April 18 is National Transgender HIV Testing Day

Eric Brus READ TIME: 2 MIN.

The second annual National Transgender HIV Testing Day (NTHTD) will be observed on Tuesday, April 18. The event is being organized by the University of California-San Francisco's Center of Excellence for Transgender Health (CoE).

According to the CoE, "NTHTD is a day to recognize the importance of routine HIV testing, status awareness, and continued focus on HIV prevention and treatment efforts among transgender people. This initiative encourages community-based organizations, health jurisdictions, and HIV prevention programs to participate by hosting local trans HIV testing community events (HIV testing, visibility campaign, community forums) and/or develop trans-specific HIV testing campaign materials and resources."

As part of the NTHTD initiative, the CoE has developed a Transgender HIV Testing Toolkit, which includes five modules "designed to reflect the most current HIV prevention research and best practices for serving trans and gender non-binary people."

The modules are: 1) Get the Facts about Trans People and HIV; 2) Testing and Enhanced Communication Approaches with Trans People; 3) Building Capacity to Increase HIV Testing Efforts for Trans People; 4) Community Engagement and National HIV Transgender HIV Testing Day; and 5) NTHTD and Toolkit Resources.

The CoE has also produced a number of other resources for the testing day, including a condensed toolkit for health departments, testing placards in English and Spanish, and a series of flyers to promote testing.

RESOURCES:

To support activities commemorating NTHTD, we have compiled an annotated list of online resources focusing on HIV/AIDS among transgender people.

  • Center of Excellence for Transgender Health: Website that includes many resources on transgender health

  • Transgender Persons: CDC's compilation of resources and fact sheets related to transgender health

  • Transgender Health: Resource page from Fenway Health

  • National LGBT Health Education Center: Program of The Fenway Institute

  • Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders (SAGE): Organization that provides services and advocacy for LGBT elders

  • LGBT Education and Training: Resource with a list of articles, training, and educational materials from the LGBT Resource Center at UCSF

  • All Children-All Families: Benchmarks of LGBTQ Cultural Competency - from the Human Rights Campaign


    by Eric Brus

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