worker, she uses her life experiences to encourage younger members of the trans community to follow their dreams.

Monique is also a graduate of Amida Care’s Workforce Initiative Network and the AIDS Service Center of New York City’s Peer Training Institute’s collaborative program.

Bronx, NY

Jeffrey Marsh New York, NY

Jeffrey is a writer, actor, artist, activist and social media personality best known for making inspirational viral videos on Vine. Their videos have garnered over a quarter of a billion views, prompting CBS to describe him as “the internet’s most beloved anti-bully.”

Their posts on Twitter and Facebook are messages full of hope and positivity.

Jeffrey is an antidote to the hatred often directed at the HIV and LGBT communities. A frequent writer for Time and Oprah.com, they are also the author of

50 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

Jevon is a New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority conductor, model, actor, motivational speaker, producer, peer educator, HIV test counselor, volunteer and resounding voice in the community who has also served as a house father in New York City’s ballroom community. Jevon is the founder and CEO of Princess Janae Place, which provides GED training and teaches financial literacy and offers referrals to housing, legal, medical and recreational services for homeless trans people and the LGBTQIA community. He is a founding member of the fi rst trans man fraternity, Theta Beta Chi. Jevon has received many accolades for his work, including the 2017 Circle of Life Person of Trans Experience Award, the 2015 Transman of the Year Award, the 2016 Octavia St. Laurent Trans Activist Award, the 2014 Marsha P. Johnson Award and the 2018 Pioneer Cris Award.

He is also Mr. Trans New York 2020.

Gia Martinez Falls Church, VA

Gia is a trans coordinator and health educator at NovaSalud, a nonprofit

that provides HIV testing and prevention education programs in Northern Virginia, where she also leads the TSISTA (Transgender Sisters Informing Sisters About Topics on AIDS) program. She has extensive experience working with Latina transgender women and is highly skilled at facilitating group interventions with them. She received a community leadership award in 2014 for her advocacy for transgender Latina equality. She also serves on the Community HIV Planning Group for the Virginia Department of Health, which guides prevention and care services and is a trans navigator for PEP and PrEP.

Morgan Mayfaire Miami, FL

Morgan has a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and a doctorate in clinical psychology. Dedicated to the fight to end HIV, he works within his South Florida trans community to offer testing and prevention resources. He serves as the transgender

at-large alternate for the Florida Comprehensive Planning Network and is an active member of the South Florida AIDS Network and the Latinos en Accion Advisory Group. A proud Latinx trans man, Morgan uses his visibility and platform to advocate for more resources and culturally sensitive care. He serves as executive director of TransSOCIAL and co-facilitates the group’s TLGBQ+ cultural sensitivity training.

Jesse Medina Los Angeles, CA

A proud Afro-Latino man, Jesse has dedicated most of his adult life to service. An Army veteran who has openly opposed the U.S. government’s ban on trans people serving in the military, Jesse is a frontline provider and advocate for the TGNCNB community. As a case manager and service navigator for APAIT, a division of Special Service for Groups, Jesse catered to the medical needs of underserved people living with HIV, with a special focus on trans individuals. Currently, Jesse is the linkage and retention coordinator at the Trans Wellness Center, part of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where he also facilitates groups and has been instrumental in organizing life skills events for trans individuals.

ton, DC (see Spotlight on page 14).

She’s currently the CEO of Transsolutions, a global resource center that provides safety and universal health access for TGNCNB communities.

(Read the POZ Q&A with Marissa on page 4.)

a powerful tool for advocacy. In June, she announced a partnership with Netfl ix. She tweeted: “So proud to join the ranks of digital content moguls as the fi rst trans woman to call her own creative shots at a major content company.”

Dharma Mirza

Indya Moore

Corvallis, OR

Bronx, NY

Dharma is one of central Oregon’s most outspoken artists, activists and educators. She works hard to promote safe sex in rural LGBTQ+ communities and is a passionate advocate for sex workers, people of color and communities disproportionately affected by substance use. Dharma is currently a student at Oregon State University, where she is majoring in public health and minoring in queer studies and statistics. She’s also on the board of Valley AIDS Information Network (VAIN) and serves as the LGBTQ+ programming and services liaison.

Through her work with the organization, Dharma hosts rapid-HIV-testing events, advocates for the implementation of needle-exchange programs and works with public and private health care providers to offer a voice for individuals on the margins of society. Dharma is also the founder of Haus of Dharma, a drag family and performance art troupe committed to bringing queer/trans art to the Corvallis region.

