Housing for Orlando’s HIV-Positive Transgendered Community
Orlando’s first transitional home specifically servicing transgendered people living with the virus opened its doors July 1, The Orlando Sentinelreports.
The home is made possible through the city of Orlando’s Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS program and the Center for Multicultural Wellness and Prevention.
According to the article, many transgender people lose their jobs once they begin living as the opposite sex and many states—including Florida—do not have clear-cut antidiscrimination laws to prevent that from happening.
“Their options are to die in the streets—that is literally what happens,” said Shannon Minter, a transgendered man who is the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “A significant number of trans-women are forced into sex work in order to survive, and many end up with HIV.”
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, about 3 million Americans—less than 1 percent of the population—identify themselves as transgender.
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Kim Watson, Bronx, 2008-09-09 10:17:53
Prayers are answered for the trans community throughout the fy08-09.This is so beautiful to have a housing for transgender floks.....Kim
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."
