To Conquer AIDS, Philanthropy Must Fight the Injustice It Thrives On

Many Americans—and many donors—think that HIV/AIDS is a thing of the past or that other problems deserve more attention. But make no mistake: The AIDS epidemic in America is raging.

It is being fueled by injustice and fanned by ignorance. We can put out this fire but only through a united effort by organizations and grant makers to promote more compassion toward people most often at risk of the disease—injection drug users, the incarcerated, racial and sexual minorities, and others who face inequality and discrimination in their daily lives.

Recent years have brought some positive developments in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Annual infection rates, while still problematic, have stabilized. And more people with HIV/AIDS are aware of their condition than ever before, meaning they can seek the treatment that will prevent illness and further spread of the virus.

Among marginalized populations, however, the AIDS epidemic is spiraling out of control.

Gay and bisexual men, for instance, represent about 2 percent of the national population. But they accounted for 56 percent of Americans living with an HIV infection in 2010. African-Americans, meanwhile, accounted for 49 percent of Americans diagnosed with AIDS in 2011. And yet they make up only 12 percent of the national population.

In the American South, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of early death among gay men and transgender individuals; that is in part because homophobia is widespread in that region, especially in rural areas, and service providers and nonprofits don’t have the resources to reach men who need healthcare.

One in seven people with HIV passes through the federal correctional system each year, but support services for recently released inmates remain scarce.

The implication of these statistics is clear: Among populations that our society marginalizes or ignores, AIDS remains a devastating illness.

The fight against AIDS is a fight against injustice. That is the fundamental insight that informs our grant making at the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and we hope our experience and approach can help demonstrate what more grant makers must do.

At Resource Center Dallas, for example, our grants allow the organization to offer bilingual education, testing, and counseling aimed helping Latino Americans, who have three times the rate of new infections as other Americans.

In Shreveport, La., our support for the Philadelphia Center is allowing the organization to provide care to people with AIDS while also supporting advocacy work to fight the entrenched homophobia that has made the region the deadliest in America for anyone with the disease.

Many worthy organizations like these focus on two related goals: fighting a deadly disease and a culture that ignores their plight. But philanthropy needs to do more to support the brave and effective organizations that are on the front lines of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

For too long, the HIV effort has been seen as sufficiently funded by many grant makers. But while government programs have supported clinical-care services for people with HIV, crucial community-centered education and social services have struggled. As a result, 55,000 people contract HIV every year, and over 700,000 HIV-positive people are not obtaining effective HIV-related care. For example, a recent Emory University study demonstrated that employment, education, race, social networks, and incarceration are all factors that contribute to one’s risk of contracting HIV.

That’s why all grant makers that work to promote community development, social justice, and human rights must fund HIV programs and why those that already support HIV efforts must expand their grant making beyond HIV services to broader issues of rights and justice. The Elton John AIDS Foundation, for instance, is now the largest supporter of programs to aid black LGBTQ individuals in the United States, as well as the largest financier of programs supporting LGBTQ individuals in the American South.

To end AIDS, we must end the injustice it thrives upon. Doing so will require a new sense of urgency and a new commitment to activism. It will require an understanding that the AIDS crisis is not a thing of the past but a scourge of the present. Most of all, it will require a sea change in the way society–and donors–view the communities that are being ravaged by this disease. Together, philanthropy can spark and sustain that change.