Issue XI – September 2009
- Introduction
- Announcements
- Opinion – Attention: Homophobia is Bad for your Health!, by Anathaleo S. Blake
- In the News
- In Other Words
While Senator Edward Kennedy will likely be remembered as a man of both great achievements and great failings, nowhere is his legacy for greatness more apparent than in the changes he brought to health care delivery and access in this country. Senator Kennedy was instrumental in protecting the privacy of medical records, building community health centers, providing access to care for unemployed adults and low-income children, and providing services for those with HIV and AIDS. It is with great sadness and a renewed sense of duty that we mark the passing of this lifelong public servant.
On a happier note, August marked our second annual End-of-Summer Caribbean Dance Party, which brought together our friends from throughout the city for a night of dancing, drinking, and mingling. Following the successful party, TDN Board Chairman penned the following note to Founder and President Ariel Rojas:
Dear Ariel,
I send along my heart-felt gratitude to everyone that attended Transdiaspora Network’s End-of-Summer party. You can really tell from the pictures that everyone had a good time.
The generous support we received will help TDN continue in its mission to provide culturally oriented HIV prevention to at-risk Caribbean youth in Brooklyn. Every time I attend one of TDN’s gatherings, I’m very impressed by the people I meet, their stories, and the unique ways each individual strives to make a difference in his or her community. TDN has brought together a truly wonderful group of people around an imperative cause. I’m proud to be a part of that.
Thanks for passing along my message.
Best,
Ameet Kabrawala
Board Chairman
Thanks to the support of friends like you, our second year of programming with Brooklyn youth kicks off in just a couple weeks. If you were unable to attend the party and would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to help further our work, you may do so here.
Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director
TDN Welcomes New Staff
This month, Sylvia Lyew and Yalini Dream join Transdiaspora Network as our new Program Coordinator and Dance Mediator/Storyteller, respectively. Raised in New York City, Sylvia left the city to pursue a Bachelor’s in English Professional Writing with a minor in Psychology at Oakwood University in Alabama. She went on to complete a Masters in Community Counseling at Andrews University in Michigan and graduated in 2008. Expanding her global interests, she moved to Chile where she worked as an English tutor and volunteer Resident Assistant at a Chilean university. Having returned from that experience, Sylvia is continuing her passion of working with youth by joining TDN. This fall, Sylvia will introduce a pregnancy prevention initiative to complement TDN’s successful HIV/AIDS prevention program. Yalini’s work covers a wide range of themes. The most popular topics include arts and activism, art as prayer, celebration of culture, desire and spirituality, diaspora, diversity, healing, shattering stereotypes, among others. With their experience and dedication, both Sylvia and Yalini are invaluable additions to the TDN team.
TDN Picks Up Paint Brush for Anti-Gun Mural
On August 4, Transdiaspora Network joined with the community to paint an anti-gun violence mural on Brooklyn Avenue and Prospect Place. Youth from across Brooklyn have been learning about gun violence all summer and planning the mural design.
Many individuals and organizations worked to bring this mural into being. The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, one of the driving forces behind the mural’s conception, has been for working for the past three years with a committee of Crown Heights leaders to address the social factors that lead to gun violence in the community. Simultaneously, a group of young adults has been working with Assemblyman Karim Camara to address this same issue. This summer, these groups partnered with the American Friends Service Committee, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Groundswell Community Mural Project, and the Damon S. Allen Foundation Against Violence to work with 16 youths and two artists to create this mural on the Alternate Learning Center wall.
StoryCorps Launches Historias Project
Later this month, StoryCorps will launch its ambitious new StoryCorps Historias project. The goal of this new initiative is to record more than 700 interviews across the country, reflecting the rich diversity of the Latino experience. StoryCorps Historias is launched in partnership with the Latino Public Radio Consortium, Latino USA, and the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History
Project.
The project’s national launch will take place September 24 in Washington D.C. followed by a New York City launch at El Museo del Barrio, tentatively scheduled for September 30. Transdiaspora Network has been invited to be a community partner in this initiative.
Newly Discovered Antibodies Give New Hope for AIDS Vaccine
In late August, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and affiliated researchers announced the discovery of two powerful new antibodies to HIV that provides clues to bringing down the virus. The findings are the result of a worldwide effort launched by IAVI in 2006 to find new antibodies that neutralize a wide variety of strains of HIV circulating in the world. The study was published in the journal Science.
An effective AIDS vaccine would have to work against the many versions of HIV circulating in different populations. The two new broadly neutralizing antibodies are the first to be discovered in more than a decade and the first to be isolated from donors in developing countries where the pandemic is most virulent. Now researchers will use the newly discovered weakness to guide new approaches to designing an AIDS vaccine.
“The findings are an exciting advance because now we’ve got a new, potentially better target on HIV to focus our efforts for vaccine design,” said Wayne Koff, senior vice president of research and development at IAVI. “And having identified this one, we’re set up to find more.”
