When my coworker told me that we had the opportunity to go to the 2025 Pines Party on Fire Island, I jumped at it without hesitation. I knew bits and pieces of GMHC’s history there, but it wasn’t until I arrived on the island that Friday morning in early August that I truly began to feel the weight of our legacy.
Enrollment has more than tripled since GMHC began offering person-centered substance use services last year to New Yorkers wanting help with substance use, thanks to a five-year grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and three-year funding from Elevance Health.
GMHC’s 36th annual Latex Ball generated incandescent energy on June 21, attracting a capacity crowd of about 2,500 ball goers to Terminal 5 in Manhattan for one of the New York Ballroom scene’s most anticipated Pride Month events. It’s both a celebration of the House and Ball community and, just as essentially, a sexual health fair focused on HIV prevention.
Each year on September 18, researchers, health care providers, and communities around the country observe National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day. Established in 2008 by the AIDS Institute, NHAAD raises awareness to the challenges faced by aging populations who live with HIV, which include: HIV prevention, treatment and care; and HIV-related comorbidities, coinfections, and other complications.
PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a drug that prevents HIV transmission upon exposure, is a crucial aspect of HIV prevention. However, not everyone who may benefit from PrEP can access it—some may not even know what PrEP is. Women remain a group that is significantly underrepresented among PrEP users. Although women account for 20% of new HIV diagnoses, less than 10% of women in the US who could benefit from PrEP end up getting a prescription for PrEP.
We think facts are sexy. So this August, GMHC is debuting a new initiative to deliver straightforward and stigma-free HIV & AIDS information in the