News
HIV/AIDS returning to the spotlight?
Following victories on marriage, advocates say decades-old issue will get renewed look
(Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
After years of being overshadowed by other issues like marriage equality and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” an issue that decades ago was at the center of the gay rights movement is once again moving to the forefront.
Following hard-fought victories for marriage rights at the Supreme Court, in states throughout the country and across the globe, the persistence of HIV/AIDS is grabbing new attention as recent news stories have documented progress toward a cure and the disease’s continuing impact on gay youth and people of color.
Sean Strub, founder of POZ magazine, said LGBT leadership is taking a renewed look at the issue in response to community pressure and stubbornly high infection rates among young gay men — particularly men of color — which he said are “skyrocketing and simply impossible to ignore.”
In the past week, two separate articles in the mainstream media were published following World AIDS Day that documented the persistence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among gay and bisexual men.
One article, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times, reported the disease is “rapidly becoming concentrated” among poor, black and Latino men who have sex with men.
Jonathan Mermin, director of HIV prevention at the Centers for Disease Control, is quoted as saying reaching these men is “the Holy Grail” in confronting HIV/AIDS.
Although his agency has granted millions of dollars to local health departments, Mermin reportedly couldn’t identify any city or state that has succeeded in lowering infection rates among young men of color.
An op-ed published on CNN.com written by Perry Halkitis, associate dean of New York University’s Global Institute of Public Health, raised the question of whether there’s a “gay generation gap” with regard to the perception of HIV. Halkitis points to the growing rate with which young gay men have unprotected sex now that the disease is perceived as chronic, but not fatal.
“The disease may not be front and center — it may not be the primary presenting problem faced by young gay men, as it was for me at age 18 in 1981 — but it is a concern,” Halkitis writes. “However, it’s a concern that must be spoken about and dealt with differently for this ‘new’ AIDS generation.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men remain the most profoundly affected by HIV.
In 2010, an estimated 29,800 men were infected with HIV after having sex with another man — a 12 percent increase from the 26,700 new infections among this group in 2008. In 2010, men who have sex with men accounted for 63 percent of all new HIV infections nationwide.
At the same time as the disease gets renewed attention from the gay community, Strub said young gay men infected with HIV face new challenges — even though the disease is no longer a death sentence — because of the lack of solidarity with other gay men.
“People with HIV no longer inspire a sympathetic response from the public, especially not the gay public, but are more often seen and defined — particularly by the public health and criminal justice systems — as potential threats,” Strub said. “We’re living longer so we’re around to infect longer, viral vectors, potential infectors, an inherent risk to society.”
Meanwhile, advocates working on HIV/AIDS contend the issue has always belonged to the gay community, but is rising again in prominence for various reasons.
Richard Socarides, a gay New York Democratic activist, was among those predicting HIV/AIDS will “emerge as a major issue for the gay community.”
“Especially now, as a whole new generation of young gay men face issues relating to safe sex head on for the first time,” Socarides said. “But now in a context where ‘silence’ may not equal death but instead, a long-term chronic but treatable disease.”
Mark Mazzone, a spokesperson for the LGBT military group SPART*A, said he thinks HIV will come to forefront for advocates working on LGBT military issues in the wake of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the Supreme Court ruling against the Defense of Marriage Act.
“I think this will return as an LGBT military issue simply because of the lack of education given to our service members and the high risk behaviors mostly younger LGB men engage in, which need to be mitigated through a comprehensive training and prevention program,” Mazzone said.
Mazzone said service members become non-deployable once they’re discovered to have HIV; can’t commission as an officer or warrant officer; can’t fly aircraft or work in any jobs requiring a flight physical; are restricted to stateside duty assignments (with the exception of the Navy); and are not eligible for special schools such as Ranger, Special Forces or other special ops jobs.
And the nation’s largest LGBT group says that it continues to make a priority efforts to bring the HIV/AIDS epidemic to an end.
Fred Sainz, vice president of communications for the Human Rights Campaign, said HIV/AIDS has been and continues to be at the forefront for LGBT groups like HRC.
“Until the scourge is gone, fighting HIV/AIDS has, is and will remain a top priority for the LGBT civil rights movement,” Sainz said.
Strub said in recent months he’s seen HRC devote more attention to HIV/AIDS.
“I am heartened by HRC’s outreach to HIV advocates in the last several months and am cautiously optimistic we will see a greater commitment from them in 2014, on HIV issues, than we have seen in recent years,” Strub said.
