Happy LGBTQ Pride Month!

June is LGBTQ Pride Month. While NMAC is not an exclusively LGBTQ organization, we were founded by LGBTQ activists in some of the darkest days of the HIV epidemic.

We remain committed to the ideals of Pride: equality, equity, inclusion, and respect. And we will continue to work for those ideals for the LGBTQ community, communities of color, and all those living with or affected by HIV.

HIV & Transgender Community Spotlight Webinar is June 20

Join NMAC for our next Community Spotlight webinar on June 20, when we will look at HIV among Transgender Americans. Our presenters will be Luis Gutierrez-Mock, TRIUMPH Project Director at the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health and Marissa Miller, Program Coordinator at NMAC. Register now.

Join Our HIV Navigation Evaluation Webinar June 13

NMAC‘s Capacity Building Division will present A Novel Demonstration of HIV Navigation Evaluation webinar Wednesday, June 13, from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT.

This webinar will introduce participants to basic monitoring and evaluation elements of HIV Navigation Services (HNS) by way of the CDC’s Prevention with Positives (PwP) in Action Novel (a CDC video). Register now.

For more information please contact linc@nmac.org.

The Latest HIV News from DC

Congress is entering the third and final step of the Appropriations process for 2019. In the coming months, they will make final decisions on all federal funding, including for HIV/AIDS care, prevention, and services. That means it’s time to call, e-mail, or visit your Members of Congress and tell them to keep federal funding intact. Read the latest update from our Policy Team.

Just One Day Left for USCA Early Bird Rates!

USCA’s Early Bird rates for conference registration and booth reservation end TOMORROW! Don’t wait to reserve your place at USCA. Register and reserve your booth space now.

Important Happenings in HIV/Health Policy

Week Ending: June 01, 2018
By: Matthew Rose & Sable K. Nelson

Federal Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations Season is Upon Us
In the coming weeks, the Appropriations Committees of both of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate will mark up the Federal Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations bills. Markup is the process by which a Congress debates, amends, and rewrites proposed legislation. An appropriations bill is a piece of legislation that sets money aside for specific government spending. This is the third step in the Federal Budget Process:

Defense Department Sued over Policies Denying Service Opportunities to People Living with HIV (PLWH)
Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed two cases in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against the Defense Department. The cases are entitled Harrison v. Mattis and Voe v. Mattis. The Harrison case was filed on behalf of Sgt. Nick Harrison, a veteran of two overseas combat zones who was denied a position in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps because current Pentagon policy considers service members living with HIV non-deployable, and will not allow them to enlist or to be appointed as officers. The Voe case, was filed on behalf of a sergeant in the D.C. Army National Guard who was denied the opportunity to serve as an officer and faces possible discharge from the United States armed services because he is living with HIV. The lawsuit challenges the Pentagon’s current policies preventing enlistment, deployment, or commissioning as an officer for a person living with HIV, and likely would affect implementation of the new “Deploy or Get Out” policy unveiled by the Trump administration in February. For more information, READ the legal briefs → 

https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/harrison_va_20180530_complaint

https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/voe_dc_201805030-complaint

What NMAC is Doing About It

• NMAC remains vigilant in its advocacy to protect FY19 government funding and the existence of the social safety net.
• NMAC releaseda Biomedical HIV Prevention “Blueprint” entitled Expanding Access to Biomedical HIV Prevention: Tailoring Approaches for Effectively Serving Communities of Color, a new report that establishes strategies to effectively use techniques such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Treatment as Prevention (TasP) to end the HIV epidemic in communities of color. The full report can be found by visiting nmac.org/blueprint.
• NMAC will be on Capitol Hill this week speaking to legislators about the importance of sustained funding for HIV programs
• NMAC has been working in coalition around equal treatment for people of color living with HIV and vulnerable HIV to serve in the military

What You Can Do

TAKE ACTION: It is very important that our elected officials hear from us to protect federal HIV funding for HIV prevention and care. Speak truth to power by sharing your personal stories with your elected officials. It is vitally important to meet your federal elected officials when they are at home. If we don’t support and advocate for HIV funding and programs, who will?  Our movement cannot afford to stand on the sidelines.  Your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives need to hear from you. 

• Find your U.S. Senators: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
• Find your U.S. Representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Also, MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE in time for the primary and general elections happening this year:

For more information, VISIT→ https://www.eac.gov/voters/register-and-vote-in-your-state/

Finally, PARTICIPATE IN THE PRIMARY ELECTION(S) in your state:

For more information, VISIT→ http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2018-state-primary-election-dates.aspx

Important Happenings in HIV/Health Policy

Week Ending: May 18, 2018
By: Matthew Rose & Sable K. Nelson

Trump Conflates HIV and HPV
Stigma, misinformation, and lack of education continue to be problems in the United States. This unfortunate reality was confirmed when Microsoft founder Bill Gates disclosed meetings he had with Donald Trump where Trump wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV. This underscores the need to address health literacy concerns and amplify/normalize HIV prevention and treatment messages/services. For more information,
READ → https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2018/05/18/what-bill-gates-said-about-trump-and-how-hiv-and-hpv-are-different/

