Friday, September 27, marks National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (#NGMHAAD) 2024. The awareness day was founded in 2008 by the now-defunct National Association for People with AIDS as a way to focus attention on the unique challenges of gay and bisexual men affected by HIV.

Although the annual rates of new HIV diagnoses among this population are decreasing, gay and bisexual men still account for most new cases, and African-American and Latino men are disproportionately affected.

“In 2022, over half of people living with HIV (58%) were men who have sex with men (MSM), and MSM accounted for 67% of all new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. Many MSM who were diagnosed with HIV in 2022 were in the Southern region of the U.S.,” writes AIDSVu.org, the interactive HIV data site. In its tool kit for NGMHAAD, the site writes:

“According to the CDC, racial and ethnic disparities persist among gay and bisexual men who received HIV diagnoses in 2022. While the number of new HIV diagnoses decreased by 34% for white MSM from 2008 to 2022, Black MSM only saw a 5% decrease while Hispanic MSM saw a 42% increase.

 

“Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men experience HIV stigma due to their sexuality. On AIDSVu’s Stigma Dashboard, which tracks familial, societal, and healthcare HIV stigma among men who have sex with men, 25% of MSM located in Georgia felt scared to be in public places due to their sexuality according to analysis by Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“NGMHAAD raises awareness about the significant challenges stemming from racism, homophobia, transphobia, stigma, and other social determinants of health faced by gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) as they navigate HIV prevention, testing, care, and treatment.”

Today on National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we’re spotlighting the incredible work of organizations like Allies...

Posted by Elton John AIDS Foundation on Friday, September 27, 2024

AIDSVu also posted an interview with Robin Lin Miller, PhD, a psychology professor at Michigan State University, who discusses global stigma toward gay and bisexual men.

“The most centrally important message is knowing you have the right to affirming care,” Miller advises. “It’s your right to be able to access care, free from stigma and discrimination. When that right is violated, there are things that you can do about it. There are all kinds of systems of support here in the U.S. that you can take advantage of to ensure that you can claim that right and seek redress if it is violated.”

To promote HIV prevention, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently launched a social media campaign called #PrEPared (#PrEParado) to raise awareness of the pills and long-acting injectables used as pre-exposure prophylaxis by people at risk of contracting HIV. To read more about the campaign and other CDC efforts, including its Let’s Stop HIV Together initiative, read this blog post by HIV.gov.

Francisco Ruiz

Francisco Ruiz on the cover of POZ October/November 2024

In related news, check out POZ’s current cover story, “The Power of a Story Well Told,”  a profile of Francisco Ruiz, the first gay, HIV-positive Latino to serve as director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.

To learn more about other HIV awareness days and to access a calendar you can download and print, check out the POZ feature “2024 HIV and AIDS Awareness Days.”