One HIV/AIDS issue that has particularly risen in prominence is the HIV criminalization laws in some states. Under such laws, an HIV-positive person can face criminal charges for failing to disclose their HIV status before engaging in sex.
LGBT and HIV/AIDS advocates have railed against the laws, saying they send an inaccurate message regarding prevention responsibility, create a disincentive to receiving testing and may discourage disclosure of HIV status. According to Lambda Legal, 39 states have HIV-specific criminal statutes or have brought HIV-related criminal charges, which have resulted in more than 160 prosecutions in the United States in the last four years.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) introduced on Tuesday legislation in the Senate known as the Repeal Existing Policies that Encourage and Allow Legal (“REPEAL”) HIV Discrimination Act, which would require an interagency review of federal and state laws that criminalize certain actions by people living with HIV.
“A disturbing number of state and local criminal laws pertaining to individuals with HIV/AIDS are rooted not in science, but in outdated fear,” Coons said in a statement. “They run counter to effective public health strategies, discourage HIV testing, and perpetuate unfair stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS – people who are our friends, family, and neighbors.”
In May, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced the House version of the legislation along with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). According to the Library of Congress, the bill has 37 sponsors, although Ros-Lehtinen is the only Republican co-sponsor.
In Iowa, the punishment for being found guilty of violating Code 709C can be imprisonment for up to 25 years and registration as a sex offender.
Donna Red Wing, executive director of the LGBT group One Iowa, said in the wake of securing marriage equality in her state, working with local HIV groups to repeal her state’s HIV criminalization law has become the No. 1 legislative priority for the organization.
“Over the years, I’ve been troubled that as the face of AIDS changes, fewer and fewer LGBT organizations are engaging in this struggle,” Red Wing said. “It seems like the right thing to do, you know? Because in the early days, if it wasn’t for our people, if it wasn’t for the LGBT communities, we would not be where we are today.”
Although the Iowa Legislature is no longer in session, Red Wing said efforts are underway to move forward legislation with lawmaker reconvene in January.
“We already have laws that deal with communicable diseases, and the fact that HIV/AIDS gets this special treatment and these enhanced sentences is so draconian,” Red Wing said. “A communicable disease is a communicable disease is a communicable disease, and there should be nothing special and no enhanced sentences for people living with AIDS/HIV.”
The potential for discovering a cure for the disease has also received significant attention amid new developments from the Obama administration as part of the goal of achieving an “AIDS-free generation.”
Last week, President Obama announced he’s redirecting $100 million over the course of three years at the National Institutes for Health to an initiative with the goal of developing a cure for the disease.
“The United States should be at the forefront of new discoveries in how to put HIV into long-term remission without requiting live-long therapies, or better yet, eliminate it completely,” Obama said.
A NIH official later clarified for the Blade the $100 million will be on top of another $60 million previously directed toward the effort and comes from grants for other initiatives that have expired at the agency.
But the prospects for a cure were dealt a blow last week, following media reports that two men who had hoped they were cured of HIV after bone marrow transplants found they still had the virus.
After the two men underwent life-threatening procedures intended for cancer, they initially were virus-free as of July in four months in one case and two months in another and stopped taking their HIV medication. But doctors announced last week that virus has reemerged in their systems.
Despite the reemergence of the virus in the systems of the two men, doctors said they learned from the procedure that even if you make HIV seemingly disappear, it can hide in the body — possibly held up in the organs and inside the intestines — and reactivate.
Strub said while efforts to eliminate the disease are important, changing the way society looks at HIV/AIDS should also be a priority.
“The advocacy needs are immense, but one of the most important — to which we in the LGBT community can contribute to greatly — is in reducing stigma by supporting and empowering people with HIV and refocusing on the human rights approach, rather than just a biomedical approach, to HIV prevention.”
District of Columbia
D.C.’s Mary’s House For Older Adults names new executive director
Charlene Leach to succeed Imani Woody as leader of LGBTQ-supportive seniors home
The board of directors of Mary’s House for Older Adults, the D.C.-based home dedicated to providing affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors, has announced it has named longtime nonprofit organization leader A. Charlene Leach as its new executive director.
Leach, who is now serving in the executive director’s position, is succeeding Dr. Imani Woody, the Mary’s House founding president and CEO, who announced her retirement from her official leadership role at Mary’s House on July 7.
