Funding was provided by the Ford Foundation and Elton John AIDS Foundation. The cross-platform campaign, which features HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men, encourages more open communication about the disease in personal relationships, as well as with healthcare providers and within the community.ĪIDS United, Black AIDS Institute and the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors helped organize the workshop, along with the Kaiser Family Foundation. #SpeakOutHIV is part of a broader Speak Out campaign, launched last fall by Greater Than AIDS, to engage the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in response to the silence and stigma surrounding HIV. “The stories and our shared experience linked us.” “Once the courageous stories about coming out, HIV-diagnosis, isolation, self-esteem, and the like were shared, I learned from these young men that my story is not so uncommon,” said Jai, an HIV/AIDS educator from Dallas who helped facilitate the workshop and serves as a Greater Than AIDS Speak Out ambassador. They created their videos with cellphones and other personal devices this month at a Speak Out digital storytelling workshop organized by Greater Than AIDS in Washington, DC.
They come from regions with high rates of HIV, including the South. The young men featured in #SpeakOutHIV offer unfiltered, intimate accounts about how HIV has affected them and what they want others to know about the disease. “#SpeakOutHIV is about promoting a more open dialogue about HIV in all aspects of life, in relationships, with health care providers and within the community generally.” “Despite the continued impact of HIV, gay and bisexual men are not talking about HIV even with those closest to them,” noted Tina Hoff, Senior Vice President and Director of Health Communication and Media Partnerships, Kaiser Family Foundation – a co-founding partner in Greater Than AIDS. Overall, young gay men account for one in five new infections in the United States, a share far greater than their representation in the population. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 22 percent increase in new infections among gay men ages 13-24 between 20. New HIV infections are rising among young gay men.
The group is encouraging people to break the silence around HIV on social media in the two weeks between National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (September 27) and National Coming Out Day (October 11).Īnchored by a series of powerful personal videos recorded by men who are 25 or younger, #SpeakOutHIV challenges people to post their own stories about HIV on YouTube and share through Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms as part of a collective effort to promote more open discussion about the issue. MENLO PARK, CA – Twenty-five young gay men get real about HIV as part of #SpeakOutHIV, a campaign from Greater Than AIDS. Powerful Personal Videos Reveal the Impact of HIV And Urge Others to #SpeakOutHIV