Episode 009: WORLD AIDS DAY: Where We Are (Greg Millett)

For World AIDS Day, Greg Millett surveys where we are in the fight against HIV: the good news, the challenges & concerns, and the surprising news. Greg is the Vice President and Director of Public Policy for amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and has previously held leadership roles at the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and at the Centers for Disease Control. A globally recognized advocate and researcher, Greg's work has fundamentally transformed how we understand the disparities of HIV infection for African American gay, bisexual, and other men who sex with men. This is a must-listen interview!

Links:

• Linda Villarosa, “America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic”, New York Times (June 6, 2017)

• Greg Millett, "Time to Close HIV's Racial Disparities", CNN (Feb. 7, 2015)

• Tim Murphy, “HIV: Mystery Solved”, The Nation (Feb. 15, 2016)

Episode 003: "They Murder Us" (Andrea Ayala)

As Pride Months ends, we go to El Salvador for a conversation with Andrea Ayala, the Executive Director of ESMULES, Espacio de Mujeres Lesbianas Salvadoreñas por la Diversidad. Violence, both in general and specifically against LGBTI people, is epidemic in El Salvador, but in this conversation, Andrea discusses the resilient work her organization is doing to make key Salvadoran institutions more responsive to the needs of the LGBTI community.

ESMULES is on Facebook here and on Twitter at @esmules. For more information about its work with LGBTI seniors, go to adult-tez.org.

Uniformed Injustice: State Violence Against LGBT People in El Salvador, a 2017 report from the Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute, can be found here.

Episode 001: Blingistan (Urooj Arshad)

My guest for this first episode is Urooj Arshad, a fierce & fabulous queer Pakistani-American activist working for reproductive justice and against Islamophobia & homophobia. From Karachi to Illinois to Washington, D.C., Urooj's journey speaks powerfully to how we navigate our many identities in a complex & contradictory world.

Urooj's essay, "Finding Blingistan: My Journey Home to the LGBT Community in Pakistan," can be found here. Metro Weekly's interview with Urooj, "Queer, Muslim, an Immigrant, and Female," is online here.