Earlier this year, in honor of National Transgender HIV Testing Day, Amida Care, a private nonprofit community health plan, joined forces with NEW Pride Agenda, an LGBTQ education and advocacy organization in New York State, to launch a new PrEP campaign: “My Body. My Life. My PrEP.” / “Mi Cuerpo. My Vida. Mi PrEP.“
The bilingual campaign aims to increase awareness and usage of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention, focusing on transgender and gender-expansive communities disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS.
“My Body. My Life. My PrEP.” includes a video series featuring community members and activists, serving as PrEP spokesmodels who tell personal stories of how PrEP has impacted the lives of those taking it for the better.
GLAAD is amplifying the campaign ahead of National HIV Testing Day, observed each year on June 27th, during Pride Month.
Christine Perez
“I take PrEP to protect myself,” Perez says. “I decided to take PrEP because I am an active person, a person who loves joy.” She talks about how “one pill a day reduces my risk of getting HIV.”
Denise Gutierrez
Denise Gutierrez, a community health worker, says that, “As a transgender woman, working with the LGBT community is important to me and I have always offered PrEP because this helps you prevent HIV. Mainly, I like my job because I like to help other people.”
Jaisen García-Castillo
“It’s important for the transgender community to know about PrEP due to the stigma,” Jaisen García-Castillo says. “If you’re considering taking PrEP and you’re also a person of trans experience, PrEP and HRTs have no conflict in which you’re able to take PrEP and still have a safe, healthy life.”
LGL Tenacity
“PrEP is so important to me because years ago when we lost so many TGNC LGBTQIA siblings in the Eighties and the Nineties to the HIV epidemic, PrEP was not available. So now knowing that there is something that we all can take, we all have the right to access PrEP,” LGL Tenacity shares.
Shauna Brooks
“I decided to take PrEP when I started having multiple partners sexually and I wanted to make sure that I received the proper precautionary measures,” Shauna shares.
“My Body. My Life. My PrEP.” was made possible by the tireless work from a coalition consisting of Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo, Community Healthcare Network, Destination Tomorrow, NEW Pride Agenda, TransLatinx Network, and Amida Care.
Amida Care specializes in providing comprehensive, expert HIV and gender-affirming care to New Yorkers.
Learn more about GLAAD’s work in HIV prevention, education, advocacy and stigma research at GLAAD.org/HIV.