The Color Between The Lines with Esther Dillard

HIV Is Not a Gay Disease: A Wake-Up Call for the Black Community

• Esther Dillard • Season 2 • Episode 19

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In this powerful episode of The Color Between the Lines, host Esther Dillard sits down with Grazell Howard, Board Chair of the Black AIDS Institute, for a compelling conversation that pulls back the curtain on HIV and AIDS in Black communities.

Howard, a passionate advocate and strategist, shares sobering facts and uplifting solutions about how HIV disproportionately affects not only Black gay men—but also heterosexual Black women, who now make up nearly 50% of new HIV diagnoses among women in the U.S. She breaks down persistent myths, explains what the "Black community" truly encompasses, and outlines what tools exist today to prevent and fight the disease.

Whether you're part of the diaspora or a concerned ally, this episode is a must-listen wake-up call packed with truth, strategy, and hope.

🎧 Highlights include:

  • Why HIV is not “just a gay disease”
  • How the epidemic is hitting heterosexual Black women hardest
  • What the Black AIDS Institute is doing to educate and equip our communities
  • The importance of reframing how we define "Black" in healthcare advocacy

👉 Tune in and share this episode—it could save a life.

🔔 Subscribe to the podcast for more enlightening talks and join us in exploring how historical narratives shape our future. You can also watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@thecolorbetweenthelines

