June is here, bringing with it some Arizona heat, along with celebrations of Juneteenth and Pride Month. June also marks the 31st anniversary of the first organizing meetings that would eventually become TIHAN. And June commemorates the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the US, as June 5, 1981, is the date that the CDC published a report about a cluster of young men in Los Angeles with a rare lung infection related to immune suppression. This month is filled with celebration as well as sorrow, mixed in with today’s challenges. Together, we remember, we honor, and we connect with each other and as part of a community of people brought together by circumstance to help each other live, love, and thrive.
We stand together.
Scott
Quick Links to This Month’s Articles
- The Power of Us: A Session on Civic Engagement
- Highlight a Volunteer: Janice Molina
- Beautifying Our SunTran Bus Stop Near TIHAN
- A Summer Sunday Benefit for TIHAN! Come Join Us!
- Welcoming New Board Members!
- National HIV Testing Day – June 27
- Highlight One of Our Volunteer Opportunities – Program Committee Member
- TIHAN Out and About in the Community
- A Few Words About Pride Month
The Power of Us: A Session on Civic Engagement
Hearing about funding cuts and wondering what’s going on and how to respond? Join us for a 90-minute session for TIHAN CarePartners, volunteers, donors, and faith community members, as well as folks from key partner agencies who sponsors and participants of this event as well. This session will be held from 5:30-7:00pm at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church (where TIHAN’s offices are now located) on Monday, July 14. This session will be facilitated by Dr. Alison Sutton-Ryan (TIHAN Board member, professor and psychotherapist), Executive Director Scott Blades, and Pima County Supervisor Andrés Cano.
Topics include: Current Issues in HIV Advocacy (including funding cuts), Understanding Risk in Advocacy, Self-Care as Activism, Identifying Your Advocacy Goals, Vetting Information and Organizations, Ways to Get Involved: Advocacy Tools, Online Activism Safety Tips, In-Person Activism Safety Tips, Understanding Intersectionality, and What Are Your Next Action Steps?
Although this session is specifically about advocating for HIV issues, the concepts in this workshop will apply to advocacy on many related political, social, and economic issues. An RSVP is required to scott@tihan.org
Highlight a Volunteer: Janice Molina
Before she became involved with TIHAN in 2017, Janice had never met anyone with HIV, and didn’t know much about the disease, other than hearing in the 1980s about Ryan White, the young boy who was a hemophiliac and contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. That all changed one Sunday when one of the members of her faith community talked during a worship service about TIHAN’s Poz Café lunch program. “I signed up to help when Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church was co-sponsoring the luncheon,” she recalled, “And I saw how appreciative the CarePartner (clients living with HIV) were, and I just fell in love with the program.” Not content to help only once a year when it was her church’s turn, Janice signed up to attend TIHAN’s Volunteer Orientation so she could volunteer with Poz Café on a regular basis.
Click here for more about Janice
Beautifying Our SunTran Bus Stop Near TIHAN
Our CarePartners who use public transportation are feeling more comfortable coming to the TIHAN office, but we could use some help to make it ever better. The closest bus stop to TIHAN is on the east side of Campbell Avenue, just north of Speedway. Like many Tucson bus stops, this particular bus shelter needs occasional cleanup to make it more hospitable. Sometimes trash and debris are left there. So together with our partners at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, we are looking for some folks who might be interested in volunteering, perhaps once a month, to visit the bus stop at your convenience and clean up any trash or debris (using gloves of course). If you are interested in being part of the TIHAN bus stop beautification team, let us know – OperationsManager@tihan.org
A Summer Sunday Benefit for TIHAN! Come Join Us!
Join us! Sunday, June 29 from 11am-4pm at The Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie #180 (1530 N Stone Avenue). Longtime TIHAN volunteers Patricia and Robert Ruiz and their team of friends started this benefit three years ago, and have raised several thousand dollars for TIHAN! And they’re doing it again! It’s a fun afternoon of music, food, community, and helping people in need. It’s free to attend, and you can buy delicious food (only $10 a plate for enchiladas, rice, and beans) and enter into dozens of raffles for donated baskets and gift cards. There will be a DJ and a bar, and lots of friends coming out on a Sunday afternoon into the cool of the FOE building to raise funds for people living with HIV. There’s no cover charge, so come on over and enjoy the fun afternoon!
To donate a basket to be raffled off, or a gift card, please contact Scott at scott@tihan.org or Patricia at pat.alliedinsgroup@gmail.com or text her at 520-549-7054.
Welcoming New Board Members!
