Oriol's POZ Blog

November 20th is the 11th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors the memories of people murdered because they were transgender.

Results from a report by the nonprofit group Transgender Europe are shocking. In the last 12 months, there were 162 reported murders of trans people worldwide.

That translates into every three days a transgender person is murdered as a result of a hate crime somewhere in the world.

There is no formal data, so the group bases its numbers on Internet research. The reality is undoubtedly much worse.

What saddens me most on a personal level is that although these murders occurred everywhere on the planet, 124 were reported in 15 countries in Latin America.

In other words, 75 percent of the reported murders of trans people worldwide were in Latin America. That statistic alone demonstrates the depth of homophobia and transphobia in Latino culture.

Watch this video tribute:

A judge in Argentina has ruled in favor of a gay couple granting them the right to get married, AFP reports.

The men, both of whom are HIV positive, selected December 1st, which is World AIDS Day, as their wedding date in Buenos Aires.

Having approved LGBT civil unions in 2002, Buenos Aires has proven to be one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in Latin America.

"We will become husband and husband," said Alejandro Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41.

Watch this video (in Spanish) of the couple discussing their LGBT advocacy:

The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) held its 13th annual Courage Awards on Monday, November 9.

AVP's mission is "eliminating hate violence, sexual assault, stalking, and domestic violence in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities through counseling, advocacy, organizing, and public education."

Honorees included LGBT bloggers Bil Browning (The Bilerico Project), Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God), Pam Spaulding (Pam's House Blend) and Andy Towle (Towleroad). Also honored were playwright Tony Kushner and law firm Clifford Chance for their efforts.

Michelangelo Signorile presented the award to the LGBT bloggers. Pam Spaulding accepted the award on behalf of the group and read an acceptance speech written by the group. (Click here to watch video, see pics and read more from Pam's blog.)

Here's an excerpt from Signorile's speech about these bloggers:

It's just extraordinary the tremendous work they do at bringing to light, reflecting to our people, all across the country, millions, who they are, what they're about, and that they're not alone, that there are people with them. They not only reflect and inform and inspire, but they really push the media to get off their asses and cover so many of these stories, particularly the violence, that we see, and activate our people to get out there and protest and focus on it.

Here's an excerpt from the group's acceptance speech:

Because crimes against LGBT people are seldom reported on a national basis, and covered mostly in local papers, if at all, we have a valuable opportunity to raise awareness about how severe and widespread these crimes are, and the frequency at which they occur. As one of the few forums, and perhaps the most effective, that exist right now to communicate these crimes to other gay people and our heterosexual allies, we can inspire them to take action.

I congratulate all four bloggers for a well-deserved honor. We're fortunate to have them fulfilling their roles as citizen journalists. It's unfortunate, however, that such roles have become increasingly necessary.

New York magazine recently published a great article titled "Another Kind of AIDS Crisis" by David France, which discusses the medical issues confronting HIV-positive people as they grow older.

Diseases and symptoms associated with the elderly are being seen increasingly in long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS, such as dementia and bone weakness.

I highly recommend the article and the accompanying video:

Frank Rich, a former theater critic and a current op-ed columnist for The New York Times, recently interviewed musical-theater legend Stephen Sondheim.

Author and columnist Dan Savage before that interview spoke with Rich about numerous topics, including the theater, LGBT civil rights and AIDS.

Here's an excerpt:

Savage: Of all the bigfoot pundits out there, you seem to be the only one who takes the issue of gay civil rights seriously and is willing to devote really serious real estate to it in your column. Why is that?

Rich: I can't speak for why others don't do it. I am baffled by it. It seems to me such an obvious civil-rights issue. In my case, I got interested in it and my eyes were opened precisely because I covered the theater. In the 1980s, which was the bulk of when I was a Times drama critic, to the early '90s, two things happened in New York theater. One was unfortunately the arrival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the other was the AIDS epidemic, and it was eye-opening. It was literally happening on my beat; people, artists I admired, were dying, getting sick and dying. In some cases, you'd hear about people's deaths well after the fact, particularly if they weren't famous in the theater, or under mysterious circumstances in those days. Of course a lot of people don't even remember this history now, but you certainly know it, and it really had the effect of--I guess I wouldn't say radicalizing me, but really opening my eyes to a whole minority of America that had been shabbily treated, that had to often live in secret, and was now being victimized by a ruthless epidemic, while a lot of people stood around and did nothing.