Woody, who holds a PhD in Human Services, is credited with playing the lead role over many years in arranging both city and private funding needed to construct and operate the Mary’s House three-story building located at 401 Anacostia Road, S.E., in the city’s Fort DuPont neighborhood.
“With over three decades of nonprofit experience and 15 years serving as an executive director, Charlene brings a wealth of knowledge in organizational leadership, program development, and community engagement,” the Mary’s House board says in a statement.
“Her proven track record of building impactful programs and leading mission-driven organizations makes her uniquely suited to guide Mary’s House into its next phase of growth,” the statement continues. “Charlene is deeply aligned with the mission of Mary’s House and is committed to advancing its work to provide safe, inclusive housing and supportive services for LGBTQ+ older adults,” it says. “Under her leadership, the organization will continue to expand its impact while remaining grounded in the values that define our community.”
Leach’s LinkedIn page shows she has most recently served since 2022 as executive director of the African American AIDS Task Force in Minneapolis. Prior to that, it shows she served as executive director of the Fredericksburg Area Health and Support Services organization in Fredericksburg, Va., and before that as director of development for the D.C.-Baltimore area Women’s Collective.
Her LinkedIn page says she has been involved with Mary’s House as a volunteer and grant writer since 2016.
Mary’s House, which opened in March 2025, with a grand opening ceremony held in May 2025 attended by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, includes 15 single-occupancy residential apartments and more than 5,000 square feet of shared communal living space.
An earlier statement released by the Mary’s House board announcing Woody’s retirement said Woody would continue to be involved with the organization as a member of the board. The earlier statement and board’s more recent statement on July 29 announcing Leach’s appointment as executive director did not say whether the board plans to name someone else as president and CEO, the title that Woody held before her retirement. But the latest statement says Leach will be running Mary’s House’s day-to-day operations as Woody did.
Virginia
Doug Ollivant to face Eugene Vindman in Va. 7th Congressional District
Republican defeated challengers in Tuesday’s primary
Republican Doug Ollivant will face off against incumbent U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.
Ollivant defeated his Republican opponents in Tuesday’s primary. Vindman ran unopposed.
Vindman in 2024 ran to succeed then-Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger in the U.S. House of Representatives after she ran for governor. Spanberger succeeded Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2025.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Tuesday easily won his primary. All other Democratic incumbent members of Congress from Northern Virginia also won their respective primaries.
District of Columbia
LGBTQ advocates optimistic about D.C.’s expected new mayor
Janeese Lewis George cites strong record of support as Council member
Several prominent D.C. LGBTQ community advocates said they are optimistic that Democratic mayoral nominee Janeese Lewis George, who is expected to easily win election as mayor in the city’s Nov. 3 general election, will continue her strong record of support on LGBTQ issues from her current role as a Ward 4 D.C. Council member.
But most of the seven LGBTQ advocates who responded to an informal Washington Blade survey of community leaders and activists said they would be observing Lewis George’s transition plans for her expected mayoral administration to determine if she will follow through with her campaign promises to put in place policies and funding to strongly support the LGBTQ community.
Lewis George emerged as the decisive winner in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary with 54 percent of the vote in a six-candidate race, with her lead opponent, former D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie (D-At-Large) receiving around 37 percent and four lesser-known candidates receiving 4 percent or less.
In a city with an overwhelmingly Democratic electorate, virtually all political observers believe Lewis George will win the November general election to become the city’s next mayor.
In the primary, she received the endorsement of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, the city’s largest local LGBTQ political organization, and received the highest possible candidate rating of +10 from GLAA DC, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington.
With Lewis George, McDuffie, and the four lesser-known candidates in the Democratic primary, including one who identified as bisexual, expressing strong support on LGBTQ issues, LGBTQ advocates acknowledged that most queer voters chose a candidate to support based on non-LGBTQ issues.
And Lewis George’s LGBTQ supporters have said they believe Lewis George received the largest share of the LGBTQ vote based on her outspoken support for social justice related issues, including policies to address the need for affordable housing, which she said impacts LGBTQ people in need, especially queer people of color and transgender residents.
“I think she understands a theory of community and economic development that is both inclusive of LGBTQ people but not exclusive about us,” said Benjamin Brooks, president of GLAA D.C. Brooks also currently serves as interim director of policy for one of the divisions of Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s LGBTQ supportive medical clinic and health services organization.