Fashion can be activism—just ask Indya. When the nonbinary model turned actress received an honor at the Fashion Media Awards in September, they wore stunning keepsake earrings comprising portraits of the 16 Black trans women murdered this year in the United States. Indya carried the portrait of a 17th trans woman, who was killed days before the awards, in a frame during the event. (The number has since increased to 18.) While growing up in the Bronx, Indya was shuffled between foster and group homes, abused and sex trafficked. At one point, she even contemplated suicide. But in a plot that mirrors her role as Angel on the FX series Pose, Indya persevered. Today, they give voice and visibility to marginalized communities—and look damned good doing it.

Marissa Miller Washington, DC

Janet Mock Marissa is a long-term survivor with decades of experience as an HIV activist and advocate. She has worked with such organizations as Howard Brown Health, AIDS United, Positively Trans and the Transgender Law Center to end the epidemic and champion equality for the trans community.

As the program coordinator at NMAC, she was the organization’s fi rst transgender staffer. This year, Marissa was the national organizing director of the fi rst-ever National Trans Visibility March on Washing-

New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA

The title of her 2014 best-selling memoir, Janet: Redefining Realness, says it all. A native of Honolulu, she earned a master’s in journalism from New York University. In a breakout 2011 article for Marie Claire, she wrote about growing up trans, and she hasn’t left the spotlight since, appearing in front of and behind the camera. She’s a writer, director and producer—best known for the FX series Pose—who uses storytelling as

Bobbee Trans Mooremon San Francisco, CA

A disabled trans femme diagnosed with HIV in 2012, Bobbee has been an LGBTQ activist for more than a decade. For eight years, she worked to create spaces to educate the Mormon community about LGBTQ life. She fought for marriage equality through direct action and civil disobedience, protested for the end of the military’s antigay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and stood up for a trans-inclusive federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). She fundraises for HIV services and is a five-year volunteer roadie for the AIDS/Life Cycle. She’s also the creator of the trans leather pride flag.

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 51

THE POZ 100 Socorro “Cori” Moreland Oakland, CA

Cori has been involved in LGBT advocacy for over a decade. He currently leads the Bay Area chapter of Black Transmen, an organization with roots in Dallas, and created the website Brotherhood510, which empowers trans-masculine people of color to access community resources and connect with one another via social media and through creative outlets. In 2017, he served as a fellow in the Human Rights Campaign HIV 360 Fellowship Program. Cori works as a transgender services coordinator for the AIDS Project of the East Bay and is a member of NMAC’s African-American constituent advisory panel.

Lailani Muniz Bronx, NY

For the past several years, Lailani, a lifelong activist and 2017’s Miss Black Trans New York, has made promoting U=U the focus of her advocacy. As an HIV-positive trans woman married to an HIV-negative partner, Lailani uses her own experience to help educate others about the effectiveness of viral suppression as an HIV prevention method. Lailani serves on the HIV Planning Board for the state of New York and as a spokesmodel for the HIV health care provider Amida Care as well as the “HIV Stops With Me” campaign. In 2017, she worked with GMHC to create the awareness program #transparenting to draw attention to the unique challenges faced by trans parents. Lailani is also COO of the New York Transgender Bodybuilding Federation, run by her trans fiancé and fellow POZ 100 honoree, Sabastian Roy.

Our Lady J West Hollywood, CA

Our Lady J is an Emmy-nominated writer and producer best known for her work on Pose and Transparent. She

52 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

holds the honor of being the fi rst trans woman to be hired as a television writer as well as the fi rst trans woman to perform at Carnegie Hall. She has won two Peabody Awards and has been nominated for three Writers Guild Awards and one NAACP Image Award. Our Lady J is living with HIV and has used her platform as a screenwriter to create authentic and sympathetic characters living with HIV as well as storylines that educate viewers about the virus and encourage the eradication of the stigma associated with it.

a cornerstone of LGBT medical care, and, to that end, they make a special effort to uplift minorities and be mindful of all sexual and gender identities.

Alex sits on the Minnesota Council for HIV/AIDS Care and Prevention and serves as the membership director of the Stonewall Democratic-FarmerLabor Party and secretary for the Aliveness Project’s membership advisory committee. They are also a proud drag queen and an immigrant of Honduran (Garifuna) origin.

Channyn Lynne Parker Chicago, IL

Johanna Padilla Los Angeles, CA

Johanna is an actor, advocate and designer pursuing her dreams in the fashion and entertainment industry.

She’s also the linkage and retention coordinator at the Trans Wellness Center providing direct services to the trans community. She created The Wall Las Memorias Project’s (TWLMP) fi rst-ever trans programing, which included a support and empowerment group for trans women and HIV prevention education at trans-inclusive events. Johanna helped created Midnight Stroll, a partnership with TWLMP and APAIT to provide services for the homeless trans population in Los Angeles.

