Being Hispanic, gay and HIV positive weighs heavily on Anthony Perez.
Perez found out he was HIV positive 15 years ago during a routine medical checkup while living in Houston.
The incident came as a major blow to him and his family, who are from Mexico and follow traditional customs that reject same-sex relationships.
“When I tested positive, I remember literally dropping to the ground, just like in the movies,” said Perez, a 35-year-old marketing executive who now lives in Dallas.
D-FW Public Health Alert
“I was shocked. To be honest, I didn’t even think I had it. I thought my life was over. I remember crying inconsolably. I honestly thought it was a death sentence,” Perez said.
The reactions of his two older brothers were equally dire.
“Latin men are ‘macho men’. They were very disappointed,” he said. “My brother was crying when I told him. He took it very hard. I remember him saying he thought I was different. I think he had higher expectations of me. So it was hard to hear that and to disappoint him.”
Latinos are more vulnerable
Current HIV trends are worrying advocates struggling to educate Hispanic communities about HIV prevention methods and promote treatment for those already infected.
Dallas and Tarrant counties are among the five Texas counties with the most new HIV diagnoses in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The majority of cases involved Hispanic or Latino men between the ages of 25 and 34 engaged in male-to-male sexual contact.
In Dallas County, new HIV cases increased 30% among men and 6.5% among women in 2021 among all ethnic groups.
Texas will see 4,400 new cases of HIV diagnosed in 2023, the second-highest number in the country after Florida.
Dallas and Harris counties had the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses in Texas in 2023, according to the CDC.
According to AIDSVu statistics, just over one-third of new HIV cases detected in Dallas in 2022 were among Hispanic people. In Dallas County, 658 Latinos are HIV positive per 100,000 residents.
Nationwide, Hispanics account for 29% of new HIV infections.
The African-American community continues to be the most affected, accounting for 44% of new cases in Dallas, while white patients make up 25%.
Lack of communication
Juan Contreras, advocacy director for Somos Loud Dallas, a Latino advocacy group founded in 2013 to fight HIV/AIDS, said the resurgence of HIV among Latinos has a lot to do with Hispanic heads of households not knowing how to talk to their children about the issue.
“I think it’s definitely difficult for most people, at least in my generation, to have those conversations with father figures,” said Contreras, 32, who also serves as president of Texas Latino Pride.
“Younger generations are starting to be more open about it and more accepting, so I definitely see some silver linings,” Contreras said.
One of Contreras’ most important tasks is convincing Dallas’ young Latinos to get tested for HIV.
“There’s nothing wrong with knowing your status. If you went to a party last weekend and you know you might have gotten a little too cozy and gotten carried away, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to take care of your health and get tested,” Contreras said.
“There are definitely precautions now that we didn’t have back then and there are a lot more resources available. There’s a lot of information now that’s easy to look up online,” Contreras said.
Jacob Reyes, news and emergency response coordinator for GLAAD, said there is a lot of effort being made to promote HIV prevention in the Hispanic community.
“The key is that there is a vibrant community centered around Dallas-Fort Worth that is focused on HIV prevention and awareness, particularly in the Latino community,” Reyes said.
Reyes explained that the organization, which shares stories of the LGBTQ community to promote acceptance, talks about HIV through social media and direct interactions with the Latino community.
Citing a recent report on HIV stigma, Reyes said only 34 percent of Gen Zers, those born between 1997 and 2012, know about HIV.
“With current treatments, the mortality rate has dropped dramatically compared to 40 years ago, when the HIV pandemic was exploding and people were dying at very high rates,” Reyes said. “I think there’s a certain apathy towards HIV among younger generations now that we’ve found ways to contain and treat the disease.”
stigma
Even though 43 years have passed since the HIV/AIDS pandemic was officially declared, the stigma surrounding HIV infection in Latino communities remains severe.
The Fort Worth LGBT Health & Wellness Help Center provides testing, treatment and education campaigns to prevent HIV infection. (Elias Valverde II / Staff Photographer)
According to a GLAAD survey, 86% of Americans believe HIV primarily affects LGBTQ people, even though anyone can become infected with HIV, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
For gay Latinos living with HIV, navigating life with these three labels can be especially difficult.
“It’s very challenging and it’s hard. I mean, I have all three and it’s hard. I get stigmatized because I have all three,” Perez said.
Some clinics pose as thrift stores, while others display colorful flags representing the LGBTQ community on their facades.
“We have to start changing the narrative,” said JP Cano, director of prevention at the LGBT Health & Wellness Help Center, a sexual health clinic that offers testing, treatment and education campaigns to prevent HIV.
“We have a gay pride flag hanging outside our clinic because we want people to take care of their sexual health and feel respected and proud to belong to the LGBT community. That really changes the narrative of exclusion,” Cano said.
Cano, a Registered Nurse, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico and began her nursing studies after arriving in Dallas, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas at Arlington.
“We hang the gay pride flag outside our clinic because we want our patients to take care of their sexual health and feel respected and proud of belonging to the LGBT community,” said JP Cano, prevention director at the LGBT Health and Wellness Outreach Center. (Elias Valverde II/Staff Photographer)
With years of experience caring for the sexual health of Latinos in the LGBTQ community and a thorough knowledge of the culture prevalent in Hispanic families, Cano has a good understanding of why Hispanics are more likely to become infected with HIV.
“There’s a deep stigma around HIV for Latinos. I come from a family where we don’t really talk about sex, but that’s in most Latino families,” Cano said.
Encouraging people with HIV to move quickly through the continuum of care is crucial to ending the HIV epidemic, and Dallas has a strong support system in place.
“We’ve been around for over 25 years and have been on the front lines of prevention. We continue to expand our services to the public at no cost to them,” Cano said.
The clinic tests for HIV as well as other STIs, and offers HIV-positive patients PrEP to help prevent infection and improve their quality of life.
“It’s important that the conversation about safe sex continues,” Cano said.
“Latino families need to learn more about STIs and HIV in general. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
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