In This Issue

Thirty-five years ago this week, the world was introduced to what would become the health catastrophe of our time, when the CDC released the June 5, 1981 MMWR (Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report) identifying rare cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) among five white gay men at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. A lot has happened over the last 35 years, but the most important thing about HIV/AIDS is that it is not over, especially in Black communities—and it will never be over in our communities unless we decide to make it so. All of the scientific breakthroughs in the world, all of the advances in surveillance, diagnosis, treating and preventing HIV will not end the AIDS pandemic in Black communities, unless we decide that Black lives matter, our lives matter enough to do the right thing about HIV/AIDS. That means confronting stigma and ignorance in our communities. That means fighting for access to both preventive and therapeutic therapies and acknowledging the critical role that poverty, housing instability, poor education and the other social determinants of health play in the perpetuation of this virus. It means fighting racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia and all of the stupid distractions that prevent us from seeing how much we have in common and how deeply our destinies are inextricably connected. And during this season, it means voting and organizing as if our lives depended on it, because they do.

If we have learned nothing else, we must have learned that when it comes to HIV/AIDS, elections have consequences. On Sunday, the current sitting President of the United States, Barack Obama, issued a statement commemorating the 35th anniversary of HIV/AIDS and Secretary Hillary Clinton—one day before the Associated Press and NBC declared her the first woman to become the presumptive presidential nominee of a major party—issued a statement as well. In this issue we run both statements. This November we will be electing the next President of the United States. We will be deciding who controls the U.S Senate and House of Representatives. Some of us will be voting for governors, state representatives, mayors, city council members, school board members and judges. More so than any point in the history of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, those decisions will determine if we will ever be able to end this disease. Opportunities are actually finite. There is a season for all things. I know this type of statement is usually made in November, not at the end of the primary season. But we cannot wait to wake up in September or October. The stakes are too high. We are the soldiers. We are the warriors. We need to prepare for battle now!

As we mark this important milestone, the Black AIDS Institute is proud to announce a new partnership between BTAN LA and Bienestar, a local Latino AIDS organization, highlighting the importance of gay men of color working together. We also celebrate our recent graduates from the Black AIDS Institute's African American HIV/AIDS University, who will be mobilizing in their communities nationwide to end the epidemic. We are also excited to announce that five members of the Black Treatment Advocates Network have been awarded scholarships to attend the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, next month. We look forward to the learning and blogging they will do while at the conference and the post-conference updates and in-service trainings they will hold in their communities afterward. Finally, as we wrap up the final Black PrEP Summits in Little Rock, AR, Melbourne, FL, and Detroit, HHS is partnering with the Office of National AIDS Policy to host a community listening session on PrEP on Monday, June 20th. Read on for the details.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill