EQUALITY TO END AIDS TO FEATURE PERFORMERS AND SPEAKERS LIVING WITH HIV

“Young LGBT people attending the National Equality March need to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS” says Cleve Jones.

Diagnosed in 1987, Singer/Entertainer Sherri Lewis will host the 'Equality To End AIDS' Rally & Vigil

As tens of thousands of LGBT Americans and their allies converge on Washington DC October 9-11 to march for equal rights, they also will remind the nation and the LGBTQ community that the HIV & AIDS epidemic is not over as well as remember the more than half a million Americans who have died from the disease.

The Equality To End AIDS rally and vigil will take place Saturday, October 10, the day before the massive Equality March. Equality To End AIDS will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 pm on the Ellipse, in front of the White House, and feature an inspiring roster of speakers and performers (mostly HIV+), culminating in a candlelight vigil.

“The weekend is about achieving full equality for LGBT Americans. We need to use that political power to remind the country that the AIDS epidemic continues. A great many young people will attend the march; we need them to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS,” said Cleve Jones, the founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and one of the National Equality March organizers.

Gay and bisexual men are now 50 times more likely to acquire HIV than those any other group. Among young gay men, HIV infections increased an astonishing 12% each year from 2001 to 2006; the only demographic group to see an increase in infections during that period. Even though treatments have extended life for many people with HIV, recent research indicates that, on average, people with HIV live 21 years less than their HIV-negative counterparts.

“Many of our most energized LGBT activists are too young to remember the devastating impact AIDS has had on the gay community. We must re-engage the larger LGBT community in AIDS activism,” said Charles King, President and CEO of Housing Works, which is the fiscal sponsor of the rally and vigil. “Ending the HIV pandemic is an issue of justice that must be their fight as well.”

Speakers and entertainers at the rally will include singer/actress Sherri Lewis, former Miss America Kate Shindle, members of the Diva League (as seen on America’s Got Talent) on and Inner Light Ministries Choir, San Francisco Human Rights Commission Chairperson Cecilia Chung, Shawn Decker’s Synthetic Division, poet Brandon Plain, gospel rap artist Desencé, singer/songwriter Dudley Sanders, POZ Magazine founder Sean Strub, Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, Bishop Rainey Cheeks and DJ Stone. Many of the speakers and performers are people living with HIV.

Who's who?: The Campaign to End AIDS in collaboration with Housing Works, Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS, Westminster Presbyterian Church, More Light Presbyterians, OD/More Light Presbyterians, AIDS Action, The Human Rights Campaign; The Afiya Center, D.C. Fights Back, SisterLove, Southern AIDS Coalition, Positive Advocacy Caucus, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), Bailey House, Health GAP, National AIDS Housing Coalition, Metropolitan Community Church, Inner Light Ministries, AIDS Action in Mississippi (AAIM), Connecticut AIDS Residence Coalition (CARC), NYC AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC), Lifebeat, Cable Positive and Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA).

Media Contact: Diana Scholl; 917-402-2576; D.Scholl@housingworks.org

Organizer Contact: Christine Campbell; 202-409-9786; Campbell@housingworks.org.

The Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA) is taking leadership on the HIV/AIDS Rally & Vigil on October 10, 2009 from 5:30 to 8:30 on the Ellipse in Washington DC. The goals of the Rally and Vigil are to send a message to our national elected officials that addressing the AIDS epidemic must be a major priority if we are to achieve national equality for all, and to draw newly galvanized LGBT activists into the AIDS movement.

We will be having a broad spectrum of speakers and performers, predominantly positive, at the rally and vigil and are glad to be part of the National Equality March. To date we have several partners that include SisterLove, Health GAP, CHAMP, The Southern AIDS Coalition, The National AIDS Housing Coalition, Bailey House, Cable Positive, The Afiya Center, DC Fights Back, Westminster Presbyterian Church, AIDS Action in Mississippi, the Positive Advocacy Caucus, Inner Light Ministries - DC and Housing Works who is serving as the fiscal sponsor. Others have expressed interest and we are looking forward to hearing from them soon! We are inviting everyone to be part of this Rally and Vigil. There are many ways you can participate, from being a sponsor or partner to participating on the policy conference calls to attending and spreading the word. If you and your group or organization would like to get involved please contact me at (202-408-0305) or campell@housingworks.org. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Counselor, diagnosed with disease, speaks from her experiences

Elizabeth Lancaster speaks to Washington (NC) community while Jeff Crowley, Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, and Christine Campbell, Vice President for National Advocacy & Organizing with Housing Works, take notes.