We are excited to welcome three new members to our Board of Directors in early 2025. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Alison Sutton-Ryan DBH, LCSW, LISAC, Clinical Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, College of Health Solutions, and psychotherapist; Derek Shaw, Senior Accounting & New Goods Manager at Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, who also has lived experience as someone with HIV; and Rev. Jim Wiltbank, retired teacher and United Methodist pastor who previously served at St. Francis in the Foothills UMC. We are thrilled to have them join our Board leadership team. If you are interested in being considered for the board, we are seeking people who are highly motivated and able to spend 10-15 hours a month actively serving on the board and one of its committees for a three-year term. For more information, reach out to Jeff Schuchart of our Nominating Committee at jeffschuchart@gmail.com
National HIV Testing Day – June 27
National HIV Testing Day is an annual day to remind people of the importance of HIV testing. June 27 is a day to encourage people to get tested for HIV, know your status, and get linked to care and treatment. Confidential HIV testing is available at the Pima County Health Department on a sliding scale fee basis at two locations: North Clinic 520-724-2880 or Theresa Lee Clinic 520-724-7900. No one will be turned away due to inability to pay. And if you test negative for HIV, you can consider if you are a good candidate for PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis, to prevent you from contracting HIV in the future. Take control of your health and wellbeing, and take the test.
As explained by AwarenessDays.com, “Testing is a crucial first step in HIV prevention and care. Knowing your status gives you the power to make informed decisions about your health and relationships. Today, people with HIV who start treatment early can lead long, healthy lives—and with undetectable viral loads, they cannot transmit the virus to others. National HIV Testing Day helps reduce stigma, normalize testing, and ensure more people get connected to the care they need.”
Highlight One of Our Volunteer Opportunities – Program Committee Member
Do you have experience with nonprofit programs, helping them improve and better serve the needs of the community? TIHAN has a volunteer opportunity for someone with program evaluation and development experience to join our Program Committee to help assess, evaluate, and develop programs and services for people living with HIV. Our volunteer orientation will help you understand the difference you can make. For more information contact Kristen at (520) 299-6647 ext 204 or volunteering@tihan.org
TIHAN Out and About in the Community
We have some awesome folks representing TIHAN at this year’s Juneteenth Festival (Saturday, June 14, 5-10pm at Kino Sports Complex), and at the 2nd Annual Family Pride Night at the Reid Park Zoo on Thursday, June 26 from 6-8pm. TIHAN will also be speaking during worship and at coffee afterwards at Catalina United Methodist Church on Sunday, June 8, and at Aldea Spiritual Community on Sunday, June 22, If you are attending, please stop by and say hello!
A Few Words About Pride Month
TIHAN was one of more than a dozen LGBTQ+ and HIV groups invited to attend Mayor Romero’s proclamation at the June 3, 2025 meeting of the Mayor and Council. After the presentation, TIHAN volunteer Jess Losoya shared this message with those present:
“Thank you, Mayor Romero and Council Members for this recognition, and for standing with the LGBTQIA+ community in a way that truly matters.
As Audre Lorde once said, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”
We are grateful for this moment, and we don’t take it lightly. Being seen, acknowledged, and supported by city leadership means something — not just to one of us, but to all of us who have gone unseen for far too long.
We are proud to be here today — but we are also tired.
We’re tired of showing up in rooms where our humanity is still up for debate. We’re tired of wondering which side of the room will celebrate us — and which side will whisper, roll their eyes, grumble that we even exist, or allow their hearts to grow bitter at our presence.
We wish we could just live. We wish we could walk down the street holding our partner’s hand without fear, without ridicule, without feeling like we have to make ourselves smaller to be safe. We wish we didn’t have to fight to be seen, to be respected, to just be.
But we’re here. We’ve always been here. And we’re not going anywhere.
We are your educators. We are your nonprofit leaders. We are the ones helping communities, serving in your businesses, showing up in your hospitals — and yes, fighting for your freedoms in the military, even when some still choose not to fight for ours.
We are not asking for special treatment. We are demanding equal dignity. We are no less human than anyone else in this room.
So if you’re one of the people feeling uncomfortable about this proclamation — know this: you are the reason PRIDE Month still matters.
This isn’t just a celebration. It’s a reminder that our fight is far from over. This proclamation is not a performance. It’s a promise — that we will continue showing up, speaking out, and building a world where no one has to shrink to survive.
We are honored to stand here as part of a vibrant, resilient LGBTQIA+ community — one that continues to lead with love, courage, and strength. And we won’t stop until everyone is free to live fully and openly.
Happy PRIDE — and thank you for seeing us.”
–Jess Losoya
