Nonprofit Projects: HIV in the South

From the final years of a long-term survivor, whose body was so ravaged by 20 years of AIDS medications that he became unrecognizable, to a family struggling with poverty and addiction in the South to a 65 year old Vietnam Veteran, the face of AIDS in the United States is constantly changing. This body of work began at 18 when I started working with my stepmother’s AIDS organization in Atlanta. Since then, I have been documenting the growing challenges this community faces living with HIV and the stigma that comes with those three letters, particularly in the American South.

The South has experienced the largest proportionate increase in persons with AIDS in recent years, with African Americans being hit the hardest. Although HIV is still prevalent in the more urban gay male community, the face of AIDS in the South is also increasingly rural, low income, and female. Extreme poverty combined with the widespread lack of health insurance and avoidance of openly talking about sex and HIV has created an overwhelming epidemic in states such as Georgia.

There is a growing perception among the American public that AIDS is no longer a threat and that an HIV diagnosis is not the death sentence it was in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. While this may be true for individuals who are diagnosed early and are proactive about their treatment, many people contracting HIV in the South avoid getting tested because they fear rejection from peers and family. And while the region represents a little more than one third of the U.S. population, it now accounts for almost half of new AIDS cases.