When not working, she tends to her YouTube channel, where she uses storytelling to combine her love of advocacy and beauty and to bring awareness of the issues that concern the trans and LGBTQ+ community.

Alex Palacios Minneapolis, MN

As an early intervention navigator for The Aliveness Project, a community center for and driven by people living with HIV, Alex educates members of the community about HIV and encourages all individuals to seek out care.

They believe that creating a comforting and identity-affirming environment is

Channyn is the manager of strategic partnerships and external relations for Howard Brown Health, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ organizations, which serves more than 35,000 adults and youth in Chicago. Channyn has been an HIV advocate for years and has devoted her life to fighting for social justice. Known as a loving “mother” in her community, she has worked at many drop-in centers throughout Chicago, helping homeless LGBT youth—living with and without HIV—obtain shelter and resources.

She has also worked as a reentry specialist for incarcerated trans women and men and was the fi rst transgender woman to work at the Cook County Department of Corrections. Friends say she’s an angel on your shoulder.

Alexis Powell Baton Rouge, LA

A patient navigator at Baton Rouge’s Open Health Care Clinic, Alexis is widely known as the fi rst transgender woman to be married in Louisiana and is the mother of an 8-year-old son. At the clinic, she goes to great lengths to advocate for all her clients so they can overcome barriers in order to receive needed services, stay in care and live a healthy and full life. She is a facilitator for Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge’s Transgender Focus Group, a member of the Trans-

gender Law Center, a national board member of Transgender Advocates and a graduate of NMAC’s Building Leaders of Color Program.

Morey Riordan Berkeley, CA

Morey is the founding director of the Transgender Strategy Center, a national trans-led effort that addresses gaps in leadership development, organizational support and pathways to possibilities. The goal is to achieve transgender health and equity. Morey previously served as executive director of Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Disease (WORLD) and the Sperm Bank of California, where he was instrumental in helping it become the fi rst fully licensed sperm bank in the United States to accept gay men as sperm donors. In addition, he spent almost seven years managing national grantmaking initiatives as vice president of access and innovation at AIDS United. As principal consultant of Riordan Strategies, he currently consults with funders and community-based organizations.

Last year, Morey received Project Inform’s Martin Delaney Visionary Award for leading the fight for social justice with “remarkable integrity, kindness and passion.”

Bré Anne Rivera Albuquerque, NM

Diagnosed with HIV in 2010, Bré has long been a formidable advocate for people living with HIV, particularly Black trans women. As cofounder and executive director of the Trans Sistas of Color Project in Detroit, Bré worked hard to ensure that Black trans women had the support and resources necessary to stay safe and to thrive. She currently serves on the national advisory board of Positively Trans and the board of PWN-USA.

Trans rights now! inset: Racquelle Trammell

Bré has helped PWN-USA center the leadership of trans women of color and provided an important lens on their work. In 2016, Bré participated in the Empowered: Trans Women & HIV video series, which gave trans women an outlet for sharing their own narratives about the virus. As a program fellow at the Groundswell Fund, she is working to ensure equitable funding for trans-led and transcentered work in reproductive justice.

She’s also an actress and an impact producer for Femme Queen Chronicles, a web series about the lives of Black trans women living in Detroit.

Alexa Rodriguez Baltimore, MD

Originally from Usulután, El Salvador, Alexa was initially devastated after her HIV diagnosis in 1998. Once she came to terms with her HIV status, she began what would become a decades-long career in advocacy. As an openly trans woman and outspoken HIV activist in El Salvador, she was threatened with physical violence. In 2009, Alexa immigrated to the United States, where she was granted asylum in 2010, a green card in 2012 and citizenship in 2019. Now, she works as a trans care navigator at WhitmanWalker Health and is the director of the Trans-Latinx DMV, a chapter of the TransLatin@ Coalition. Alexa advocates

with one goal in mind: to improve the quality of life of members of the trans, Latinx, Native American, immigrant and HIV communities.

Mj Rodriguez Newark, NJ

Mj is an award-winning actress currently starring on Pose as Blanca, the mother of the House of Evangelista.

Born in Newark, she wanted to become an actress at age 7. She made her off-Broadway debut as Angel in a 2011 production of Rent, for which she received the 2011 Clive Barnes Award.

She has appeared on TV’s Nurse Jackie and Luke Cage. Though she is not living with HIV, Mj has always made it a priority to advocate for those who are, and she strives to portray the character of Blanca with dignity and compassion.