Caribbean Women’s Health Fair
Caribbean Women’s Health Association will host its second annual Back-to-School Health Fair on Saturday, September 26 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fair will take place at 21 Snyder Avenue, between Flatbush and Bedford Avenues in Brooklyn. For more information call (718) 774-1127.
CHAMP Hosts Strategy Call
On July 15, CHAMP Network hosted a strategy conference call to discuss developments and strategies in HIV screening, targeted testing, and the challenge of expanding testing in distinct communities. The call featured speakers from the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition, Family Health International, and Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, among other experts who presented on the call.
For complete notes from the call, go to Strategy Lab.
Low-Income HIV-Positive New Yorkers Face Housing Challenges
About 30,000 low-income people receive housing support from New York’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA), overseen by the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). Even with Social Security Disability Insurance, many HIV-positive New Yorkers are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. One recipient, who must make ends meet with only $300 for the month after paying rent on her apartment in the Bronx, highlighted these difficulties. “It’s hard because you have to buy toiletries and use public transportation to get medicine. It’s just me with no family support,” she explained. “Some people tell me that I should find a cheaper apartment. But where is that supposed to be?”
Last month, Manhattan State Senator Tom Duane, who is openly gay and HIV positive, brought his proposed legislation enacting a 30% rent cap for poor New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS to the floor of the legislature. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 52 to 1 and is pending in the Assembly where it’s slated for a vote during a special session this month. The measure still faces the threat of automatic veto by Gov. Paterson based on cost.
Funding Changes Pose Challenges to Community Providers
The city has proposed a plan to create a Core Coordination Program for people living with HIV/AIDS, but critics contend the new plan will consolidate funding inside large hospitals and health clinics, sidelining many of the community-based providers that are the first-line of health care access for many of New York’s marginalized communities such as legal and illegal immigrants and communities of color.
International Collaboration Tackles Rising HIV/AIDS Epidemic among Fishermen in Malaysia
Doctors from the Social Intervention Group at Columbia University School of Social Work have partnered with Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman and the Center of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERIA) at the University of Malaya on a study the HIV/AIDS epidemic among commercial fishermen from Malaysia and neighboring countries.
Recent data estimates that the HIV prevalence rate among commercial fishermen in Malaysia is ten times higher than that among the country’s general population, due in part to the availability of illicit drugs and the harsh working conditions.
The new research project aims to examine social and structural determinants, such as drug use, social networks, migration, and poverty, that are contributing to the HIV epidemic among fishermen. This will be the first such epidemiological study among fishermen and can provide the basis for the development of scientifically based prevention strategies and policies.
Fed HIV Prevention Officials Indicate Need for Changed Approach
Speaking at the Obama Administration’s first national HIV summit, top public health leaders and community activists called for a paradigm shift in HIV prevention approaches in an effort to reduce HIV transmission in the U.S.
Summit speakers spoke of the need for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work with partners to develop and implement a strategic scale-up of comprehensive, combination HIV-prevention strategies in order to see population-level improvements in new infection rates. Any new approach must expand on empirically supported interventions, invest in research and evaluation, and address salient social factors such as lack of housing, mass imprisonment, poverty, and social marginalization.
According to conference attendees, there were indications that the CDC may be ready to seek significant changes in federal prevention policy and programs. However, the present economy poses additional obstacles to obtaining the necessary funding.
OPINION: Attention: Homophobia is Bad for your Health!
By Anathaleo S. Blake
When a friend of mine sent me the link to a washingtonpost.com article entitled “Gays Live and Die in Fear in Jamaica” from July 20, 2009 (AP), I wasn’t particularly enthused about reading it. The rest of the world may just be catching on to the fervency of Jamaican homophobia, but it is not new to me. As a Jamaican immigrant living in New York City who is also gay, I am well-acquainted with the nature of the heterosexist terrorist regime currently operating in Jamaica and in its reconstituted immigrant enclaves the world over. Nonetheless, I read it. The article recounts tales of violence and murder, exile and expatriation, angry mobs, archaic laws, and complicity by the Jamaican government. A survivor of one of these incidents describes his daily experience of panic attacks, anxiety, and hypervigilance as he struggles to perform his daily activities. These symptoms are common among people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is also common among survivors of terrorist states. None of this was news to me, unfortunately..
My own experience as a gay Jamaican acquainted me with these realities a long time ago. I did, however, find something novel amid the facts and figures I had become inured to: the notion that homophobia was contributing to hesitation/reticence around prostate cancer screening and treatment among Jamaican men. In the article, Dr. Trevor Tulloch states, “The dread of homosexuality is so all-encompassing that many Jamaican men refuse to get digital rectal examinations (DRE) for prostate cancer, even those whose disease is advanced…. Because it is a homophobic society, there’s such a fear of the sexual implications of having the exam that men won’t seek out help.” My initial reaction was laughter; the notion was wholly absurd to me. I then experienced a visceral sense of vindication. I threw magnanimity to the wind. If the hate in these men’s hearts was so comprehensive as to have it adversely affect their own health, then they deserve to reap the benefits of their ignorance. That prize, of course, is cancer, and after my initial reaction, I realized that no one, no matter how hateful or ignorant, deserves that.