On this edition of the Color between the Lines. I'm, speaking with Grisell Howard, and she's giving a wake up call about the impact of HIV and AIDS in the black community. Hey, it's Esther Dillard with the Color between the Lines where I speak with authors, writers, producers and thought leaders who have a black and brown perspective. In this edition of the Color between the Lines, I'm speaking with a woman by the name of Grisell Howard. She's the board chair of the Black AIDS Institute, and she hasn't written a book, but she sure could with all the knowledge she dropped on me in our last conversation. She wants to raise awareness about the impact of HIV and AIDS on the black community and how there are new tools out there that not only impact homosexual black men, but really impact It's, la heterosexual black women. That HIV is not a gay disease, that HIV specifically in the black community impacts and affects all of us because if one community member has hiv, then we are all impacted and that HIV is a preventable virus that currently is disproportionately impacting the black community. And can we define black? May we? Sure. Black community is obviously African Americans, but it is also our, immigrant brothers and sisters who hail from Caricom nations, the West Indies as well as Africa. So that is the diaspora to the continent. If you identify as black or as an African descendant, you should be articulate in understanding the facts of HIV and the myths of of hiv. And today we have an opportunity to bend the tide of HIV in all our, black communities. The CDC reports that, black heterosexual women account for about 50% of the new HIV diagnosed diagnosis among women. What factors have you found in research that contribute to this disproportionate impact? And, and what is BIA doing, I should say BAI doing to address this alarming statistic? The black. AIDS Institute has a long history steeped in communicating with black women. We're the first HIV AIDS organization in the country to assemble a conference exclusively, for black women, about black women. And if you allow the timeline to go back the 40 years when HIV frightened the world, frightened science, and specifically ravaged the homosexual gay community, the messages were messages that forced our community, black women, to almost not listen. Why? They said it was a gay disease. We received the messages that HIV was not about us and for us. And then I usher you into a time, when Oprah Winfrey and others finally glommed on that this was an epidemic. And unfortunately, rather than that episode being impactful and informative for the entire community, it took a salacious bet. And that salacious bend was when Oprah Winfrey ushered in J.L. king rather than actually the founder of the Black AIDS Institute, because he was on the stage as well. And that would have been the opportune time to say, black people, we all need to be in this together. HIV is contracted through sex, IV drug use and bodily fluids. That means it can attack or attract anyone fair anyone is susceptible that engages in high risk behavior. Let me say it like that, that. 2. IV drug use. IV drug use is a way you can contract the virus. Exchange of bodily fluids. Very simple, right? However, if you don't know that, the myth become true and rapidly spread faster than the facts. So then you had fear. Oh, you can't drink water in my house. Oh, you can't use my bathroom. Oh, I can't. Hug or kiss you. Oh. Oh. We can't bury our loved ones. That still occurs in some countries. So with all of that said, the first messages about HIV went against our culture. And now here we are, 40 years later, still battling myth, shame, stigma, which is also a word that's not really ours. We really don't use the word stigma in our community because we're all stigmatized because we can't unzip our black skin. But let's speak about words we know share. Shame, fear, Okay, I'm going to ask. There is, you know, really big concern now because your organization deals with black women and deals with black people and aids. And now we have an administration which does not want to give funding to organizations that deal with, quote, air quotes, dei. How are you going to be able to, I guess, ride this tide and still help your community when you have individuals who are basically trying to cut off funding in many ways? the double edged sword and we must speak truth at all times. The Black AIDS Institute is uniquely and unapologetically black, addressing HIV in all sphere and segments of the black community. And in the current construct, HIV is not gay. The administration is targeting and focused on on lgbtq, queer and other organizations and nonprofits that focus on the LGBTQ community. In the state of hiv, we are speaking about health and wellness, and that is an entitlement of every citizen of these yet United States. And I will give you this tidbit because it's factual. Earlier I referenced that the Black AIDS Institute held the first black women's conference on hiv. The title of that conference was called Sisters Get Real about hiv. It was a national conference supported by public and private organizations. One of our earliest funders was Mr. Donald Trump, known as today President Donald Trump. My name is Griselle Howard and I must inform you that Mr. Donald Trump, native New Yorker, was one of our earliest sponsors of, the Sisters Get Real about HIV and aids. This national campaign was a billboard campaign. It was also a black women's organization campaign, representation from every traditional hiv, you know, every traditional black women's organization and augmented by HIV organizations and those doing the HIV work. Most success at that time happened to be black Muslims. So we also had middle school students supported by actually, movie stars. And so Hollywood showed up as well as daytime tv because many people were impacted. So people who were passionate about, social work, people who were passionate about foster care. So we were trying to bring in the full nucleus of where black women showed up to give the message. Middle school students came from Los Angeles county, high school students came from Los Angeles county. And the women representation came from around the country as young as 18 to 90. And in that meeting, we thought we were addressing all the spheres of black America that we as black women could go back in our community and say, hey, this is not just about gay people. Hey, the people that contract this virus aren't bad people. What do you say is the biggest challenges that black women face in accessing HIV prevention, testing and treatment? How can community leaders help address those barriers? We can level, set and demand that the messenger matters. Once you, agree that the messenger matters, then you must have some cultural fluency. Black people are not lone wolves. We're like grapes. And so have you ever seen one grape on a plate that you want to grab? And it looks appealing? So you must allow us to come together as black people and then allow us to go into our self selected dialogues. What do you mean, Griselle? I mean allow young black men who have sex with men to have a conversation. Allow women over the age of 50 to have a conversation. Allow Big Papa over 55 to have a conversation. Why? Because when HIV represented itself or presented itself, there was no performance enhancing drugs, no Viagra, no, say Alice We did not have the superhighway in a way that you had TikTok social media. So pornography has played an interesting role for the youngs. And then lastly, we did not have this open acceptance of, group sex and partying and free love. So we first must refresh our hard drive within HIV and say black people, what you heard 40 years ago is not true today. Why? Because we have biomedical interventions, we have medical technology that allows for people to love who they want, when they want safely. And we also allow people who have been impacted by hiv, living