Image credit: The San Francisco Trans March in 2018; photo by Nalini Elias.
During the height of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., transgender people were often underrepresented in HIV prevention campaigns, services, clinical research and access to care. And to this day, as we confront the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the transgender community are more likely to experience unemployment, homelessness and inadequate access to health care. Sheltering-In-Place may lead to conflict with transphobic family members or housemates and has curtailed access to relevant health care, including transition-related treatments. A panel of activists, healthcare specialists and community historians will consider how the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s affected the transgender community and identify strategies to provide support to transgender people during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Our “Fighting Back” series is an intergenerational discussion that brings together community leaders, experts, historians and activists to explore lessons from the past that might be useful in formulating “resistance” efforts today.
SPEAKERS
Terry Beswick (moderator) has served as executive director of the GLBT Historical Society since 2016. At the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, he was a founding member of the local ACT UP and was the first national coordinator of ACT NOW, the national AIDS activist network. He advocated for HIV/AIDS research and treatment with Project Inform, the Human Rights Campaign and the White House Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. After the advent of effective treatments for HIV, Beswick worked as a journalist for the Bay Area Reporter and other LGBTQ community publications. More recently, he spearheaded a successful campaign to save and renovate the Castro Country Club for the queer recovery community and co-founded the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. He holds an MFA in playwriting from San Francisco State University. Beswick has been named a Community Grand Marshal for the 50th Anniversary San Francisco LGBTQ Pride Parade and Celebration in 2020.
Eva Hayward received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the history of consciousness. Hayward has previously taught courses on film/video, aesthetics, science studies, and feminist/queer theory at the University of California, Santa Cruz; University of New Mexico; Uppsala University (Sweden); Duke University; and the University of Cincinnati. Currently, she is an assistant professor in gender and women's studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Her research focuses on aesthetics, environmental and science studies, and transgender theory.
Aiden Helstrom is the QTY Programs Fellow with the Transgender Cultural District in San Francisco. He is a trans masc nonbinary, queer polyamorous pansexual. A homeless youth since the age of 17, he has been living in an SRO since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Janetta Johnson is the executive director of the Transgender, Gendervariant, Intersex Justice Project (TGI Justice Project), a group of transgender, gender variant and intersex individuals inside and outside of prisons, jails and detention centers who are working to create a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom. She cofounded the Compton’s Transgender Cultural District, the first transgender cultural district in the country, in San Francisco in 2016. She also cofounded TAJA's coalition, which advocates for community accountability for Black trans safety in San Francisco.
Toni Newman is a consultant for the Transgender Strategy Center based in Los Angeles. Toni is a 1985 graduate of Wake Forest University and current J.D. candidate. She was formerly the executive director for St. James Infirmary; the development director for Maitri Compassionate Care, an HIV/AIDS hospice in San Francisco; and the interim director of development and communications at the To Help Everyone Health and Wellness Center in Los Angeles.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
This event will take place online. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link and instructions on how to join the Zoom webinar as an attendee. The event will also be livestreamed on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GLBTHistory and then archived on our YouTube page at https://bit.ly/2UyGVbG.
ADMISSION
Free | Suggested donation of $5.00
Register online here: https://bit.ly/3e61TWw
The event is limited to 500 attendees.
JOIN THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Become a member of the GLBT Historical Society for free museum and program admission, discounts in the museum shop and other perks: www.glbthistory.org/memberships