World AIDS Day
recognizes the everyday lives and particular struggles of people around
the world living with AIDS and HIV, but one population has been long
overlooked. According to recent findings from the World Health
Organization that analyzed data from 15 countries, transgender women
are nearly 49 times more likely than
the general population to contract HIV. This means that, just for being
who they are, they are part of the population at highest risk for
acquiring HIV.
But according to advocates, the transgender community's HIV problem remains an "invisible" epidemic, as trans women are too often ignored in health advocacy, stigmatized for their diagnosis or criminalized.
Mic
spoke to the Human Rights Campaign's Noël Gordon, a senior specialist
for HIV prevention and health equity, who argued that transgender women
"find themselves at the eye of a perfect storm" when it comes to
contracting HIV. "A number of factors are largely out of their control
that push them into situations where they're more likely to encounter
HIV and less likely to be able to treat it," Gordon told Mic. These factors include transphobia and poverty, as trans people are nearly four times more likely to earn less than $10,000 a year.
Employment and
housing discrimination are major factors that push transgender women
below the poverty level. According to statistics from the National Center for Transgender Equality,
trans people face widespread bigotry both in the workplace and from
landlords, as its survey indicates "26% of trans people lost a job due
to bias, 50% were harassed on the job [and] 20% were evicted or denied
housing." In many states in the U.S., it's still legal to fire or evict someone on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Gordon
explained that without employment and housing protections, many trans
women engage in survival sex work in order to support themselves.
"Through no fault of her own," Gordon said, "she's been pushed into a
situation where in order to support herself, she effectively has to put
herself at risk for contracting HIV."
Sheeneneh Smith, a transgender activists, speaks at a Boston rally held
in honor of slain transgender community members. Source: Julie Jacobson/AP
Cecilia Chung,
a senior strategist for the Transgender Law Center, argued the issue
isn't sex work itself but the ways in which trans women's limited
options continue to be criminalized. Prostitution is outlawed in all 50
states in the U.S., except for some counties in Nevada, and in over 30 states, people living with HIV can be imprisoned for nondisclosure, according to Chung.
"That means that if someone has engaged in sex work and hasn't
disclosed their HIV status, they can potentially be charged with a
felony," Chung told Mic.
This sends a
shameful message to transgender women about what it means to be HIV
positive. "The law tells us that HIV is a weapon," Chung argued.
According to her, this reinforces the idea that contracting the virus is
a punishment for people's behavior. Instead of recognizing the
structural factors that force people into difficult situations, Chung
said that we too often engage in further "shaming and blaming,"
furthering widespread stigma.
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