Workshops

HIV: Thirty years of fear and stigma: How do we move forward?

Meghan Davies, P. Justin Goforth, Whitman Walker Health, Ron Swanda, Washington, DC, Pernell Gordon, Metro TEEN AIDS, Leandrea Gilliam, Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League.

This is a panel discussion of local experts to discuss HIV and fear and the Gay Community. Topics to be discussed are:

1. What role does fear play in prevention and treatment of HIV today compared to the first two decades of the epidemic and what SHOULD that role be?
2. When people say things like, “Gay youth today don’t have the experience of the 80’s and 90’s to scare them, so they think HIV is no big deal, it’s just a pill a day…”, how should we respond to this?
3. In the paradigm of “Treatment is prevention”, how should we focus on creating a culture of encouraging testing and engagement in care?
4. What are the barriers for MSM youth in getting tested, knowing their status, and if positive, engaging and remaining engaged in care?
5. Do fear based prevention messages feed into stigma?
6. What is the truth about living with HIV today versus 20 years ago? We hear many different versions of this “truth”.
7. What are the realities of condom use and how the prevention messages of the last 30 years have changed condom use behavior and how can we use this information to guide prevention messages?
8. What role should PrEP and nPEP play in prevention today, especially in MSM youth?
9. What judgments will be made and felt by the MSM youth community around PrEP and nPEP, and how do we combat these judgments?