The ChangeAIDS conference, held by the Community AIDS Awareness Project (CAPP) on March 22, focused on the intersections between the AIDS pandemic and other prominent social ills and the ways that individuals can make a difference. “The one thing I think we’ve learned is that this is not a disease of science – this is a disease of society,” said Matt Kavanaugh, director of Global Justice, a youth and student movement that attempts to raise AIDS awareness and promote solutions. “It can be changed and ended by what we do to change society.”
Registration began at 10 a.m. in the Frank Family Science Center with nine workshop sessions divided into three sets throughout the day. The first session offered workshops on personal experiences of HIV/AIDS, the general history of HIV/AIDS, and the impact of the disease on the queer community.
“For most of you, HIV has been part of your reality your entire life and so there is a whole different mentality for someone of your generation,” said Gary Palmer, chair of the Gay/Straight Advocates for Education and leader of the queer community workshop.
“You’ve all grown up with knowledge of the virus. You have to understand how things (have changed). There aren’t huge numbers of men in my age range left. I don’t have much of a husband-pool.”
The conference primarily focused on social groups that are not associated with the pandemic. A large banner with CAAP’s yearlong theme, “AIDS isn’t just Black and White,” was draped over the break room where conference attendees met for lunch.
Lisa Tiger, the conference’s keynote speaker, contracted HIV in 1988. She is of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, English and Irish descent and currently works as an AIDS educator. Tiger narrated her life’s story in her speech to the conference and told of the various hardships she has experienced as an HIV-positive Native American woman.
“Lisa Tiger’s speech (illustrated how) you need to see the person instead of the (numbers),” said David Norton, senior AIDS fellow, CAAP member, and gender studies, political science, and sociology triple major. “A general theme of the conference was that HIV/AIDS isn’t just about people who are really far away. We have to see it as a part of something we are really involved in.”
Tiger also sat in the second workshop session on the “Underrepresented U.S.” Tiger talked about the pandemic’s effect on Native American communities while Justin Smith, project coordinator for Strength Through Youth Livin’ Empowered (STYLE), spoke about the effect on African-American communities.
“The people who are most affected by HIV now look just like me,” said Smith, who started STYLE in response to the fact that HIV rates among young black men in North Carolina increased by 400 percent between 2000 and 2004. “So, for me, it is a personal thing; it is about helping my community.”
African Americans are one of the social groups most powerfully affected by the pandemic in the United States. African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S.
population but 50 percent of its AIDS cases.
“I don’t need to see that statistic pop up on a power point presentation again,” Smith said. “I need to know what we are going to do about it. We need to ask questions related to resistance in communities instead of just looking for problems. How do we harness those strengths to address our HIV/AIDS?”
Fewer Guilford students attended the conference than last year, but according to CAAP members, more people from surrounding communities and colleges attended.
“It was really great to get the perspectives of both students and professionals,” said Trevor Corning, CAAP member. “I hope we can make the summit a lot larger next year and continue spreading the word.