Kim – Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Vancouver

The Positive Living Society BC is a non-profit organization in Downtown Vancouver that provides services for people with HIV/AIDS. Its founding purpose is to “provide a forum for people living with HIV/AIDS to advocate for their rights and their health issues” (as stated on their website) (Positive Living BC 2017). The board consists of members only, meaning an individual with HIV/AIDS. This illustrates the importance of whose voices are involved: it is a space consisting of and providing services for people with HIV/AIDS. It is necessary to create a space for oneself and mobilizing because of shared identities and goals (Combahee River Collective 1982). Positive Living created the project History Alive, documenting the history of the organization since its inception in 1986 by founder Kevin Brown.

HIV/AIDS has been predominantly framed in media as an issue concerning specifically white gay men, though it affects a variety of people. In 2015, Women made up 24.1% of HIV cases. Most common exposure is men who have sex with men (45.1%), heterosexual contact (31.9%), and injection drug use (16.3%). Divided racially, white individuals made up the largest category (45.6%), then Black (18.7%), and Indigenous (17.5%) (Government of Canada). There is a lack of representation of queer, transgender, Black, and Indigenous people of colour (QTBIPOC) (despite making up a substantial amount of cases of HIV in Canada) in this framing, and even in the beginnings of the organization’s history. The History Alive section of the website refers to individuals affected by HIV as gay men in posts describing the earlier years of the organization, emphasizing who is represented in the struggle with HIV. Many of the photos also depict these men as either white or white-passing. Kevin Brown, Positive Living’s founder, became the face of the organization, further reproducing the image of the white gay male. We must think intersectionally and to include the voices of those who have been marginalized. The whiteness prevalent in the history of the struggle with HIV/AIDS evidences who is given more representation. Currently and historically, however, QTBIPOC have been and continue to be a significant part of the organization and of communities of people with HIV/AIDS. To give recognition, however, should not be confused with giving a voice. Giving recognition is listening to the voices that are already present yet have been ignored or repressed. Doing so recognizes the
agency of those who have been marginalized. There is importance in naming and identifying oneself; “[n]aming is how [one] make[s] [one’s] presence known” (Anzaldua, 1994 p.164). The use of “person with HIV/AIDS” is part of that naming. In an interview with Kevin Brown, he states that this is preferred over using the term “HIV/AIDS victim” (Positive Living BC 2017). This naming reflects the agency of the organization’s members and the community that has been built. Those who have this commonality within Vancouver are able to connect with each other through Positive Living.

The timeline that documents the organization’s history on the Positive Living website shows videos of interviews with some members, which noticeably lack racial diversity. Due to the stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS, this lack can be attributed to the fact that publicly sharing one’s status as a person with HIV/AIDS. We must understand the salience of survival. Not all members have the same privileges as others (which is why thinking intersectionally is crucial). Because one must be a member living with HIV/AIDS in order to join the organization, this puts individuals in a position of vulnerability and may choose not to make themselves so visible within the organization and rather, choose to be part of Positive Living (or rather publicly represented) without having to be so easily targeted in the public eye. In addition, some individuals may not be “out” (to use a Western concept) to all others in their lives and choose to keep that private. This is a method of survival that is necessary in order to navigate society while minimizing risk.

History Alive in its current state aims to display more of its diversity by incorporating more QTBIPOC members in interviews and photographs. This is the goal set for future posts (i.e. photos and videos) that will be available on the website in the near future, as confirmed by the project’s communications assistant. These interviews illustrate the individual stories of the members, placing faces and stories to each one. It is important to recognize the stories of the members that have not been heard or have been able to tell their stories in the past. Doing so adds to the process of creating a space – a QTBIPOC space. What makes a space QTBIPOC is not inherent nor is it within the location itself – rather, it is the individuals that make the space QTBIPOC.

Sources

Anzaldua, Gloria. (Originally 1991). To(o) queer the writer: loca, escritora y Chicana. In Keating, Ana Louise, The Gloria Anzaldua Reader, pp. 163-175.

Combahee River Collective. (1982). The Combahee River Collective statement. In Smith, Barbara (ed.), Home girls: a Black feminist anthology, pp. 264-274.