with HIV to live long, thriving lives so it's no longer a death sentence. We need hip hop to come back. We need hip hop to come back hard and bring the messages that they brought 50 years ago, 30 years ago. Come on. Everybody was rapping about it. Everybody was singing about it. Today, mom's the word in fact, it's reversed if you look at love and hip hop and the housewives They could be our biggest partner and just show all the love lust that. and lux and oopa lux. Now safely. Let's talk about it again. Let's talk about the STIs. Here's a fact I'd like you to think about. Prep the pre prophylactic that if you are HIV negative and you choose to engage in high risk activities, you can take this one pill a day and love safely. The cautionary tale to that is, is that you still are not protected from other sexually transmitted viruses that are ravishing the community that have shown up post Covid to really be resistant to drugs. Gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia. That's the conversation. And if we don't have that conversation, we will continue to be the smallest population with the largest impact and adverse results of hiv. You talked about those, those medications. And my understanding is that only about 13% of black people get are that are in need of this, are able to get prescribed this medication. Why is that and what is being done to kind of fix that? So I'll submit to you, and this is not a popular belief, but I will submit to you, we have. Have two things. One, continue to ensure people know about PREP and pep. No one ever speaks about PEP in the black community. Oh, what is that? That's the oops pill. So should you go out and you be outside, and then you come inside and say, oh, girl, I wild it out. Have an HIV test. Should you test negative for hiv, you can actually take a pill that allows you to have that Oops. You will continue to be screened for the virus of HIV for about six months, or, you know, unfortunately in rape cases and things like that. This is a drug that they give. However, in our community, we don't know it as an HIV Plan B, but the young people know about Plan B for pregnancy. The men and the women. We recently had an amazing, community activation at Historically Black College. And the youngs were lined up for plan B drugs. They weren't aware that there was a prep and a pet, so. What we will say is this. When the original prep drugs were introduced, the FDA did not approve them for women. Why, women were not even in the clinical trials. Now, you can shake your head, but this is America. And as Derrick Bell said, the face at the bottom of the well is the face at the bottom of the well. And so if we're black women, we're the woman to the invisible man. What do I mean? Richard Wright said it. If the black man's invisible and I'm his woman, then I'm the invisible woman to the invisible man. So. Oh, no one ever thought to put black women in the clinical trials. Why? Pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies went for who the largest portion of the population impacted. Who is that? That is men who have sex with men. And because we're speaking unapologetically black. That's young black men who have sex with men. And we have to refresh our hard drive again. Young people don't run around saying they gay any longer. They taught us, new adjectives. What gender? Non binary fluid. Asexual. Shall I go on? So if we. The messenger matters. So when I say the first drugs didn't think about us, we're trailing again. When the first HIV cases came out, we didn't even have a name for hiv. We were calling it grid. And I love Sheryl Lee Ralph because she was there then with Bai and others, and she's still here today. And so when we were running around the country screaming the alarm for black women together, we remind people we always were trailing in the appropriate messages. Care and treatment. Well, you talked a little bit about combating stigma and how that your organization has been doing that. How would you say now? What can everyday individuals do to help destigmatize this HIV and AIDS in their own communities, particularly within religious or culturally conservative spaces? So. I'm charmed and privileged, lived enough living a charmed and privileged life enough to have been surrounded by some of the most brilliant black women on the planet. And many of the courageous ones even identify as black feminists. So what they would say is, if you're not talking about your money every day, if you're not speaking about your health every day, then you're not living. And advocacy today is so important, Right? So we must talk about HIV the way we talk about our hair and our nails. We must speak about HIV the way we speak about the hottest, most, egregious things in TikTok X and every other social media. This must become an everyday conversation. Why? We must also speak about truth to ourselves. Okay? We say stigma, stigma, stigma. But you know what? Speak to some young gay people, especially some young, same gender loving black men. They will tell you they didn't leave their house to be stigmatized. The first time they were treated poorly or called out their name was in their family or in their community. So we must stop that and we must care about one another. And listen, we all make choices that people don't agree with. However, our lives depend on this. The race depends on it. Why, there was a Star wars movie that didn't have any black people in it. People say, oh, James Earl Jones. No, his voice was in it. You didn't see him. And at, the rate we're going, if we don't eradicate hiv, and when. I mean eradicated, I mean, there are persons living and thriving with hiv. There are persons who, who don't know their status. So we must address that. Everyone should know their HIV status the way they know their Social Security number or, you know, your PIN for your bank card. And today maybe the PIN for the bank card is passe also. So what is your, you know, what is your, IG address? Know it that well? Know your status? Essence, the Black AIDS Institute, took HIV testing to essence. So when we started screening, women started reporting they had never been screened. And then they went to reporting that, well, my doctor never asked me about my sexual practices, behaviors and beliefs. So, primary care physicians, we have a huge opportunity to educate primary care physicians to insist that women have the hiv. Test. How many times you go to the gynecologist and they say, it's time for HIV test. It's time. It's time. It's time for your STI screening. So become your own best advocate. Self love. Let's agree we're going to love ourselves as a community. We don't have to agree with everything in that community, but agree we're going to love ourselves enough so that young men and women can love safely. And, you know, I'm an elder in training. I want to get it when I want, how I want, as long as I want also. And so, teach me how. Why? Because we're meeting women over the age of 50 who are divorced. Covid had a huge divorce rate, and now they out the house too, y' all. And they don't know that they need to be having safe sex. They need a condom. Because Most women over 50 are certainly not running out to get prep. It's not marketed to them. They're not even aware it exists. However, they know the commercial. Lastly, speak to them, market to them. Why? I use the one commercial all the time. Y' all seen the couple walking down the street with the beautiful golden Irish sleep dog? They come home, beautiful bathroom, wallpaper, and they put the dog in the bathtub. How many black women you know put their dog in their bathtub? I don't know any. So the messenger matters. Give us culturally appropriate messages. And let's not deny the fact that in our communities, black women lead the charge. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the Color between the lines on iHeartRadio, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Esther Dillard.