Hi, my name is Miguel Gomez, I’m the
Director of AIDS.gov.  
Today in Washington, D.C., this February
2013, PACHA had one of its meetings 
and I’m really lucky to talk with Ejay Jack,
a PACHA member.  
He helped coordinate a panel on
transgender issues.
Sir, could you share with us what were
some of the key messages 
sent to our PACHA members?
Sure, I think in the transgender
community 
we’re disproportionately affected by HIV.  
Depending on what you look at 
14% - 69% of the transgender population
can be HIV positive. 
And so, we’re dealing with systemic
discrimination and stigma
in regards to deployment and housing
and access to respectful care. 
All of these issues come up and so they
are compounded then 
by negotiating safer sex practices or safe
hormone use.
Now at PACHA, a resolution was also
passed.  
Could you highlight what that resolution
was about?
It really speaks to the need for data
collection, 
the need for tailored prevention efforts
that are really community driven
—involving trans-people in the creation of
prevention efforts.  
Asking for the NIH to do some work on
looking at disparities within the
trans-community.  
Safe healthcare.  How are trans people
going 
to be treated in the Affordable Care Act?  
Are there protections?  I encourage people
to read it.
Where can folks go for more information? 
Great question, so the Center of
Excellence for Transgender Health 
is a great resource.  
Also, the CDC has a factsheet on the
transgender community.  
A lot of it focuses on transgender women,
but there is a resource 
from the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness
Center coming out of San Francisco 
that has a great resource for transgender
men who sleep with men, 
which is rarely talked about. 
AIDS.gov has some great information of
course.
And we’ll include information about the
PACHA meeting on AIDS.gov.  
I want to thank you for viewing.  This is
Miguel Gomez with AIDS.gov.
