May 18th is National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day

It’s a day to thank the thousands of people around the world and here in Seattle who are working hard to create a vaccine.  It’s also a day to remember that 29 years after AIDS began changing the world, we need to use the tools we already have to prevent the spread of HIV.

At Lifelong, one of the hardest things we fight every day is complacency.  Our staff and volunteers do community outreach to help people make healthier decisions about sex, and all too often talk to those who think that HIV will never happen to them – until it does.

When used correctly, condoms are very effective against spreading HIV.  They’re cheap and easy to find.  Many places give them away!  Stop by Lifelong’s office and take a few.  Speaking of free, there’s no reason to share needles when King County has an excellent needle exchange (a program still banned in many places) and Lifelong hosts the Capitol Hill location six nights a week.  If you do have HIV or AIDS and are taking medications, be sure to take them correctly to reduce your viral load which, along with condom use, makes it harder to transmit HIV. 

May 18th is National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, not National HIV Vaccine Day.  It’s your job to protect yourself and others by preventing the spread of this still-incurable disease.  And until there is an effective vaccine and the spread of HIV ends, until HIV/AIDS is no longer associated with stigma and discrimination, until everyone living with HIV/AIDS has equal access to healthcare, the loving support of family and friends, and can meet their basic human needs for things like food and housing – Lifelong will be here to help.

  

Edited to add: if you would like to help work toward these goals, please partner with Lifelong as a donor or volunteer.

The MPowerment Project

Lifelong’s MPowerment Project is a peer-to-peer outreach and education program empowering queer youth to make positive and healthier choices about sex and drug use.  Located next to the Lifelong Thrift store, MPowerment is a queer-friendly youth space open to its Core Team of peer-educators.  Each week LGBTQ youth ages 16-22 meet to discuss upcoming prevention outreach on the streets and in the clubs, peer-led workshops, youth empowerment, and events. Outreach activities take place during the week, particularly targeting homeless LGBTQ and other young people.

Last week, more than 200 people attended MPowerment’s annual Youthopolis event at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park.  The event honored leadership in Seattle’s Young Queer Community and was attended by State Senator Ed Murray and local transgender rights advocate Marsha Botzer, co-chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.  There were musical performances by Sketch Echo, Team Gina, and others.  The Seattle University Spectator’s blog covered the event in more detail. 

Learn more about MPowerment or find out how you can get involved by visiting The MPowerment Project’s website or emailing mpowerment@llaa.org.