BTAN Mobilization Trainings Take Place in Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles

The Black Treatment Advocates Network (BTAN) held community-mobilization sessions in three cities this summer--Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago--to address the disproportionate effect that HIV/AIDS has on Black communities. By engaging and mobilizing Black organizations, leaders and individuals, the sessions provided people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS with answers, support, stronger skills and a better understanding of the virus.

In This Issue

This week we kick off our coverage of the Road to AIDS 2012 (RTA 2012), a nationwide tour intended to engage communities on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and insure their voices are heard as the nation develops its platform for the XIX International AIDS Conference next year in Washington, D.C. Over the next nine months journalist Tamara Holmes will report from all 15 RTA 2012 cities, beginning today with the San Francisco/Bay Area.

San Francisco, Oakland kick off nationwide discussion on HIV/AIDS in America

Residents of San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., acknowledged the successes and lamented the challenges involved in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in the first of a series of town hall meetings that seek to define the state of the epidemic in America.

HHS Reviews Progress Towards National HIV/AIDS Strategy Goal

Last week, representatives of Operating Divisions and Staff Offices from across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gathered to review major accomplishments of our collective efforts to implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) over the past year.

Dating While HIV Positive

Earlier in my adulthood, I met a guy who I actually thought was "the One." He was charming, educated and sexy; we had great conversations and an even better friendship. But, as happens, a problem arose: He asked me to stop educating people about HIV and to cover up my AIDS-awareness ribbon and live a "normal" life. The crazy thing is that his request was not the problem; I believe in freedom of speech, and he certainly had a right to his opinion. The problem was that those words came from one of my own. No, not a Black man--one who is HIV positive.