Issues: The House Ball Community (HBC) is comprised largely of sexual and gender minorities of color, highly impacted by the HIV epidemic and disproportionately burdened by the intersection of stigma, discrimination, violence, substance use, homelessness, incarceration, and oppressive ideologies (e.g. racism, homophobia, transphobia).

Description: House Lives Matter (HLM) is a leadership intravention convening held annually and composed of HBC members from across the world focusing on creating their own advocacy agenda they can mobilize around. HLM shifts the historical narrative within the HBC from “pathologies of illness” through a public health lens to “resilience and wellness” by mobilizing a human rights and social justice framework. HBC leaders, academics, and activists lead discussions on the intersections of mass incarceration, Black Lives Matter, race, sexuality, capitalism, mental health, homelessness, invisibility, drug use, alternative kinship structures, parenting, leadership, and how these issues impact community wellness and efforts to address health inequities and disparities among the HBC.

Lessons Learned: HLM has identified innovative strategies for the development of new intravention approaches that can engender greater impact on personal health and wellness and foster self-determination and empowerment through communities of learning that collectively develop a consciousness to address community-level health and wellness strategies.

Recommendations: House Lives Matter can is a model for national mobilization and organizing efforts of sexually diverse and gender fluid communities of color, who sit at the intersection of many health inequities that impact their communities.