“I think that she represents a change in administration that will see more dollars to public programs that are more pro social,” Brooks said. “We’re going to be looking at who she appoints to the different agencies that we’re interested in and making sure that LGBTQ people are centered in that conversation,” he said.
Brooks added, “We know LGBTQ people were featured heavily in her campaign as organizers and as her staff members. So, I think we should expect to see us included, and she has put out a platform that lifts up all Washingtonians.”
Longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist John Klenert said he, too, will be watching to see if and how Lewis George follows up her campaign promises on LGBTQ issues.
“My number one concern will be with the budgets being what they are in the city, will she continue to fiscally support the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs?” he told the Blade. “Number two, will she continue to support the HIV type places like Whitman-Walker,” he said.
Acknowledging that Lewis George has expressed support for these types of programs during the election campaign, Klenert added, “Words are cheap. Let’s see on paper her proposals.”
D.C. gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein is among the few LGBTQ activists who publicly raised concern over Lewis George’s status as a Democratic Socialist and member of the controversial Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) national organization.
“I congratulate Ms. George on winning the primary and hope she will do a great job as our next mayor,” Rosenstein told the Blade in a statement. “But the issues I promulgated in the primary still go unanswered,” he said, noting that he is unaware of Lewis George saying whether she disagrees with the DSA’s platform opposing the existence of the state of Israel, not talking to any pro-Israel Zionist organizations, and, among other things, defunding U.S. police departments.
Rosenstein also noted that Lewis Geroge, as far as he knows, has not publicly rebuked one of her supporters who endorsed her for mayor, Ward 8 community activist Jauhar Abraham, who has publicly referred to gay people as “sissies” and “fags” who should not be allowed to teach in the city’s public schools.
“Will she really stand up for the LGBTQ community, or does she agree with those like Jauhar Abraham,” Rosenstein said in his statement. “These are issues she owes the voters answers to.”
Ward 8 gay longtime Democratic and community activist Phillip Pannell, who just won election in the Democratic primary as the city’s Democratic National Committeeman, is among the LGBTQ activists who supports Lewis George’s candidacy for mayor. He told the Blade that Lewis George, while not saying so directly, has made it clear she does not support what he describes as Jauhar Abraham’s anti-gay slurs.
When asked if the Abraham issue as raised by Rosenstein was a concern for him, Pannell said, “No, because I know that Jauhar Abraham’s homophobic statements are in no way in alignment with Janeese Lewis George’s support for our community.”
He added, “You can’t always judge a candidate or basically indict a candidate because of the support of some individuals. There is no way Janeese supports the type of stuff Jauhar spews.”
Like some of the other LGBTQ advocates who spoke to the Blade about Lewis George’s potential impact on the LGBTQ community, Pannell said he is optimistic about her actions as mayor.
“I expect that she will at least maintain the type of support that we are getting under Mayor Bowser if not more so,” he said. “And a good indication of her level of support would be the votes that she has cast in support of our community while she has been a member of the Council,” Pannell said.
Also, like other LGBTQ supporters of Lewis George, Pannell said he is not troubled over her role as a Democratic Socialist. “There are many people who are associated with the Democratic Party who would be very much aligned with Democratic Socialist organizations,” he said. “So that doesn’t bother me at all.”
Ashley Gibbs, who serves as board co-chair of the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center, is among the activists who said they are uncertain about Lewis George’s expected impact on the community.
“Certainly, I expect her to win in November given the demographics of D.C.,” she said. “I have to admit I live in Maryland now, so I am less clued into D.C. politics than I used to be,” she added. “So, I think it’s a big unknown. I think we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens and how well Janeese can make things given the federal government.”
David Perruzza, owner of the D.C. LGBTQ bars Pitchers and A League of Her Own, located in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, like other LGBTQ bar owners, said he preferred not to comment on the ins and outs of the race for mayor
But similar to other nightlife related small businesses in the city, including bars and restaurants, Perruzza said he was deeply troubled over what he believed to be Lewis George’s support for ending the so-called tip wage system for bars and restaurants. He said most LGBTQ bar owners believe doing that could force them to go out of business due to excessive labor costs.