Maria Louise Roman-Taylorson Los Angeles, CA

Maria has been a leader in social services for the Latina transgender community in Los Angeles for over 20 years. She’s currently the vice president and chief operation officer of the TransLatin@ Coalition. She is a member of the Transgender Advisory Council for the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and is a board member for FLUX, a division of AIDS

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 53

THE POZ 100 Healthcare Foundation dedicated to creating safe spaces for trans and gendernonconforming individuals. She was a presenter at USCA and the LLEGO National Latino Conference.

She is also an actress and performer who has appeared in independent fi lms and on numerous TV shows, including The Tyra Banks Show.. Maria also appeared on the reality show Wild Things on Showtime.

Angelica Ross Los Angeles, CA

“Black trans lives matter!” With that announcement, actress and activist Angelica Ross kicked off an LGBT presidential forum in September, becoming the fi rst trans person to host one (the salvo referenced the 18 trans women who had been murdered this year in the states; 17 of them were of color). Angelica is the president of Miss Ross and the founder of TransTech Social Enterprises, a program that helps trans and gender-nonconforming people help themselves out of poverty through training in workplace skills. But you likely got to know Angelica through Pose, on which she played the HIV-positive (and aptly named) Candy Ferocity. We’re really hoping her newest character, Nurse Rita, survives the bloodbath of the current American Horror Story: 1984.

Regardless, we know the real Angelica and her advocacy won’t be leaving the spotlight anytime soon.

Sabastian Roy Bronx, NY

As the owner and CEO of the New York Transgender Bodybuilding Federation, Sabastian has created a space not just for the transgender community but for everyone who wants to get healthy and remain HIV negative.

54 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

A proud trans man on PrEP, he is engaged to Lailani Muniz, who’s also on this year’s POZ 100. As a serodiscordant couple, they remind others that HIV prevention works. A former security guard, he was named Mr. Black Trans King of New York in 2017.

Valerie Spencer takes the stage; inset: Marissa Miller

degree in social work from Southern Connecticut State University.

Hailie Sahar Los Angeles, CA

Nadine Ruff New Haven, CT

As a transgender woman of color living with HIV since 1987, Nadine has endured and overcome a lot in her life, including substance use disorder, homelessness and incarceration. One day, she realized that she had to create a path for other trans individuals to follow, so she gave up drugs and began advocating for her community.

Nadine went on to start the transgender support group known as Divinely You. Today, Nadine coordinates Aging Positively, a program for people age 50 and over who are living with HIV, at A Place to Nourish Your Health (formerly known as AIDS Project New Haven), one of the fi rst AIDS service organizations in Connecticut.

She recently received her master’s

Hailie portrays Lulu Abundance on the FX series Pose. In one memorable episode, in a tribute to a classic ACT UP protest, she spearheads an AIDS activist action by slipping a giant condom over the home of a discriminatory landlord. Much like Lulu, Hailie is obsessed with fashion, music and dance, and as a teen, she was active in the LA house and ballroom scene. “It was a space that allowed me to just be myself,” the actress and singer told Nylon magazine. “And that allowed me to take that authenticity into the world [and be] fearless.”

Bamby Salcedo Los Angeles, CA

Bamby Salcedo is a well-known HIV

activist who has been in the fight for a long time. In 2013, her life and involvement in the ongoing fight for civil rights for trans people were documented in the fi lm Transvisible: Bamby Salcedo’s Story.

She’s currently the president and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, an advocacy organization dedicated to addressing the unique and specific challenges and needs of trans Latinas living in the United States. She spent eight years as the health education and HIV prevention services coordinator at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles before devoting herself to advocacy fulltime. Seems like we should expect a sequel.

Amirage Saling Louisville, KY

Amirage earned her master’s from the University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work earlier this year and currently works as a medical case manager for the Kentucky Care Coordination Program through the University of Louisville School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases. She previously served on the board of the Kentuckiana AIDS Alliance. In 2015, she was presented with the Ty Williams Award at the Louisville AIDS Walk for her tremendous passion in the fight against AIDS. Her colleagues call her a friend, ally, champion and warrior.

Daniela Simba Brooklyn, NY

Daniela, who is of Ecuadorean heritage, works for the Latino Commission on AIDS as the capacity-building coordinator for its TransPower NYC program, which helps create sustainability for trans-led organizations. She started as a patient navigator and then became a program coordinator in the Trans Health Clinic at the APICHA health center in New York City. She has worked as a medical care special-

ist at Community Healthcare Network’s Trans Family Program and is a member of the New York State AIDS Institute’s Advisory Body.

health. She’s a holistic life coach, an ordained interfaith minister and the founder of Holistic Empowerment Institute, which uses and develops holistic, person-centered approaches to empower LGBT communities.

