The Meaningful Involvement of People with HIV/AIDS (MIPA) has been at the core of the HIV response since the beginning of the HIV epidemic. In this study, we compare two community engagement activities concerned with molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) in the United States: one governmental and one community-led. We examine the consultative aspects of each one, especially as they relate to people living with HIV. We point to the community-based effort—which used a participatory praxis approach—as an example of MIPA. We derive two best practice principles from this research from the field.
While there have been tremendous advancements in HIV prevention, treatment, research, and care, vast health disparities still exist across race and ethnicity, as Black and Latinx people continue to have disproportionate rates of new HIV cases. Despite this fact, funding toward and implementation of policies that meet the needs of most impacted communities are virtually non-existent. Moreover, meaningful and impactful discussions about HIV have always required analyzing interlocking systems of privilege and oppression. Thus, in 2017, a group of scholars and activists of color developed HIV Racial Justice Now!, a nationwide grassroots coalition dedicated to advancing a racially just framework for the domestic HIV epidemic. In addition to developing The Declaration, a framework that can be used to push for racial liberation, HRJN disrupts traditional notions of HIV rhetoric, racial justice, and public memory by decentering whiteness in the domestic HIV movement.
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