AIDS at 40: Envisioning a Future We Never Imagined
A Call to Action to Mobilize and Create Lasting Change
HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day (HLTSAD) on June 5, 2021, the 40th anniversary of the first five cases of AIDS reported in the US in 1981.
“AIDS at 40: Envisioning a Future We Never Imagined,” the 2021 theme, is also a call to action to address YOUR most pressing needs and challenges as HLTS.
Send an email to Action@LetsKickASS.org. In the “About” section include #HIVsurvivorsAction Tell us what is on your mind and what YOU think should be our focus. At the bottom of this post are some articles and reports, if you need inspiration or you do not see something that is missing.
From Now Until September 5, 2021
This call to action is not a one-day campaign. It continues through September 5, 2021, in time for HIV and Aging Awareness Day on September 18, 2021, which happens to be the anniversary of Let’s Kick ASS’ first town hall for long-term survivors in 2013.
We will compile your needs and issues and let you know who to contact and how with sample messages you can use.
We want to start solving these problems and improve our lives in lasting ways. We will compile your priorities and let you know who to contact and mobilize for change.
You can also use the hashtag #HIVsurvivorsAction to post your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Facebook page> https://www.facebook.com/HIVLongTermSurvivorsAwarenessDay
Twitter> @HIVsurvivors https://twitter.com/HIVsurvivors
Instagram> hivltsawarenessday https://www.instagram.com/hivltsawarenessday/
Other hashtags for the day are #HLTSAD and #AIDSat40
Our Pasts
On June 5, 2021, AIDS turns 40. No doubt there will much written and shown about the long painful history of the AIDS pandemic. WE all know that history and carry it with us daily.
HLTSAD is not a time to only look back at our traumatic pasts. (That’s for World AIDS Day.) Our goal over the coming months is for YOU to set our agenda and priorities for moving forward and take action to make changes.
HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day (HLTSAD) is an annual AIDS Awareness Day to celebrate and honor people living longest with HIV/AIDS.
It’s up to us to set our action plan addressing the present-day and future needs, issues, and challenges facing people living longest with HIV/AIDS.
We’ve waited long enough.
People living with HIV and AIDS deserve to age with dignity.
Here are some thoughts on agenda items from various sources:
- Advocate for universal access to effective HIV medications. The medications we take to stay healthy also make it impossible for us to pass on HIV. That’s because when people with HIV are on effective treatment, their HIV is suppressed in the body so low that it’s undetectable. When it’s undetectable, it’s not transmittable through sex. In other words, Undetectable = Untransmittable or U=U. #UequalsU
- Develop models of care and prevention for people aging with HIV and train and equip the clinical and non-clinical workforce;
- Expand opportunities for older people living with HIV to make social connections through community-based programs that address isolation, stigma, and trauma;
- Maintain Medicare Part D drug access protections (e.g. Six Protected Classes) and expand focus on high-quality care and quality of life;
- Allocate more funding to programs that support financial security and access to employment, housing, food, and public benefits for the aging HIV population; [In other words, addressing the poverty too many HLTS live with. It contributes to our sense of isolation and being invisible. It is a major challenge for many of us.-Tez]
- Promote the meaningful participation of older people living with HIV in the Ending the Epidemic (EHE) Initiative and in broader advocacy efforts. Having a say in what ending the HIV epidemic means for older adults living with HIV.
- Advocate for access to affordable, culturally competent mental health care for HLTS and Older Adults Living with HIV and AIDS. Too many therapists do not know about the impact of living through the 1980s
- Mandate federal engagement and coordinated research on HIV and Aging.
As Dr. Anthony Fauci says, “ensuring people with HIV have the treatment and care to reach U=U is the ‘foundation of ending the epidemic.’ ensuring a person with HIV has what they need to stay healthy will have any impact on ending the epidemic.”
Check out these documents for inspiration and to see what others are working on.
Download Building a Focus on Healthy Aging for Older Adults Living w/HIV here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zr3rgayscgmgcaf/Building_a_Focus_on_Healthy_Aging_for_Ol.pdf?dl=0
In May 2021, the O’Neill Institute released Big Ideas: Urgent Action Is Needed in 2021 to End HIV in the United States, along with an accompanying one-page summary, Big Ideas in Brief: Urgent Action Is Needed in 2021 to End HIV in the United States. Meeting the Needs of People Aging with HIV on the Path to Ending the HIV Epidemic https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/projects/national-hiv-aids-initiative/
Making U=U Foundational in Our Efforts to End the HIV Epidemic
The Positive Effect Long-term HIV survivors thriving with spirit and compassion
Big Ideas + Actions
Let’s Kick ASS — Palm Springs Manual
SF Principles
AIDS at 40 Press
TODAY SHOW — June 2, 2020 — 40 years since the first AIDS cases, men living with HIV share their perspectives
Featuring Interviews with Bruce Richman @BR999 ; Jesse Milan Jr. @JesseMilanJr ; Deondre B. Moore @deondrebmoore ; Raif Derrazi @RDerrazi ; and Dr. Anthony Fauci
The Peace Corps Recognizes HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci Introduces HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day and stories from survivors.
Bay Area Reporter
The Bay Area Reporter spoke with three long-term survivors: Gabriel Quinto, a gay man who sits on the El Cerrito City Council; Tez Anderson, a 62-year-old gay man who was first diagnosed in 1986; and Marc Huestis, 66, a gay man who took an HIV test on the day it became available in 1985.
Yours in resilience,
Twitter: TezAnderson
Let’s get social
Facebook: AIDSSurvivorSyndrome
LetsKickASS.hiv is our main site and blog
HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day June 5
HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day is June 5, 2021, a time day to spotlight HIV Long-Term Survivors’ needs, issues, and dreams. This year’s theme is a call to action: Envisioning A Future We Never Imagined
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HIVLongTermSurvivorsAwarenessDay
Learn more at HLTSAD.org | Twitter @HIVsurvivors