Danez Smith St. Paul, MN

Kiara St. James Danez is an award-winning poet, performer and advocate who counts the prestigious Four Quartets Prize and the Forward Prize for Best Collection among their accolades. Their three collections of poetry, [insert] boy (2014), Don’t Call Us Dead (2017) and the upcoming Homie (2020), shine an unsparing light on the realities of life for many queer Black people in modern America. A central facet of Danez’s work is the experience of living with HIV. In 2014, they were diagnosed with HIV, leaving them unsure where to turn and scared for their life. Danez credits the act of writing with helping them come to terms with the diagnosis. Their poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and Poetry Magazine. Danez appeared on the June 2019 cover of POZ.

Valerie Spencer Los Angeles, CA

For three decades, Valerie has fought to make HIV prevention and HIV treatment more widely available to trans women like her. She has worked with state and local health departments, community-based organizations, colleges and universities and the federal government to shine a light on the racial and gender disparities that persist in health care. In 2011, the California Legislative LGBT Caucus passed a statewide resolution acknowledging Valerie as a national leader in the movement for LGBT political and social freedoms. She’s currently a behavioral therapist at APAIT in Orange County and will co-facilitate the upcoming Elevate Fellowship, a training program for Southern trans women of color interested in pursuing careers in public

New York, NY

A Texas native, Kiara began her activism with New York City’s Housing Works in the 1990s. In 2017, Kiara was a technical assistance coach for AIDS United’s People Organizing Positively (POP) grantee cohort and was lead faculty when the POP grantees convened in 2018. She was one of the lead facilitators at the 2019 Creating Change conference, where she also presented the daylong institute “Pathways to Leadership Development in Latinx and African-American Communities Impacted by HIV.” Kiara is the cofounder and executive director of the trans-led New York Transgender Advocacy Group and was instrumental in the passage of New York State’s Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which became law in 2019. She loves reading historical religious literature and is a big fan of Diana Ross.

David Strachan San Francisco, CA

David is a long-term survivor of HIV and a nonbinary pioneer. In the late ’70s, he discovered that he had Klinefelter syndrome and was hormonally masculinized by testosterone therapy without his informed consent. He didn’t realize he was intersex until many years later. In 2011, he cofounded the Intersex & Genderqueer Recognition Project with attorney Toby Adams to address the rights of people to identify as nonbinary on government issued documents. In 2017, he became the fi fth legally nonbinary person in California. David remains an active member of several HIV advocacy groups, including the San

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 55

THE POZ 100 Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Positive Force. He has been with his husband for more than 40 years.

Jasmine Tasaki Memphis, TN

Jasmine is the executive director of We Care Tennessee, the state’s fi rst transled nonprofit focusing on empowering trans women of color. She has worked as an HIV counselor and PrEP navigator and was the fi rst leader of trans experience in the National Urban League of Young Professionals. She’s currently an ambassador for the Black AIDS Institute. Jasmine believes that support is the foundation you stand on, values are the directions you walk by and relationships are the garden in which you grow.

Kayden Taylor Sarasota, FL

A medical case manager at CAN Community Health, Kayden struggled with his identity for over a decade before coming out as trans. His journey to his authentic self has been difficult but amazing. He is passionate about empowering the transgender community as well as the HIV/AIDS community. He started the podcast Transcaster Radio so that other trans individuals and allies could have a safe way to receive information about the trans community. Kayden currently lives with his fiancé and their five fourlegged “children.”

Gabrielle Thomas Nashville, TN

Let’s be real. Navigating health insurance and government eligibility forms can be a nightmare. But thanks to Gabrielle, who works as a medical case manager associate, clients at Nashville CARES don’t have to stress out about that aspect of accessing HIV care because she works with a case management team to ensure

56 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

each person has health care coverage.

She’s also on the My Voice Research Council, which serves as community experts for research development.

Plus, Gabrielle facilitates Transcend, a twice-a-month safe space for transgender people to get together for food, fellowship and fun—with no paperwork required.

partner, Liam, made the tough decision to halt their own transitioning in order to have a baby. She uses her platform to address the reproductive injustice that trans and nonbinary people often face.

Dianne Michelle Trinidad-Ramos San Juan, Puerto Rico

Jack Thompson Baltimore, MD

“I’m Jack Thompson, and I’m a proud biracial, openly transgender HIVpositive man, and I promise you I am more than enough.” That’s how Jack introduced himself before being crowned this year’s International Mr. Leather. His win was historic, as he is the fi rst trans person of color to hold the title in the competition’s 41-year history. Jack—who is also the reigning Leatherman of Color 2019—was diagnosed with HIV several years ago while working as an HIV tester and counselor. His message during his reign as International Mr. Leather is “We will not stand for transphobia in our spaces.” Enough said.