Trump Administration Prepares to release domestic gag rule
As anticipated, the White House is poised to make an announcement regarding the proposed Domestic Gag rule. The proposed gag rule would do three things:

• First, it would impose new rules that are designed to make it impossible for millions of patients to get birth control or preventive care from reproductive health care providers like Planned Parenthood.
• Second, under this rule doctors, nurses, hospitals, and community health centers across the country could no longer refer their patients for safe, legal abortion.
• Third, it removes the guarantee that you’re getting full and accurate information about your health care from your doctor. For nearly two decades, Title X law has been clear: health care providers cannot withhold information from you about your pregnancy options.

For more information,
READ → https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/18/612222570/white-house-to-ban-federal-funds-for-clinics-that-discuss-abortion-with-patients

FY19 Spending Season has began
Mark ups and consideration of the major spending bills for Fiscal Year 2019 have begun. Appropriations work has started taking place in both chambers with a full calendar of the process being released. Our friends at the Coalition for Human Needs have put together a list of where things are with some essential services.

Farm bill fails on first go around
On Friday the House voted against the Agriculture and Nutrition Act (H.R. 2), the Farm Bill reauthorization package, on a 198-213 vote. 30 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the package. House leadership has yet to announce potential next steps forward while the Senate Agriculture Committee continues behind-the-scenes negotiations on a separate version. For more information,
READ → https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/18/house-farm-bill-vote-immigration-spat-sinks-legislation.html

National Academy of Medicine Article Offers Suggestions for Improving Health Literacy
Supporting health literacy for all will improve quality of health and medical care, enhance the care experience, and may even lead to reducing health costs. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Furthermore, culture plays an important role in helping us to better understand health literacy. For people from different cultural backgrounds, health literacy is affected by belief systems, communication styles, and understanding and response to health information. Even though culture is only one part of health literacy, it is a very important piece of the complicated topic of health literacy. For more information,
READ → https://nam.edu/the-case-for-health-literacy-moving-from-equality-to-liberation/

What NMAC is Doing About It

• NMAC remains vigilant in its advocacy to protect FY19 government funding and the existence of the social safety net.
• NMAC has begun a robust process with some of our partners around looking at the development of a federal plan for ending the epidemic.
• NMAC will meet with key legislators over the coming weeks to push for protections of our programs and support systems.

What You Can Do
TAKE ACTION: Speak truth to power by sharing your personal stories with your elected officials. It is vitally important to meet with your federal elected officials when they are at home. If we don’t support and advocate for HIV funding and programs, who will?  Our movement cannot afford to stand on the sidelines.  Your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives need to hear from you. 

• Find your U.S. Senators: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
• Find your U.S. Representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Also, MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE in time for the primary and general elections happening this year:

 For more information, VISIT→ https://www.eac.gov/voters/register-and-vote-in-your-state/

Finally, PARTICIPATE IN THE PRIMARY ELECTION(S) in your state:

More primary dates will be posted throughout the summer starting with our next policy update next week. Stay turned for this information and be sure to register so you can have your voice heard! For more information,
VISIT→ http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2018-state-primary-election-dates.aspx

By Brian Ragas, Communications Manager, San Francisco Community Health Center

In 2005, San Francisco Community Health Center (formerly API Wellness) spearheaded the first National Asian Pacific Islander (API) HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come as a community fighting against HIV and for the rights of the LGBTQ community and people of color since then. We’ve made gains I never thought we’d witness, such as the right to marry who you love and new, exciting HIV prevention tools like Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Post Exposure-Prophylaxis (PEP). Our accomplishments were laudable.

Today is a different day, however, and we are faced with a hostile and aggressive political climate that looks to unravel all that we have worked so hard for. Communities of color continue to bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic and are less likely to use innovative HIV prevention tools like PrEP/PEP. The same holds true for API communities. The environment we find ourselves in is cause for grave concern.

Recent data shows that Asians accounted for two percent (959) of the 40,040 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and six dependent areas in 2015. Gay and bisexual men accounted for 89 percent (729) of all HIV diagnoses among Asian men and among Asian women, 95 percent (125) of HIV diagnoses were attributed to heterosexual contact.

Complementing these figures is the fact that API’s have the lowest HIV testing rates for all races and ethnicities: 66.5 percent of Asian Americans and 43.1 percent of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPIs) have never been tested for HIV. Asian transgender individuals, another high-risk group, have the lowest rates (49 percent) of testing out of all racial and ethnic groups.

As advocates in this community we know that stigma remains one of the biggest barriers preventing APIs from getting tested. Many A&PIs feel significant shame and discomfort around the topics of sex and HIV/AIDS and therefore do not speak of it. It starts now that we must end the silence.