Cancer outcomes are influenced by so many factors. Yet, in this instance, access to healthcare, painful biopsies, or inconclusive Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) tests are not part of the discourse. Instead, heterosexism is the culprit. It is often the case that values inform health decisions and outcomes (e.g. abstinence-only education, abortion, stem-cell research, euthanasia etc). The potential correlation between the fear of DRE and the prevalence of prostate cancer in this population differs greatly from the aforementioned examples in a significant way. Most, if not all, of the examples above are rooted in the contentious interplay between religion and science. Jamaica is a majority Christian nation. The relationship between Christianity and homosexuality is dynamic, to put it mildly, and continues to transform even as I write this. The historic Judeo-Christian condemnation of homosexuality and the legacy of British imperialism still inform behavior and conventional morality to an extent. This manifests as homophobia and heterosexism. Jamaica is also a very poor nation with an education system that leaves a lot to be desired. In trying to understand the ostensibly novel correlation between cancer and heterosexism, I get stuck and cannot quite figure it out from here. The notion of denying another person their human rights by upholding heterosexist values is abhorrent on its face, but when that same paradigm allows for the kind of wanton, self-injurious delusion that getting a DRE is inherently “gay” or “makes” the recipient gay, then it’s time to re-evaluate the original position. All Jamaicans are not hate-mongers. However the ones who are subscribing to heterosexist/homophobic ideals should realize that they are not only hurting their gay compatriots anymore. It has become deleterious to the heterosexists’ own health. Apparently homophobia, if untreated, will kill.
Anathaleo S. Blake is a human services professional and perennial student. He lives in NYC and can be reached at asb2156@gmail.com.
Officials Weigh Circumcision to Fight H.I.V. Risk
By Roni Caryn Rabin
Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
The topic is a delicate one that has already generated controversy, even though a formal draft of the proposed recommendations, due out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the end of the year, has yet to be released.
Experts are also considering whether the surgery should be offered to adult heterosexual men whose sexual practices put them at high risk of infection. But they acknowledge that a circumcision drive in the United States would be unlikely to have a drastic impact: the procedure does not seem to protect those at greatest risk here, men who have sex with men.
Recently, studies showed that in African countries hit hard by AIDS, men who were circumcised reduced their infection risk by half. But the clinical trials in Africa focused on heterosexual men who are at risk of getting H.I.V. from infected female partners.
For now, the focus of public health officials in this country appears to be on making recommendations for newborns, a prevention strategy that would only pay off many years from now. Critics say it subjects baby boys to medically unnecessary surgery without their consent.
But Dr. Peter Kilmarx, chief of epidemiology for the division of H.I.V./AIDS prevention at the C.D.C., said that any step that could thwart the spread of H.I.V. must be given serious consideration.
“We have a significant H.I.V. epidemic in this country, and we really need to look carefully at any potential intervention that could be another tool in the toolbox we use to address the epidemic,” Dr. Kilmarx said. “What we’ve heard from our consultants is that there would be a benefit for infants from infant circumcision, and that the benefits outweigh the risks.”
He and other experts acknowledged that although the clinical trials of circumcision in Africa had dramatic results, the effects of circumcision in the United States were likely to be more muted because the disease is less prevalent here, because it spreads through different routes and because the health systems are so disparate as to be incomparable.
Clinical trials in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda found that heterosexual men who were circumcised were up to 60 percent less likely to become infected with H.I.V. over the course of the trials than those who were not circumcised.
There is little to no evidence that circumcision protects men who have sex with men from infection.
Another reason circumcision would have less of an impact in the United States is that some 79 percent of adult American men are already circumcised, public health officials say.
But newborn circumcision rates have dropped in recent decades, to about 65 percent of newborns in 1999 from a high of about 80 percent after World War II, according to C.D.C. figures. And blacks and Hispanics, who have been affected disproportionately by AIDS, are less likely than whites to circumcise their baby boys, according to the agency.
…While the clinical trials in Africa found that circumcision reduced the risk of a man’s acquiring H.I.V., it was not clear whether it would reduce the risk to women from an infected man, several experts said./span>
“There’s mixed data on that,” Dr. Kilmarx said. But, he said, “If we have a partially successful intervention for men, it will ultimately lower the prevalence of H.I.V. in the population, and ultimately lower the risk to women.”
[Excerpted from The New York Times, August 24, 2009]
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.
–Facebook Meme, Origin Unknown
Transdiaspora NetworkTM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.
©Transdiaspora Network, September 2009