Racquelle Trammell Westland, MI

Racquelle is a peer outreach worker for All-Well Being Services and provides HIV testing, prevention and education services. She’s a member of the World AIDS Day Committee in Detroit and is passionate about ending the stigma around HIV. She’s also a research associate at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a member of the Love Her Collective, a community-academic partnership between the school and the Trans Sistas of Color Project. Racquelle became a member of Mothering Justice after she and her

Dianne was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and became involved in HIV advocacy in 1998. She’s a member of the public policy committee of the Health Information and Management Systems Society, and she’s on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program Advisory Committee for the Ryan White HIV/ AIDS Program. Diane is currently coordinating a transgender think tank in Puerto Rico to focus on challenges facing her community. She’s also working hard to eliminate the criminalization of HIV and works to spread the U=U message on the island.

Jonathan Van Ness New York, NY

Yass, queen! The nonbinary groomer and hair expert of the Queer Eye reboot became “America’s fiercest sweetheart” for dispensing loving affi rmations and self-care advice along with

practical hair-care tips. He also cracked us up with his web series recap show Gay of Thrones. In September, he became America’s fiercest HIV advocate with the publication of his memoir, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love. He has used the resulting publicity to discuss not only living with HIV but also dealing with addiction, mental health issues and sexual abuse. Such challenges can be overcome, Jonathan teaches us, with the help of self-love, humor and the perfect nail polish.

Malaysia Walker New Orleans, LA

A Mississippi native, Malaysia has a passion for fighting for equality, respect and acknowledgement of the issues faced by the transgender and gender-nonconforming community.

“The only way to truly understand the struggle is to hear from those who are struggling,” she says. She volunteers as a member of the New Orleans Regional AIDS Planning Council and currently works with CrescentCare health center’s T.W.E.E.T. (Transgender Women’s Engagement & Entry into Care) Program to help transgender women stay engaged in health care.

Malaysia is determined to empower

Black Trans Lives Matter; inset: Tyree Williams

transgender women to use their voices and experiences as weapons against discrimination and injustice.

Ja’Mel Ashely Ware Doraville, GA

Born with HIV and orphaned at 15, Ja’Mel Ashely lived with friends and their families until he graduated high school. He went on to receive his bachelor’s of social work at the University of Wisconsin, where he began his transition. After starting his career as a social worker, he founded Intellectual Ratchet, a company that offers consulting to brands on diversity and inclusion through the production of culturally relevant events. He’s the vice president of the Trans Gentlemen of Excellence, an advocacy nonprofit for transgender men of color. This year the group hosted an Excellence Gala highlighting trans and HIV activists. Ja’Mel Ashley proves that even when life seems to have given up on you, you must press on.

Kim Watson Bronx, NY

Kim is the cofounder and vice president of Community Kinship Life, an organization that provides transgender men and women and nonbinary people with the counseling, resources, medical services and life skills they need to begin or complete their transition. She is also the CEO of The Modern Day Woman Foundation, an organization for Black and brown women who have experienced trauma. In 2017, she self-published her autobiography, The Modern Day Woman Woman.

Kim has won numerous awards for her work, including the 2014 Black Trans Ally Award, the 2015 Harlem Pride Legacy Award, the 2015 LGBT Caucus Award, the 2016 Black Trans Advocacy Woman of the Year Award and a 2017 NAACP Image Award.

Lucas Wehle St. Petersburg, FL

The trans services division manager at Metro Inclusive Health, Lucas has dedicated his life to social justice.

While transitioning during college, he became passionate about helping others in the community through sharing his story, leading workshops, speaking in classes and mentoring other trans students. In 2015, he started his dream job at Metro Inclusive Health as trans and youth program coordinator. He also became a certified HIV tester. In 2018, he led the creation of Metro’s Trans Services Division, which collaborates with the HIV prevention team to expand outreach efforts targeting trans individuals.

Sasha Wengler San Antonio, TX

Sasha is a former Miss Gay Universe and a performer and fundraiser in San Antonio. As a trans activist, she uses her platform to fight for the LGBT community and for acceptance. By day, she’s a linkage to care specialist at BEAT AIDS, where she goes above and beyond to ensure that her clients’ needs are met. Her motto is “Know your truth and make a difference.”

She has participated in many community groups, organizations and events, including BEAT AIDS’ Annual PrEP in Your Step 5K Walk/Run. Whether she’s walking or running, Sasha is making a difference and an impact in her community.

