Abstract

Intersections at the Grassroots: A Reproductive Justice Analysis of Atlanta’s HIV Epidemic

Dazon Dixon Diallo, MPH
SisterLove, Inc., Atlanta, GA

APHA 2017 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 4 - Nov. 8)

Issues: Black women shoulder a disproportionate burden of the HIV epidemic, accounting for 75% of all Women Living with HIV in Georgia—despite making up 16% of the state’s overall population. In Atlanta, a Black woman’s chances of contracting HIV is 14 times higher than a white woman’s. In a region known for its hospitality and sweet tea, a more sinister reality persists with health inequities permeating and adversely affecting the lives of millions of people of color. Description: Reproductive Justice is viewed as the conditions of liberation that will exist when all people have the power and resources necessary to make their own decisions about their bodies, health, gender, sexuality, relationships, families, and communities, to create and choose their families, and to reproduce their communities as a whole, with dignity, self-determination, and support. We recognize and honor the work of Black women in the US South who first conceptualized this Framework, as well as the nameless women of color, Indigenous women, trans and gender nonconforming communities, and LGBQ people of color across the US that continue to build our movement. Lessons Learned: Our method of analysis utilizes the intersectional Human Rights approach that characterizes RJ-with attention to the structural drivers of individual and community health, including anti-Black violence, criminalization of sexuality, racism, and rampant HIV stigma based in homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny. Recommendations: The RJ vision is far from our current national and local realities, in which our communities face multiple, intersecting forces of health injustice, stigma, and violence.

Advocacy for health and health education Diversity and culture Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control Public health or related research Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health