AEGiS-BAYW: GLAD looking for 200 HIV-positive people

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

GLAD looking for 200 HIV-positive people

Bay Windows - June 29, 2006
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com

Next month Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) will begin conducting one-on-one interviews with people living with HIV to find out what legal issues they're wrestling with, and over the next six months GLAD hopes to speak with 200 HIV positive people about their experiences. Carisa Cunningham, GLAD's director of public affairs and education, said GLAD will use the interviews to help focus its public education efforts and to collect personal stories from people living with HIV to use in lobbying efforts.

"It's to get a snapshot about what's going on out there," said Cunningham.

She said GLAD hopes to learn what issues people living with HIV are concerned about so it can target public education efforts and other initiatives to address those concerns. By way of example she said GLAD took its survey to the State Wide Consumer Advisory Board, a group of people living with HIV/AIDS that advises the state Department of Public Health's HIV/AIDS Bureau. Cunningham said GLAD found that many of the members were worried about laws criminalizing transmission of HIV.

"Many of them have concerns about criminal transmission of HIV, which is something we don't hear about because there are no cases in Massachusetts, there is no law. But it causes a great deal of anxiety for people with HIV," said Cunningham.

While the initial round of interviews will be done by GLAD staff, GLAD is currently recruiting volunteers to begin doing interviews this fall. In particular Cunningham said GLAD hopes to find volunteers who are fluent in Spanish, since some of the interviews will be with Spanish-speaking subjects. She also said GLAD is looking for people who can commit the time necessary to do the fairly labor intensive interviews.

"People need to have a little but of time on their hands because it could involve traveling to another part of the state. The interviews are 40 minutes to an hour long, and there is the process of entering the data into a database here ... Basically people who are warm and friendly and nonjudgmental who have an interest in HIV and want to help would be great," she said.

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To find out more about volunteering to be an interviewer or to be interviewed contact Emily Douglas at 617.426.1350 or at edouglas@glad.org.

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