The Issues:
HIV/AIDS

HIV is not a Gay Issue - It's a Social Justice Issue

Disease prevalence and health outcomes are shaped by factors of social inequality. Preventable diseases and deaths are far more common among the poor, the disenfranchised, and members of stigmatized, oppressed communities.

Much HIV risk behavior can be traced back to trauma resulting from social oppression and discrimination. Oppression can have direct consequences on mental health, increasing isolation, depression, and anxiety, and lowering self-esteem. In the absence of countervailing influences, some members of oppressed communities use substances to "treat" these negative emotions. For those psychologically and/or physically predisposed to addiction, this pattern can rapidly spiral out of control. Even for non-addict users, substances lower inhibitions and increase HIV risks. Thus, efforts which change the social contexts where sexual risk occur -- with particular attention to those contexts of risk that are shaped by social oppression and discrimination -- also contribute to the fight against the spread of HIV.

Organizing members of affected groups to increase community involvement and activism against the oppressive forces that shape the HIV epidemic might be the most efficient tool to counteract the hopelessness and fatalism that oppression breeds. Currently there is considerable federal pressure on public health to focus simplistically on condom use or on rapid access to antiviral treatment shortly after exposure. However, disregarding the social forces that limit individuals' ability to protect themselves amounts to treating only the symptom. If we are to be effective in our fight against AIDS and any other public health tragedies that feed on human powerlessness, HIV prevention workers and advocates must also be agents of social and cultural change. As supporters of Equality Maryland, you are helping to combat and change oppressive environments in which risky decisions are made.

Click here for more information about HIV as a civil rights issue.

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