Dana White Washington, DC

A social impact strategist and diversity, equity and inclusion speaker, Dana has delivered keynote speeches at Wesleyan University, Hofstra University and the 2017 Northeast Queer and Trans People of Color Conference at Princeton University. With a commitment to creating affi rming, inclusive spaces and pipelines to leadership

poz.com DECEMBER 2019 POZ 57

THE POZ 100 for transgender and gender-expansive talent, Dana joined the 2019 cohort of the executive program in social impact strategy at the University of Pennsylvania’s School for Social Policy and Practice. They currently serve on the board of directors at Collective Action for Safe Spaces.

coordinator, Mulan provides HIV testing and linkage to care and manages the group’s drop-in center. In her spare time, she continues to pursue her personal brand of outreach, distributing umbrellas to transgender sex workers when it’s raining and even helping some pay for transitionrelated procedures.

Reagin Wiklund New York, NY

Tyree Williams Orlando, FL

Reagin is an emerging leader who has combined his data and administrative skills with his capacity-building abilities within the LGBT and HIV communities, specifically focusing on TGNCNB issues. He helped manage an Elton John AIDS Foundation initiative that aims to improve health outcomes for trans people and Black gay and bisexual men. He also worked on programs at Boston’s Fenway Health that focused on people living with HIV. He currently brings his experience and knowledge to the Transgender Strategy Center, where he supports the operation and administration of programs and initiatives that assist trans-led organizations with their strategic goals, such as economic and racial justice, authentic inclusion, and equity in health and well-being.

Fittingly, Reagin was honored with a Torch Award for Emerging Leadership at this year’s National Trans Visibility March on DC.

Mulan Williams Orlando, FL

Before joining the staff at the multicultural AIDS service organization Miracle of Love, Mulan volunteered for the group by providing outreach on the streets and in the clubs. As a former sex worker, she understands what her community needs and also offered up her home as a safe haven for trans sex workers, a place where the ladies could get condoms, bottles of water and advice—not to mention a dose of emotional support. These days, as Miracle of Love’s outreach

58 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

A chef by profession, Tyree also has been involved in HIV/AIDS prevention work for several years. He was a regional ambassador for the National Trans Visibility March in Washington, DC, and he wants to help not only eradicate HIV/AIDS but also see his trans brothers and sisters living healthy lives and having space to be themselves, safely. His outreach work includes HIV prevention and awareness for trans men of color, specifically sex workers.

Mara Naomi Williamson Chicago, IL

Mara has been a vital part of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) family ever since she began working as an office manager there five years ago.

She went on to become the Ryan White training specialist and last year became the training manager. Mara has transformed AFC’s relationship with its case managers and led the expansion and success of its training program. She is an advocate for gender inclusion and volunteers as a trans mentor for the Chicago House & Social Service Agency’s TransWork program.

Katie Willingham Tuscumbia, AL

As a transgender woman living with HIV for 19 years, Katie first stepped into advocacy in 2017. Since then, she has been involved with Thrive Alabama, The Well Project and the

Alabama Department of Public Health. As Alabama state lead for PWN-USA, she is a key conduit to the HIV community in her state and the national office. She is also currently working on establishing a regional chapter in Alabama. Katie’s advocacy work extends to social media, where she is the founder and administrator of several Facebook groups—Alabama Poz Life, Alabama Transgender Coalition and PWN Alabama members and allies. Katie made it her life’s mission to spread the message of U=U, even lending her voice to the Prevention Access Campaign’s “Positive Series” initiative. Earlier this year, Katie was named PWN-USA’s February Shero of the Month.

Jessica Xavier Silver Spring, MD

Jessica is recognized as one of the first transgender HIV epidemiologists.

Beginning in 1998, she conducted the first bilingual transgender needs assessment survey, which was funded by the Administration for HIV/AIDS at the Department of Health of District of Columbia. The survey evaluated self-reported HIV prevalence, knowledge, testing and sexual risk behaviors, among other topics. It also served as the foundation for the delivery of health services to the transgender community. Jessica was also the lead contributor for the Eliminating Disparities Working Group’s 2004 report “An Overview of U.S. Trans Health Priorities.” For 10 years, as part of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Bureau’s Special Projects of National Significance, she helped develop several key funding opportunities, including the Women of Color Initiative, the Correctional Health Linkages Initiative and the Transgender Women of Color initiative, to improve access to HIV primary care. Q

Written by Alicia Green, Oriol R. Gutierrez Jr., Joe Mejía, Jennifer Morton, Tim Murphy, Trent Straube and Caroline Tien

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HEROES

BY ALICIA GREEN

George Ayala advocates globally for men who have sex with men.

