When a delegation from White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) came to Albuquerque on Friday to gather ideas and concerns about how to combat this health epidemic, Burqueños told them to keep in mind two things: the need for more comprehensive sex education and outreach, and the need to open up communication on the topic of HIV/AIDS.

Community members gathered at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Friday evening told Jeffrey S. Crowley, the director of ONAP, and Steve Jenison, medical director of the Infectious Disease Bureau at New Mexico Department of Health, that disease prevention and treatment would become much more effective if successful communication about the topic opened up in schools, among peers, and within families and the community.

Crowley’s stop in Albuquerque is part of a nation-wide tour to discuss the country’s first national AIDS strategy. President Barack Obama sent out the committee to collect ideas and concerns about how to best address this growing health epidemic.

In Albuquerque, Crowley discussed the President’s deep concern with this issue, and laid out the main focus of the ONAP:

Despite the ONAP’s initiatives, the audience at ABQ’s community discussion highlighted several complex, difficult issues that must be addressed if HIV/AIDS is to be c0mbated successfully.

Echoed time after time were the need for more comprehensive sex education and outreach, while opening up communication around the topic to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS.

Several audience members shared their concerns that HIV/AIDS is seen too often as a “gay disease” or a “drug user’s disease. That point was underscored when one man living with HIV told of how he contracted the virus in prison, and pointed out very clearly that he was a heterosexual male.

“Silence and stigma do not prevent the spread of HIV, they encourage it,” said one New Mexican who got involved with AIDS prevention after losing a family member to the disease.

Other points of concern included:

  • Overhauling sex education in public schools to become more comprehensive
  • Editing “Abstinence Only” models, as they promote misinformation and fear
  • Including GLBT issues in schools to create non-discriminatory sex education
  • Fighting the stigmas attached to HIV/AIDS, especially homophobia
  • Recognizing ALL high-risk groups separately, respectfully, and comprehensively
  • Lifting the federal ban on needle-exchange programs
  • Increasing awareness and reducing stigma within correctional facilities
  • Mandatory HIV testing within correctional facilities

Among these issues that were repeated often during the discussion, many audience members suggested the need to reach out to women, who are often left out of the HIV/AIDS discussion. Some proposed peer education outreach, which has proven successful within high-risk communities.

Crowley said that his office would take issues brought up during the nation-wide community discussions back to the White House to inform the President and his administration on the needs concerning the HIV/AIDS problem within the U.S.

To share your concerns, you can visit the Call to Action section of the Office’s Website.