By GREG KATSKI Community Editor
(Published: Friday, September 4, 2009 2:20 AM EDT, Washington Daily News)

When Elizabeth Shepherd was diagnosed with HIV in 1997, she thought her life was over. Little did she know her life, or at least a new chapter in it, was just beginning.

Twelve years later, Shepherd is the HIV/AIDS health educator for Metropolitan Community Health Services. Recently, she coordinated a town hall-style meeting at Metropolitan AME Zion Church that welcomed HIV/AIDS carriers and advocates from 11 counties in the region. On-hand at the meeting was Jeff Crowley, the director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy.

Shepherd has made it her mission to see that people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and living in eastern North Carolina’s rural counties get the proper care they need through education and action. She said area services provided to those stricken with the disease are minimal.

“HIV is a pandemic out here in the rural areas, because they (carriers) don’t have the services, don’t have the transportation,” she said.

Shepherd said she has helped people in Belhaven, Pantego and Aurora get to Greenville where they receive the care they need. Several of them are patients at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

Shepherd is looking to further her mission by striving for bachelor-of-science degree in community health education and promotion at East Carolina University. She is set to graduate next spring.

Shepherd, 50, has taken a long and, often, tumultuous road to being a HIV/AIDS advocate.

She grew up in northern Illinois, moved with her family to Alaska as a child, then, when she was in her mid-30s, to Charleston, S.C., to be with her ailing grandmother.

On a normal, quiet evening in Charleston, Shepherd said, she was jumped by several men in a back alley near the College of Charleston’s campus. The men raped her, then beat her with 2-by-4 pieces of lumber.

“They were screaming at me, ‘We’re going to kill you because some white girl gave us AIDS,’” Shepherd said.

The next thing, Shepherd recalled, she was riding in an ambulance to a hospital.

“They beat me down until I was left for dead,” she said. “All the bones in my body were broken. I was ripped up real bad.”

Shepherd said she was the hospital in a full-body cast for more than four months. After checking out of the hospital, she began to rehabilitate and relearn basic motor skills. Things were looking up until she was diagnosed with HIV almost a year after the attack.

“I just knew then that my life was over,” she said. “My life was never going to be the same — if I lived.”

Shepherd said she was disowned by her family and shunned by her friends. Alone, scared and helpless, she didn’t know where to turn.

“I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know what HIV was. I just knew that people died from it,” she said.

Shepherd said that, by the grace of God, a married couple and pastors at Shepherd’s church took her in. The pastors, Michelle and Floyd Dotter, remain her best friends.

With a place to stay and food to eat, Shepherd had time to think about her future. She realized that with so much bottled-up anger and a newly found drug problem, she needed to go to rehabilitation.

Shepherd checked herself into a 12-month drug and alcohol program, Charleston County Adult Drug Court. During the program, she was treated by counselor Ricky Dennis, who was also a pastor at Charleston’s AME Zion Church.

“He basically is the one that opened my heart and transformed my mind,” Shepherd said.

She graduated from the program in 2002, and she decided it was time to go back to school. She went to Trident Technical College in Charleston for two years before transferring to the University of South Carolina. Living in Columbia, S.C., she began to work as an HIV/AIDS counselor, consoling young women who felt like she once did — lost, scared, lonely. At a counseling conference, Shepherd met the man she calls the love of her life, Scott Shepherd. Elizabeth and Scott, who is HIV negative, dated long distance before Elizabeth moved to Greenville to live with Scott two years ago. The two got married last year and moved to Washington.

Shepherd, who is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society at ECU, said she was called to Washington by God.

“I think this is an awesome opportunity that I accidentally walked into,” she said. “There is a huge need around here (for HIV/AIDS services).”

October 2, Minneapolis, MN

The Office of National AIDS Policy is holding a series of forums through the end of 2009 in various regions of the country with diverse communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. These forums will provide opportunities for individual citizens to provide White House staff and other policy makers with their recommendations for achieving the President’s three goals for the National HIV & AIDS Strategy:

*Reducing HIV Incidence
*Increasing Access To Quality Care For People Living With HIV & AIDS And Improving Health Outcomes
*Reducing HIV-Related Health Outcomes

To register to attend, please go to https://www.cmpinc.net/onap/registration.aspx.