Under the tip wage system, which has been in place in D.C. and other cities and states for many years, businesses that employ servers who receive tips can pay them a significantly lower minimum wage called the tip wage compared to the regular minimum wage, which is now $18.40 per hour in D.C. At the initiative of local labor groups, D.C. voters in 2022 approved for the second time Initiative 82, which called for raising the minimum wage for tipped workers to the full minimum wage over a phase-in period of 10 years or more.
Organizations representing local restaurants and bars said most tipped workers make close to if not more than the full minimum wage in tips, and that under the current D.C. law, businesses are required to pay tipped workers the difference if they don’t make the equivalent of the full minimum wage in tips.
They argued that the initial raising of the tip wage from just over $5 per hour to several dollars more an hour created a financial hardship that was forcing many of them to go out of business. The mayor and D.C. Council responded by repealing Initiative 82 and later putting in place in 2025 a compromise law supported by the business owners that brought the tip minimum wage to $10.30 per hour as of July 1, 2026.
The new law calls for the tip minimum wage to increase to 60 percent of the full minimum wage by 2028 and increase incrementally by 5 percent until it reaches 75 percent of the full minimum wage in 2034.
D.C. Council records show that Lewis George voted against the compromise bill when the Council approved it in July of 2025 as an amendment to the city’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
Local nightlife advocate and small business owner Salah Czapary, who served as Mayor Bowser’s director of the D.C. Office of Nightlife and Culture from 2022 to 2024, said Lewis George told a group of nightlife business operators and owners during a meeting in May that she opposes yet another ballot measure proposed by the labor advocacy group One Fair Wage that calls for raising the city’s minimum wage for all workers to $25 per hour and for eliminating the subminimum wage for tipped workers.
“I was in the room when she explained to a room full of nightlife small business, arts, and cultural operators that she has spoken with experts in the field,” Czapary told the Blade. He said Lewis George told the gathering that she did not support the latest wage initiative that was attempting to get on the ballot, which was a concern to business owners at the time.
“And I think that’s actually quite impressive for a lawmaker to do when everyone assumes you would support a certain initiative,” he said in referring to Lewis George. “To have one view and then assess the reality that might have changed. And then say that while I agree with the idea of raising the wages — I think most people do — we also don’t live in a vacuum. We have to deal with the realities of the economy,” Czapary said.
“I think D.C., as we know, has been a safe haven for LGBTQ individuals from across the country and has been very progressive on its treatment of LGBTQ people,” he said. “I think we will not expect that to change under our new mayor,” he added. “She was endorsed by many LGBTQ individuals and organizations, and she will continue to build on that progress we’ve made as a city, and we will continue to be that safe haven for people.”
Edmund Morris, president of the D.C. Equality Chamber of Commerce, which he said represents more than 100 LGBTQ+ and allied businesses serving the D.C. Metro area, released a short statement in response to the Blade’s request for comment on the impact his group expects Lewis George to have on the LGBTQ community.
“Janeese Lewis George has emphasized inclusive policies and support for local small businesses, priorities that align with our mission,” the statement says. “We look forward to productively engaging a future administration on how best to support aspiring and active entrepreneurs to flourish in the city that they serve,” it says.
Nick Tsusaki, founder and owner of the D.C. LGBTQ bar Spark Social, said he preferred not to comment on the impact Lewis George will have on policy related to LGBTQ issues. But he said he was impressed by Lewis George’s visits to several LGBTQ bars during the primary campaign.
“I’m really excited for her” he said, “I think she made a point in her last week of campaigning to do like an LGBTQ bar crawl. She came to Spark, to Trade and Bunker,” he said referring to two other D.C. LGBTQ bars. “And really showing dedication to the community in a way that went above and beyond what I had expected –really meeting the community where we’re at.”
He added, “And so, for her to drop in on a Friday night and just talk to – get on the microphone and talk about why she’s excited to fight for our community was really cool to see in an authentic way.”
In response to requests by the Blade and Capital Stonewall Democrats seeking statements from each of the mayoral candidates during the primary campaign, Lewis George submitted these comments, which are excerpted from a longer statement.
“As mayor, I will protect our LGBTQ+ neighbors against federal attacks on their identity, including their health care. … On the Council I have been a strong supporter of pro-LGBTQ+ bills, including making D.C. a sanctuary for people seeking gender-affirming health care as well as addressing discrimination and harassment in nightlife and hospitality…And as mayor, I am prepared to move up and win those fights – a fight for D.C. statehood, a fight for our true economy, and a real opportunity to uplift our Black queer and trans youth.”
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