So at first, it really changed my view of things; it really opened my mind to stuff I hadn't, embarrassingly, given much thought to. And then of course, what happened was that theater itself began to take AIDS as a subject, but that's already well along in the story. You'd have to have been dead to be on the beat I was on and not say: "What the hell is going on here?" And so it stayed with me.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed the Senate yesterday as an amendment to a defense spending bill. The House passed the legislation earlier in the month. President Obama is expected to sign it into law.

The legislation expands hate crimes to include attacks based on a person's gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The bill is named after two men who were murdered in 1998: Shepard, a gay man in Wyoming who was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die (he died days after the incident), and Byrd, a black man in Texas who was chained to a truck and dragged to his death.

This legislation is better late than never, as they say. When Obama signs it into law, it will be a major step forward for LGBT civil rights in the United States. All Americans should be proud of this achievement.

One detail struck me hard when I was reading the coverage this morning. I had never noticed before this morning that "disability" was included in the bill. I can only imagine that "disability" would be defined as per the Americans With Disabilities Act, which would mean that people with HIV/AIDS would be protected by this legislation.

I don't know that to be true just yet, but it seems to me to be true. I hope to be getting clarification soon. Increased criminalization related to HIV/AIDS could fuel hate crimes against people living with the virus, so if I'm correct in my assumption this bill provides a welcome if unexpected benefit.

UPDATE: I spoke with Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, who confirmed that "disability" in the hate crimes bill does indeed include anyone protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act, which includes people with HIV/AIDS.

Not many Hollywood movies these days address HIV/AIDS, so I'm pleased to point out that the movie Precious--based on the novel Push by Sapphire--includes the virus in the plot. Starting on November 6, the movie will be in limited release nationwide.

The central character is a 16-year-old African-American girl named Precious. She is overweight and dark-skinned, which subjects her to ridicule from the outside world. At home, she also is subjected to incest by her father and abuse by her mother. A comedy this is not.

The movie has received lots of Oscar buzz and accolades for the actors. It also has gotten lots of media coverage. A recent example is an article by David Kaufman at the Daily Beast, who interviews Sapphire about her book and the movie:

"Sapphire sees her book as a tribute to the armies of behind-the-scenes activists -- educators, social workers, shelter volunteers, HIV counselors -- committed to keeping the Preciouses of the world from lifelong obsolescence."

Spoiler Alert: I won't tell you how Precious becomes HIV positive, but she does. The book was published nearly 15 years ago, so Kaufman asks Sapphire how Precious might have fared in today's world:

"In my perfect world Precious got everything she needed to move forward, go to college, and create a life for herself," Sapphire envisions. "But the world is imperfect, and Precious could easily be working as a home care attendant somewhere in Brooklyn, sick and unable to afford her AIDS meds."

I look forward to seeing the movie when it premieres next month.

Watch the trailer:

Today is the 7th annual National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, which is commemorated every October 15. This year's theme: United We Can Stop HIV and Prevent AIDS. Unidos Podemos Detener el VIH y Prevenir el SIDA.

In general, Latinos in the United States are the second-most affected ethnic group (after African Americans) by HIV/AIDS. In particular, Latino men who have sex with men and Latinas are at high risk.

To mark the occasion, two major initiatives have been launched. The Latino Commission on AIDS today published a Spanish-language version of its website. Univision Communications in partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation also today added a new series of videos to its "Soy" HIV/AIDS public service announcements, which were released last year.

Here's a compilation video of the new "Soy" video series:


Know your HIV status, get tested! If you're HIV negative, learn how to stay that way. If you're HIV positive, learn how to stay healthy.