It was our awareness of this stigma that led San Francisco Community Health Center to launch The Banyan Tree Project, a national campaign that reduces the levels of shame APIs have around HIV/AIDS. This year we adopted the slogan “Love & Solidarity: Together PrEP, Testing and Treatment can end HIV” to highlight these prevention tools to help get to zero on new HIV infections.

This year we are encouraging API transgender individuals and young men having sex with men (two high-risk groups that historically have low PrEP adoption rates) to talk about HIV/AIDs, to get tested, and to speak with a provider to see if PrEP is right for them. If you are HIV-positive we encourage you to get on treatment right a way to reduce your viral load to undetectable levels and not pass the virus.

We must continue to have these conversations and not perpetuate stigma around HIV Testing, PrEP, and Treatment. We need to celebrate when have victories when we bring community together to discuss these issues. I’m very happy to report that San Francisco Community Health Center just held its annual National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on May 10 at the University of California, Irvine where this project was 100 percent initiated by students on campus to give life to the epidemic in the community.

We vehemently hope that other community members in the API community and allies who wish to support observe May 19. The Banyan Tree Project put together a toolkit for organizations or individuals to put on their own events either big or small. Under the resource section of the website, the toolkit provides posters, factsheets on HIV in API communities, one on PrEP and another on stigma all available to download. Please contact The Banyan Tree Project for more information: info@banyantreeproject.org

National API HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
University of California, Irvine
May 10, 2018

Important Happenings in HIV/Health Policy

Week Ending: May 11, 2018
By: Matthew Rose & Sable K. Nelson

Trump Administration Offers Ideas for Lowering Drug Prices

On Friday, May 11, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar discussed the Trump Administration’s plans to lower drug prices as President Trump looked on in the White House Rose Garden by:
1. Restructuring the way pharmacy benefit managers deal with drug makers
2. Changing the way Medicare pays for some expensive drugs
3. Making prices more transparent

For more information, READ → https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/14/611075950/trump-administrations-3-biggest-ideas-for-lowering-drug-prices?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20Daily%20Health%20Policy%20Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=62919386&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–xrNAfHpubv4c4ItYHVUrf3fNcFiurCSRArVzbi1uRLE3JmYD5HWHIYduO7uYiQ3BksmmKGb-23i_Qp1a8QsyBNnprPQ&_hsmi=62919386

Maryland Announces Agreement on All-Payer Health Model

In 2014, Maryland became the only state that can set its own rates for hospital services and mandate that all payers charge the same rate for services at a given hospital in the state. However, the federal government required Maryland to further develop its health model to include health care that patients receive in the hospital and in the community. Just last week, Maryland announced that the federal government approved the state’s revised all-payer health care model in Maryland. For more information, READ → https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/maryland/articles/2018-05-14/maryland-announces-agreement-on-all-payer-health-model?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20Daily%20Health%20Policy%20Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=62919386&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–xrNAfHpubv4c4ItYHVUrf3fNcFiurCSRArVzbi1uRLE3JmYD5HWHIYduO7uYiQ3BksmmKGb-23i_Qp1a8QsyBNnprPQ&_hsmi=62919386

PrEP Access for Minors

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved once-daily oral Truvada® (emtricitabine 200 mg/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg)—in combination with safer sex practices—to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV-1 in at-risk adolescents. The safety and efficacy profile of Truvada for HIV prevention in uninfected adults, a strategy called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is well established, and Truvada for PrEP was first approved for use in adults in 2012.

The addition of the adolescent indication is based on a study in HIV-negative individuals 15 to 17 years of age. In the United States, adolescents and young adults 13 to 24 years of age comprised 21 percent of all new infections in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 81 percent of those infections were among young men who have sex with men (YMSM).
READ → https://www.nasdaq.com/article/gilead-sciences-says-fda-approves-oncedaily-oral-truvada-20180515-00982

What NMAC is Doing About It

NMAC remains vigilant in its advocacy to protect FY19 government funding and the existence of the social safety net.
NMAC released a Biomedical HIV Prevention “Blueprint” entitled Expanding Access to Biomedical HIV Prevention: Tailoring Approaches for Effectively Serving Communities of Color, a new report that establishes strategies to effectively use techniques such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Treatment as Prevention (TasP) to end the HIV epidemic in communities of color. The full report can be found by visiting www.nmac.org/blueprint.

What You Can Do

TAKE ACTION: Speak truth to power by sharing your personal stories with your elected officials. It is vitally important to meet to your federal elected officials when they are at home. If we don’t support and advocate for HIV funding and programs, who will?  Our movement cannot afford to stand on the sidelines.  Your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives need to hear from you.
Find your U.S. Senators: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Find your U.S. Representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Also, MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE in time for the primary and general elections happening this year:

For more information, VISIT→ https://www.eac.gov/voters/register-and-vote-in-your-state/

Finally, PARTICIPATE IN THE PRIMARY ELECTION(S) in your state:

For more information, VISIT→ http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2018-state-primary-election-dates.aspx