THE SERO PROJECT YEAR TWO EVALUATION: 2013 1 CONTENTS Dedication ................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................................... 3 Part I: Community Engagement Activities ................................................................................................................ 4 Part II: Evaluation from Community Forum Participants ...................................................................................... 6 Process ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Results .......................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Part III: Prisoners Network .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Part IV: Survivors Network ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Part V: Communications and Media Work .............................................................................................................. 11 Part VI: Research .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Part VII: State and Federal Government Advocacy ............................................................................................... 14 Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) ................................................................................. 14 Legislative Reform in Iowa ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Part VIII: Colleague Evaluation from Community Leaders and Partners in Addressing HIV Stigma and Criminalization .............................................................................................................................................................. 16 Sero’s Impact ............................................................................................................................................................ 16 Concerns and Approaches for the Sero Project .................................................................................................. 19 Gaps and Next Steps in Addressing HIV Criminalization ................................................................................ 21 Appendix A: Community Education Events, 2013 ................................................................................................ 26 Appendix B: Pre- and post-community forum feedback forms ........................................................................... 30 Appendix C: Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) Resolution on Ending Federal and State HIV-Specific Criminal Laws, Prosecutions, and Civil Commitments ....................................................... 33 Appendix D: Interview questions for peer review by colleagues ......................................................................... 35 2 DEDICATION The work of the Sero Project is dedicated to the people living with HIV who have been arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated because of their HIV status. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank our communities of people living with HIV, activists, lawyers, public health, young and old, quiet and loud, for your support, engagement, critiques, challenges, and commitment to just treatment for people with HIV. We express our great appreciation to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, H. van Ameringen Foundation, ViiV Healthcare, John Swaner and Gregory Whiting, Linda Meredith, and Josh Sapan for their belief in and considerable financial support for Sero’s work and mission in 2013. Prepared by Laurel Sprague, Research Director, The Sero Project, April 5, 2014 © The Sero Project, 2014 3 PART I: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES In 2013, the Sero Project conducted approximately one speaking engagement per week for a total of 53 events, including community forums, conference presentations, and trainings. More than 2100 people participated in these events. The topic for the majority of engagements was HIV criminalization, with the remaining engagements focused on the People Living With HIV (PLHIV) self-empowerment movement and the importance of PLHIV networks. Groups in the HIV field (AIDS service organizations and networks of people living with HIV), universities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations sponsored most of the engagements. A particular outreach was made to law schools and graduate schools of public health. Other sponsoring organizations included legal, medical, government, and racial justice groups and international and national conferences. The sponsoring organizations and groups are listed below by category. Organizations and groups that fit into more than one category are listed twice. A full list of speaking engagements is provided in Appendix A. In addition to these speaking events, the Sero Project was invited by the New York Public Library to submit a workshop proposal about HIV stigma and criminalization for youth. Sero’s proposal focused on interactive socio-dramas, performed by trained young people. The library accepted the proposal for their youth program. The first programs are expected to take place in the second half of 2014. AIDS service organizations, networks of people living with HIV and HIV activists ACT UP New York, CHAIN / PITCH Iowa, Virginia HIV/AIDS Community Planning Group, Iris House, POZ magazine, Philadelphia Fight, ADAP Advocacy Association, Southern REACH Legal Convening, AIDS Action Now, My Brother's Keeper, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, Trinity Memorial Church / HIV groups, Baltimore Student Harm Reduction Coalition Universities University of Alabama at Birmingham, Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, New York University, Fordham, Columbia Law, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, Millersville University, University of Michigan Law, Duke University Law, College of William and Mary, Brooklyn Law School, SUNY Binghamton, University of Maryland, School of Visual Arts Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations Pride at Work, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Baltimore Black Pride, Georgia Equality, National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition, Queerocracy, Gay & Lesbian Medical Association, The Williams Institute at UCLA, OneIowa Racial justice and health groups Baltimore Black Pride, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, My Brother's Keeper, National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition, National Black Women's Advocacy Coalition Legal organizations ACLU Iowa Chapter, Davis Brown Law Firm, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, National Lawyers Guild, Law Firm of Glazebrook and Johnston 4 Medical groups Roosevelt Hospital (physicians); Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Center for Strengthening Youth Prevention Paradigms; Gay & Lesbian Medical Association; Open Arms Healthcare Center Government bodies Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), U.S. Office of Women's Health, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation National and international conferences National Transgender Health Summit, U.S. Conference on AIDS, International Stigma Conference, National Lawyers Guild Conference, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference, International Workshop on the Public Health Impact of Criminalizing HIV Exposure / Transmission 5 PART II: EVALUATION FROM COMMUNITY FORUM PARTICIPANTS Approximately 25 percent of the Sero Project’s Community Forum Participants speaking events in 2013 took the form of Number Percent community forums. These events are highly Sex interactive, using videos, short presentations, Male 127 38% and dialogue with participants to share Female 161 48% information and discuss HIV criminalization. Transgender male 8 2% To measure the effects of the community forums and to ensure a way to get immediate Transgender female 1 <1% feedback from community members, we Another identification 1 <1% developed a short pre- and post-test survey. No answer 35 11% The surveys are designed to help us learn about Race the level of engagement participants have had African American 84 25% with the issue; their approval or disapproval of Asian American or Pacific Islander 15 5% the criminalization of non-disclosure of one’s American Indian/Native American 1 <1% positive HIV status; their beliefs about the European American/White 184 55% fairness of the justice system for people living No answer 49 15% with HIV who are accused of non-disclosure; Ethnicity and, importantly, whether any of their opinions Latino/a or Hispanic 26 8% changed over the course of the forum. The full Arab 2 1% surveys are included in Appendix B. Sexual orientation Gay/SGL/MSM 92 28% PROCESS Lesbian/SGLW 9 3% Participants in the forums were asked to Bisexual 17 5% complete the first half (the pre-test) before the Heterosexual 163 49% presentation started. The community forums Asexual 2 1% generally started by showing