Positive Living BC. (2017). History. Retrieved from https://positivelivingbc.org/about/history/

During the 32^nd annual AIDS Walk this year on September 16^th, along the route of the walk, were Neo-Nazi posters by Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. One poster in particular said “you deserve AIDS” (Nassar, H. M., & Brown, J. 2017). This is important concerning necropolitics. There are lives that are valued more than others and ones that are devalued to the point that they are viewed as not worthy of life. Snorton, Riley, and Haritaworn write about how specifically Trans people of colour are often targeted and are at constant risk of death: “violated bodies are continually reinscribed as degenerate and killable” (2013 p.67). Due to the history of HIV/AIDS and its ties to QTBIPOC communities, these communities are the ones that are targeted in an event such as the posters at the AIDS Walk. For example, Indigenous Canadians are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than people of other ethnicities by 2.7 times. In 2014, they also make up about 11% of new HIV cases. The living conditions of Indigenous communities, though these conditions and populations vary, experience a disproportionate amount of social, economic, and cultural influences that put these communities at risk for HIV infection. One of these factors is injection drug use, which increases the likelihood of HIV transmission. Indigenous individuals also comprise 9% of all Canadians with HIV in 2014 (Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange 2015). These statistics show that there is a disproportionate impact on communities that struggle economically, in conjunction with other social, political and cultural factors. In many instances, these disadvantaged populations are QTBIPOC.

Specific groups are at more risk than others, and though the posters target all of the people who have HIV/AIDS, the death threats are added onto those who are QTBIPOC in comparison to gay men. Canada’s reputation as a progressive country denies the state’s complicity “in facilitating the exclusion and regulation of gendered and sexual others” (Kinsman, 1996 p.183, as cited in Nash, C., & Catungal, J. (2015). The overrepresentation of white gay men as the demographic that is affected by HIV/AIDS simultaneously normalizes white gay men as activists for sexual health issues while rendering those of different sexualities and genders invisible. This results in the inclusion of certain sexualities and genders that have been previously excluded, while further pushing away others who do not fit this representation. There becomes a division of who can more safely protest or fundraise and who cannot. There are social, economic, and cultural factors that affect one’s ability to do so, and much like the rates of HIV infection, these factors affect QTBIPOC. When violence, such as in the form of hateful posters, are introduced in a space meant to fundraise for HIV health and wellness while also to counter HIV stigma, those who are more excluded become more vulnerable. To state that one deserves AIDS and therefore deserves to die exemplifies the power that dominant discourses have over QTBIPOC lives (and deaths). The message reinforces the structure of deciding who is worthy of life and who is not.

It is also important to put this year’s walk into perspective with current events. Trump’s 2016 election has allowed the conditions of racist, sexist, and violent bigotry. These feelings have always existed, and many political events have continually oppressed QTBIPOC through the state, but to elect a person who reinforces these ideals as acceptable make them tolerable outwardly rather than subliminally. This has been documented through a moment on Twitter entitled “Day 1 in Trump’s America”. The violent and direct outbursts that are similar to the Neo-Nazi posters at the AIDS Walk are a result of what Christian Fuchs has dubbed Trumpology – the ideology that currently leads the Trump administration. It is “not the ideology of a single person, but rather a whole way of thought and life that consists of elements such as hyper-individualism, hard labour, leadership, the friend/enemy scheme, and Social Darwinism” (p.48). This ideology focuses on meritocracy – the hard work of the individual leads to the making of their own success and those who are unsuccessful are not working hard enough. It creates a sense of entitlement of who belongs and who deserves to succeed (as well as who does not).

Though this may seem like a separate phenomenon due to its location to the US, it is crucial to understand that ideology transcends borders and that we must further analyze the connections between the local and the global. It is also not to say, however, that the structural devaluation of people with HIV/AIDS is an occurrence that has emerged with Trump’s presidency. There have been decades of history during which these groups of individuals have been neglected or systematically oppressed though it is crucial to acknowledge the political overtones that influence hostile behaviours such as those exhibited at the AIDS walk. It is essential as well to analyze who is devalued, and to understand the gender, racial, sexual, and class intersections of the communities that are repeatedly devalued.

Sources

Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange. (2015). Indigenous People. Retrieved from http://www.catie.ca/en/hiv-canada/2/2-3/2-3-4

Day 1 in Trump’s America. (n.d.). Retrieved November 08, 2017, from https://twitter.com/i/moments/796417517157830656?lang=en

Government of Canada. (2016). HIV in Canada: Surveillance summary tables, 2014-2015. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/hiv-in-canada-surveillance-summary-tables-2014-2015.html

Nassar, H. M., & Brown, J. (2017, September 17). Hateful flyers target annual AIDS walk. Retrieved November 08, 2017, from http://www.news1130.com/2017/09/16/hateful-flyers-target-annual-aids-walk/

Nash, C., & Catungal, J. (2015). Introduction: Sexual Landscapes, Lives and Livelihoods in Canada. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 12(2), 181-192. Retrieved from https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/959/813

Snorton, C. Riley and Jin Haritaworn. (2013). Trans necropolitics: a transnational reflection on violence, death and a trans of color afterlife. In Transgender Studies Reader 2, pp. 66-75.

Author: Kim

Positive Living Society of BC

AIDS Walk Vancouver 2017