Both organizations encourage native advocates, sufferers, and healthcare professionals residing in Florida to proceed doing what they do greatest: placing sufferers earlier than politics.
WASHINGTON, DC, May 24, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ — The ADAP Advocacy Association and the Community Access National Network (CANN) issued the next joint assertion in response to a sequence of hateful payments handed by the Florida Legislature and signed into regulation by Governor Ron DeSantis. The ADAP Advocacy Association and CANN are hereby adjoined to the formal journey advisories issued by the NAACP, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Equality Florida – calling Florida ‘hostile’ to Black Americans, individuals of shade and LGBTQ+ people. Both organizations are also involved Florida’s politics is now hostile towards individuals residing with HIV.
In response, each the ADAP Advocacy Association and CANN will droop internet hosting any affected person advocacy occasions in Florida, in addition to limiting advocacy-related journey to the state by employees, consultants, or scholarship-funded affected person advocates. Additionally, each teams strongly encourage individuals residing with HIV to keep away from touring to the state for conferences, conferences, or occasions – or train an abundance of warning in doing so.
CANN’s President & CEO, Jen Laws (him/he/his) mentioned, “We are particularly attuned to the politicization of public health, especially about how that politicization is harmful to people living with HIV and those communities and persons most affected by HIV, Hepatitis C, and substance use disorder. Florida has historically struggled in combatting the harms of insufficiently addressed public health crises due to politicization and bias infused public policies. Despite the good work from long-term, committed advocates in the state and at the Florida Department of Health, current political leadership is hell-bent on a mission to destroy progress made in the name of hollow, short-lived ‘victories’ in a manufactured destructive culture war.”
Whereas each organizations acknowledge the have to be current the place political forces want to silence marginalized communities, Florida has crossed a line in turning into hostile to the very existence to the communities most affected by HIV. This is a line which can’t be crossed with out violating values held vital to individuals residing with HIV.
Speaking on behalf of the ADAP Advocacy Association, Brandon M. Macsata mentioned, “We don’t take this decision lightly, and in our organization’s nearly twenty-year history it represents the first time we’ve felt compelled to issue a travel advisory for our community. Under the guise of anti-wokeness, Governor DeSantis has turned the Sunshine State into a breeding ground for hatred against anything gay, with a particular distain for individuals who identify as transgender. We know that HIV disproportionably impacts gay men, transgender communities, and Black and Brown people – all of which are the marginalized groups being targeted by these hate-inspired laws.”
In 2023, Florida has enacted a sequence of discriminatory, tradition conflict legal guidelines which have created a hate-driven atmosphere that undermines the dignity, respect, worth, and security of quite a few marginalized communities, together with Black Americans, individuals of shade, LGBTQ+ people, and folks residing with HIV. They embody increasing the controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay‘ regulation (now prohibiting academics from discussing sexual orientation and gender identification), limiting using pronouns in class, banning gender-affirming care for minors, prohibiting transgender individuals from utilizing a toilet or altering room that matches their gender identification, limiting drag exhibits, and eliminating range, fairness and inclusion packages in Florida’s public universities. Aside from Florida having draconian HIV Criminalization legal guidelines on the books, Governor DeSantis signed the ‘Right to Discriminate‘ regulation that would adversely impression individuals residing with HIV searching for to entry care and remedy.
As Florida strikes to hurt transgender people, Black and Brown communities, and immigrant households undermines the distinctive work accomplished within the final a number of years by the State Department of Health, and it solely serves to additional current well being disparities affecting these communities, notably because it pertains to HIV. For instance, in accordance with Florida’s personal knowledge, whereas Black and Hispanic/Latino communities make up about 15.6% and 26.7% of the state’s inhabitants, respectively, these identical communities signify 37.7% and 39.6% of HIV diagnoses. Put one other manner, in Florida, whereas white individuals expertise a price of HIV diagnoses of 8.5 per 100,000 individuals, that price amongst Black communities is 51.8 and for Hispanic/Latino communities it is 31.7.
Both organizations encourage native advocates, sufferers, and healthcare professionals residing in Florida to proceed doing what they do greatest: placing sufferers earlier than politics. The ADAP Advocacy Association and CANN will proceed to assist these efforts however doing so from outdoors the state.
For extra details about the journey advisory for individuals residing with HIV, contact the ADAP Advocacy Association at [email protected] or CANN at [email protected].
About the ADAP Advocacy Association: The ADAP Advocacy Association’s mission is to advertise and improve the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs) and enhance entry to take care of individuals residing with HIV/AIDS.
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