The National Equality March for LGBT civil rights took place on Sunday, October 11 (on the 30th anniversary of the first LGBT march on Washington, DC, which is now commemorated yearly as National Coming Out Day).

Several related events took place throughout the weekend, including an HIV/AIDS rally and vigil on Saturday, October 10, on the Ellipse in front of the White House. Many HIV/AIDS advocates from around the country (and around the world) participated in the HIV/AIDS rally and vigil.

(The photo is of the crowd holding up glow sticks to represent candles during the vigil.)

Friends of POZ were well represented. Dennis Daniel, POZ's comptroller, was the stage manager for the event. Sean Strub, POZ's founder, was scheduled to speak and singer and actress Sherri Lewis (also a former POZ cover girl) was scheduled to perform, but the event ran behind schedule and the park officials shut us down at our scheduled ending time of 8:30 p.m.

Plenty of others did get to participate. Even though she didn't get to sing, Sherri Lewis was master of ceremonies. POZ contributor Shawn Decker (also a former POZ cover boy) and his Synthetic Division bandmate Marshall Camden performed. Speakers and performers from numerous organizations were represented.

I also had the privilege of speaking just before the vigil portion of the event, which was in honor of those who have died from HIV/AIDS. My speech was billed as a "call to action" and I can only hope that it lived up to that expectation. It was an honor to participate.

Here's the text of my speech:

When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1992, I was 22 years old. Back then, I believed that I would die before my 30th birthday. Today, thanks to my access to health care and my efforts to stay healthy, I stand here looking forward to my 40th birthday.

In addition to being HIV positive, I am also a gay Latino, a native New Yorker and a former Marine (Uncle Sam told me I was HIV positive). I told my parents I was gay in 1996, but not until 2008 did I tell them I was HIV positive. Such was the stigma I attached to HIV. Stigma kills. It must be defeated.

My story is my own, but it is an American story -- and that is what we all share. As Americans, we are all entitled to "certain inalienable rights ... life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." In other words, civil rights.

Tomorrow, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans -- and our allies -- will march for our civil rights. More than half of new HIV infections in the United States unfortunately are among men who have sex with men -- almost one in two of them are African American, almost one in five are Latino and more than one in five are white. So it is fortunate that our rally today reaffirms the connection between LGBT people and people living with HIV/AIDS. Fighting homophobia and racism helps to fight stigma and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS.

Approximately half of all HIV-positive Americans have insufficient healthcare coverage -- or none at all. Almost half of new HIV infections are among African Americans, almost one in five are among Latinos and almost a third are among women. Asians and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and transgender people are affected disproportionately. Men who have sex with men are far from being alone in this fight.

Our common struggle is the American struggle. "We the people" -- those of us living with and affected by HIV/AIDS (all Americans) -- deserve to be heard by our government and have our grievances remedied.

Government alone cannot solve all of our problems, but it must at least address them. Comprehensive health care reform needs to be on our agenda, as well as using evidence-based approaches -- and increasing resources -- for prevention, treatment and finding a cure to end this epidemic once and for all.

With President Obama in the White House, we have a unique opportunity to advance our cause, but we also need to act. This weekend is only the beginning.

POZ wants to help the community in this effort. Tell us your comments at poz.com/advocacy and we will deliver them to the White House.

Call and email your legislators. Donate your time and your money to advocacy groups. Attend one of the official town halls set up by the White House seeking comments on the creation of a national HIV/AIDS strategy. If you cannot attend an official town hall, organize a meeting in your community and send your comments to the White House. And -- if you can -- disclose your HIV status. As with disclosing your sexual orientation or gender identity, coming out about being HIV positive can help erase stigma.

HIV/AIDS is a formidable enemy, but we can -- and we shall -- overcome. As the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior said, "The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice."

As we remember those who have died from HIV/AIDS, let us honor them by leaving here energized and filled with hope.

Gracias! Thank you!