Latina Sorority Shows Support for HIV Assistance Bill
Upon learning of a proposed bill that would provide additional care for U.S. Latinos and other minorities living with HIV, the Indiana University chapter of Latina sorority Gamma Phi Omega has been increasing its efforts to spread HIV/AIDS awareness throughout both school and community, Indiana Daily Student reports (idsnews.com, 1/18).
According to the school paper, the sorority has worked closely with La Casa Latino Cultural Center at Indiana University to promote HIV/AIDS programming in response to H.R. 2736: HIV Emergency Local Partnership Act of 2007. Congress proposed the bill after data revealed Latin Americans were among the hardest hit by the epidemic.
“Since the beginning of the semester, some of us were doing some research [on the bill],” Gamma Phi Omega senior Adrienne Garcia told the student paper. “It was affecting the Latino community, but HIV/AIDS is also not talked about highly amongst other things in the Latino community.”
Garcia and her sisters are working to help change all that. Through their work with La Casa—including the creation of an STD testing site within the center—the sorority has also connected with Bloomington Hospital’s Positive Link, a local AIDS service organization, to generate support for the bill and initiate conversations about HIV among Indiana’s Latino student body.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
