ORLANDO, Fla. – A packed crowd looked to get results as local non-profits and organizations banned together to provide community resources to further the conversation of ending the stigma surrounding the HIV epidemic.
“It’s okay Andres, your going to be okay,” said Andres Acosta Ardila, who is the education program specialist for the onePULSE foundation.
Ardila worked with actors from Descolonizarte Teatro to tell stories of those living with HIV in both English and Spanish.
Friday, onePULSE in collaboration with local non-profits and organizations looked to get results for Zero HIV Stigma Day.
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“Well, number one, we see that some policies have negatively affected people living with HIV,” Ardila said.
Ardila said that here in Central Florida, the area ranks 3rd in new HIV cases.
According to AIDSvu, an HIV monitoring organization using data from the CDC, more than 13,000 people were living with HIV in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties back in 2020.
It’s because of these numbers that Andres said people need to pay attention.
“Here, we don’t have as wide access to PREP as we do in other states,” Ardila said. “The other two is that the HIV stigma is still pretty prevalent in the South as a whole, and so we see people not getting tested or not getting to care.”
Outside of telling stories, there was a moment of remembrance as a quilt was presented in a ceremony to honor those who were lost during the early AIDS epidemic.
Gabriella Rodriguez, who is the executive director of QLatinx, and a panelist explained, “So there is about 50 tons of memorial quilts of individuals that basically have submitted, and the idea is to put them all out in Washington and they lay out as an artistic piece.”
Organizers and advocates say you don’t have to attend events like these to be a driving force to end stigmas.
The first step, she says, is to start by educating yourself followed by compassion.
Rodriguez said, “You also have to build that trust right, so I think if we can continue normalizing it and marketing it we can end the HIV epidemic.”
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