Scott Blades
Executive Director
Quick Links to This Month’s Articles
Dear Friends,
Here are a few announcements with ways to show your love and support, learn more, and engage with your community. You’re an important part of this network of support.
The 5th and final note in this e-newsletter is about the people we serve and how current statements and policies are impacting them. It was a difficult note for us to write, but even more difficult to live in the crosshairs of these challenges. But it’s important for us to know and to share with you. As our partners at NMAC shared, “The proposed funding reductions and harmful policies aimed at rolling back critical support for marginalized communities are deeply troubling. They threaten to undo decades of progress in HIV prevention, care, and research. However, we have faced such threats before and collectively have always risen to the occasion.”
Thanks for the love you are, for the love you share, and for joining us in finding ways to rise to this occasion.
TIHAN
What Our CarePartners Living with HIV Are Saying
We used comments received from CarePartners when they submitted their registration forms recently and we created this “word cloud” showing the most common words used to answer “how has TIHAN helped you?” Take a look at these words and phrases they have shared, and feel the love!
Gather & Enjoy Music Outside at the Red Concert – March 9
Get ready for our Red Concert benefit, taking place in just a few weeks, on Sunday, March 9. It’s a late afternoon of music under the beautiful Arizona sky featuring the hit Tucson band Onesall. Last year’s concert brought out over 175 people, and raised almost $30,000!
Enjoy great music (and order delicious food) while supporting the work of TIHAN and the Center for Health & Hope in helping people living with HIV/AIDS locally and worldwide. The venue is a beautiful outdoor venue with seating areas featuring fire pits and shade coverings. Concert ickets are $30 each in advance, or $40 at the door. Event sponsorships start at $100 and include event tickets.
OnesAll (https://onesallband.com/) is a popular local band that rocks originals and tributes great musical artists, fusing thick funky grooves, tight vocals, and exciting rock sounds with high energy performances.
The benefit takes place at Three Canyon, an outdoor music venue serving food and drink on Tucson’s northeast side. Arrive between 4 and 4:30 to get the best parking, grab your preferred seats, and order some delicious food and drink so you’ll be ready when the band starts at 5pm! This is an outdoor concert, with covered seating areas and fire pits.
Tickets and sponsorships are available at https://www.centerforhealthandhope.org/the-red-concert. Last year’s concert sold out, so get your tickets now!
All proceeds are split evenly, supporting the work of TIHAN and the Center for Health and Hope providing services to people affected by HIV globally. The Center for Health and Hope is the fiscal agent for this benefit.
Drum Roll, Please…. This Year’s Leadership Award Recipient: Scott Blades
Well, the planning team for the Red Concert—spurred on by Justin Levy, the new Executive Director of the Center for Health and Hope—twisted his arm and and he finally relented. The team wanted to use the 2025 concert to honor Scott Blades for his 30 years of service to TIHAN, and after relentless pressure and attempts to nominate other worthy candidates, Scott finally surrendered. Please join us in honoring Scott Blades with the Center’s Leadership Award, to be presented at this year’s Red Concert! Scott joins an outstanding list of past recipients of the Center’s Leadership Award: Rev Charlie Arehart, Kevin Carmichael MD, Linda Girard RN, Jon Stetson & Noel Floresca, Claudia Svarstad & Rebecca Harkey, Jim Yancey & Jack Durham, Pat Fox, and Jess Losoya
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Black History Month Is Here
February is Black History Month. We encourage you to spend time in February to learn and reflect. Here are just two great resources:
- Black History Facts (https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-facts)
- Black Queer History is American History (https://glaad.org/black-queer-history-is-america-history/)
Living with Threats, Fear, and Uncertainty
The people who TIHAN serves are and will be increasingly impacted by the policies and threats from the new administration. Here’s more about the people living with HIV who we serve:
• 62% identify as LGBTQ+ (plus 8% prefer not to answer, which might indicate higher levels of LGBTQ+ people, many of whom are uncomfortable sharing their orientation due to stigma). A few of our folks are trans.
• 56% are people of color.
• Some are immigrants, whether from Mexico, Central America, or countries in Africa.
• Almost all receive case management support because of a federally-funded program called the Ryan White Care Act.
• Most receive medical care and medicines because of the Ryan White Care Act. Many or most survive on federal disability income and food stamps.
• Many have housing because of a federal program called HOPWA that provides some housing and vouchers to help offset housing costs.
There are now executive orders attacking federally-funded programs, authorizing round-ups and deportation of people without documentation, and demonizing LGBTQ+ people, including taking away the rights of healthcare. Some of the officials in this administration are openly espousing anti-black and anti-brown beliefs and policies. The new US government has erased language from federal websites related to HIV prevention and care as well as sexual orientation/gender identity, and has removed policies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Also, the administration has stopped, then paused (perhaps temporarily?) many international HIV programs, including the 20-year PEPFAR federal program that has provided funding for millions of people in Africa to get tested for HIV and receive anti-retroviral medications, one of the most successful public health programs in our history. When someone with HIV gets their meds taken away from them, their immune system will wane, and the U=U advantages disappear, so they can again transmit HIV. And their HIV can mutate, and new resistant strains of HIV will develop. Stopping HIV medications through USAID and PEPFAR won’t impact only those in Africa—as we have seen for decades, those medication-resistant strains that originate in Africa will find their ways into every country.
All of these policies and threats that we are seeing are results of four beliefs that are prevalent among the leaders in charge of our country at this time:
1) The federal government needs to shrink — and food stamps, disability payments, and Ryan White-funded medications and medical care are on the table
2) Political considerations are more important than science, public health, or ethics
3) LGBTQ+ people are inherently bad, and should not have their rights
4) People of color and immigrants receive “special treatment” over white Americans, and they want to change that
There are two important implications of this political environment for TIHAN:
1) Our people are uncertain, afraid, and at risk – although some don’t yet understand what’s happening and how it could impact them.
2) While TIHAN doesn’t receive federal funding, if the public safety net is impacted (SNAP benefits, disability payments, case management, medical care and medications for people without insurance), our partner agencies and their services will be impacted—and they provide essential benefits to our CarePartners whose lives could be drastically affected.
So we will continue to love, support, and educate our folks while helping them navigate these challenges; support our partners and advocate with them as we can—especially utilizing faith communities to advocate with us; and build stronger connections with our allies in the HIV community and beyond.
In the meantime, I try to remember these words from Mother Teresa. “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one” – and start with the person nearest to you. We can’t do it all, but if each of us does our part, we can make a difference that will have a larger impact and provide love and support to people during these challenging times.