October 2, New York City
On the campus of Columbia University, join in a day-long interactive, interdisciplinary meeting bringing together researchers, providers, policy makers, advocates, consumers, and other stakeholders, to increase understanding of the scientific evidence documenting the impact and cost-effectiveness of housing for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other chronic health conditions.

For more info and registration, please go to http://nationalaidshousing.org/housing-hiv-regional-research-summit/.

October 9, Albuquerque, NM

The Office of National AIDS Policy is holding a series of forums through the end of 2009 in various regions of the country with diverse communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. These forums will provide opportunities for individual citizens to provide White House staff and other policy makers with their recommendations for achieving the President’s three goals for the National HIV & AIDS Strategy:

*Reducing HIV Incidence
*Increasing Access To Quality Care For People Living With HIV & AIDS And Improving Health Outcomes
*Reducing HIV-Related Health Outcomes

To register to attend, please go to https://www.cmpinc.net/onap/registration.aspx.

October 10, Houston, TX

The Office of National AIDS Policy is holding a series of forums through the end of 2009 in various regions of the country with diverse communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. These forums will provide opportunities for individual citizens to provide White House staff and other policy makers with their recommendations for achieving the President’s three goals for the National HIV & AIDS Strategy:

*Reducing HIV Incidence
*Increasing Access To Quality Care For People Living With HIV & AIDS And Improving Health Outcomes
*Reducing HIV-Related Health Outcomes

To register to attend, please go to https://www.cmpinc.net/onap/registration.aspx.

October 10, Washington DC During the weekend of the National Equality March (http://www.equalityacrossamerica.org), C2EA is leading a rally and vigil that revitalize and reconnect the LGBTQ community with other communities affected in the fight to end the HIV & AIDS epidemic in the United States and around the world. With a diverse set of speakers, entertainers, and activists, we will break the barriers of stigma, racism, and homophopia to send a unifying message to our nations leaders that AIDS isn't over until it's over for everyone. For more info, please contact info@campaigntoendaids.org.

October 15
This day marks an opportunity to increase awareness of the devastating and disproportionate effects of AIDS in the Latino community. NLAAD is also a day to encourage HIV testing and to push for support from public officials and religious leaders. The Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA), the Hispanic Federation and many other organizations organize this day.

For more info, go to http://www.hhs.gov/aidsawarenessdays/days/latino/index.html.

October 16-17, San Francisco-Oakland, CA

The Office of National AIDS Policy is holding a series of forums through the end of 2009 in various regions of the country with diverse communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. These forums will provide opportunities for individual citizens to provide White House staff and other policy makers with their recommendations for achieving the President’s three goals for the National HIV & AIDS Strategy:

*Reducing HIV Incidence
*Increasing Access To Quality Care For People Living With HIV & AIDS And Improving Health Outcomes
*Reducing HIV-Related Health Outcomes

To register to attend, please go to https://www.cmpinc.net/onap/registration.aspx.

October 18, Los Angeles, CA

The Office of National AIDS Policy is holding a series of forums through the end of 2009 in various regions of the country with diverse communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. These forums will provide opportunities for individual citizens to provide White House staff and other policy makers with their recommendations for achieving the President’s three goals for the National HIV & AIDS Strategy:

*Reducing HIV Incidence
*Increasing Access To Quality Care For People Living With HIV & AIDS And Improving Health Outcomes
*Reducing HIV-Related Health Outcomes

To register to attend, please go to https://www.cmpinc.net/onap/registration.aspx.

October 26, Columbia, SC

The Office of National AIDS Policy is holding a series of forums through the end of 2009 in various regions of the country with diverse communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. These forums will provide opportunities for individual citizens to provide White House staff and other policy makers with their recommendations for achieving the President’s three goals for the National HIV & AIDS Strategy:

*Reducing HIV Incidence
*Increasing Access To Quality Care For People Living With HIV & AIDS And Improving Health Outcomes
*Reducing HIV-Related Health Outcomes

To register to attend, please go to https://www.cmpinc.net/onap/registration.aspx.

October 29-31, San Francisco, CA
The largest AIDS-related gathering in the United States, over 3,000 workers from all fronts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic—from case managers and physicians, to public health workers and advocates, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) to policymakers—come together to build national support networks, exchange the latest information and learn cutting- edge tools to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS.

For more info, go to https://www.nmac.org/index/news-app/story.112/title.get-ready-for-the-2009-united-states-conference-on-aids-today-.