60 POZ DECEMBER 2019 poz.com

During the early days of the epidemic, when George Ayala was a clinical psychologist working with youth, HIV was a frequent topic of discussion in his conversations with young people.

“HIV was also just impacting my own life,” says Ayala, founding executive director of the Oakland, California–based MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights. “I had family members passing away, lovers with HIV, and past lovers who had passed away. It was just an issue that I couldn’t really turn away from.”

In 1995, Ayala became deputy director of the Hispanic AIDS Forum, where he oversaw case management and HIV testing and prevention services, among other duties.

He has held HIV-related positions at the University of California, San Francisco, at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and at the nonprofit group AIDS Project of Los Angeles (now APLA Health).

In 2009, he assumed his current role at MPact, which requires him to conduct policy analyses and advise policymakers on issues relating to HIV and men who have sex with men (MSM) and other marginalized communities around the world.

“We don’t have boots on the ground,” Ayala says.

“In lieu of that, we support community-based organizations at the country level to carry forward the work.”

One of MPact’s current initiatives is the Global Men’s Health and Rights Survey 2019, which is available in 10 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Chinese and Arabic.

“We use the data to raise awareness and to inform our own advocacy agenda as an organization,” Ayala says. “Then, we share the data with activists around the world so they come prepared to lobby their own governments to make the case for why delivering services that are sensitive to gay and bisexual men is important.”

MPact is one of the organizers of the HIV2020 Conference in Mexico City. The conference was organized as an alternative to the International AIDS Society’s AIDS 2020 conference. AIDS 2020 is taking place in San Francisco and Oakland despite opposition by advocates who believe it should not be held on U.S. soil because of this country’s discriminatory immigration and travel policies and current human rights conditions.

“We thought it was a wrong decision,” Ayala explains. “We are Bay Area–based, so it’s hard for us to stand in opposition to having the conference in our hometown. But we think it’s the right thing to do.”

MPact also created the “#AnalAboutMyHealth” campaign, which Ayala describes as “sex positive and affirming of gay and bisexual men and our bodies.” Then, there is Fijate Bien (“Pay Close Attention”), a program designed to expand access to HIV prevention and treatment services for Latino MSM in the United States.

“We want to make sure that gay and bisexual men have choices and are living in worlds that are stigma-free,” Ayala says.

ANGELA DECENZO

Global Impact

SURVEY

7

Have you ever experienced a negative reaction to your disclosure?

T Yes T No 8

Have you ever regretted disclosing your HIV status to someone?

T Yes T No 9

WHEN TO TELL Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to a friend, lover, health care provider, coworker or family member, revealing that you are living with HIV can be stressful even as it leads to emotional support and well-being. Please take our POZ survey, and let us know your thoughts about disclosing your HIV status.

Has your HIV status ever been disclosed to another person by someone else?

T Yes T No 10

Have you ever felt a sense of relief after disclosing your HIV status to someone?

T Yes T No 11

Does disclosing your HIV status affect your health?

T Yes T No 1

How soon after your HIV diagnosis did you disclose your status to someone?

T Same day T Within one week T Within one month T Within one year T After one year T I have yet to disclose my status. (Skip to question 13.)

2

When was the last time you disclosed your HIV status to someone?

13

What year were you born? __ __ __ __

14

What is your gender?

T Male T Female T Transgender T Other 15

16

5

T Yes ISTOCK

6

T No T Not applicable

Have you disclosed your HIV status to any of your friends?

17

T No T Not applicable

What is your current level of education?

T Some high school T High school graduate T Some college T Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree or higher

T No T Not applicable

Have you disclosed your HIV status at your place of employment?

T Yes

What is your ethnicity? (Check all that apply.)

T American Indian or Alaska Native T Arab or Middle Eastern T Asian T Black or African American T Hispanic or Latino T Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander T White T Other (please specify): ___________________

Have you disclosed your HIV status to some or all of your family members?

T Yes

What is your sexual orientation?

T Straight T Gay/lesbian T Bisexual T Other

T Within the last week T Within the last month T Within the last year T More than one year ago 4

Has undetectable equals untransmittable (U=U) made it easier to disclose?

T Yes T No T Not applicable

To whom did you first disclose your status?

T Spouse/partner/significant other T Friend T Parent T Sibling T Other relative T Health care provider T Other (please specify): ___________________ 3

12

18

What is your ZIP code? __ __ __ __ __

Please fill out this confidential survey at poz.com/survey or mail it to: Smart + Strong, ATTN: POZ Survey #240, 212 West 35th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10001

PZA517872.pgs 10.24.2019 14:46

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