Sistahs Getting Real About HIV/AIDS
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Black women's group to offer
facts about HIV/AIDS
By Shauntel Lowe,
Inside Bay Area, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/19/2008 11:08:18 PM PDT
Seventeen years ago, Desiree Rushing received one of those phone
calls that makes people afraid to ever answer the phone again.
The voice on the other end told Rushing she needed to come in to
the clinic for her test results.
The moment she walked into the clinic she knew: She had HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS.
Rushing, 49, will be one of the speakers Saturday at "Sistahs
Getting Real About HIV/AIDS," a symposium hosted by the Oakland
chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in
preparation for a week of activities across the nation leading
up to National HIV Testing Day on June 27.
"It's really about real talk — what you don't want to think
about and what you should," said Cathy Adams, founding president
of the Oakland chapter.
The symposium, offered in conjunction with the California
Prevention and Education Project, will include free, rapid HIV
screenings.
The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the San
Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St.
The day's topics will include dealing with a husband who has
been living on the "down low," meaning having extramarital sex
with men; the stigma of having HIV/AIDS; and how parents can
talk to their teens about sex.
"Some parents are not comfortable having open, candid
conversations with their children," Adams said.
Rushing is not one of those parents. She said she talked to her
son, Kentrell Hall, 29, about HIV. Three weeks ago, her son's
first child, Issac, was born.
"What you're hearing in the background is something I thought
I'd never be able to have," she said in a telephone interview as
her first grandson cried.
Rushing is also featured in a film that will be shown at the
symposium. "Breaking the Silence" is about three Bay Area women
living with HIV.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, black women are diagnosed with AIDS nearly 23 times
as often as white women.
"We want a message to come through to say we cannot leave our
sisters and brothers behind," Adams said.
Though the symposium is geared toward African-American women,
women of all ethnicities and races are welcome.
Adams was also a panelist at a town hall meeting Thursday hosted
by the Bay Area Regional African AIDS State of Emergency
Coalition.
"I'm scared, y'all," said Robert Williams, also a panelist and a
research associate at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at
University of California, San Francisco. "We have a state of
emergency, but it doesn't seem like we're doing anything
different."
Thursday's meeting was part of a free two-day conference on
HIV/AIDS prevention that concludes today at the Courtyard
Marriott, 5555 Shellmound St., in Emeryville.
The 'Sistahs Getting Real About HIV/AIDS' symposium, which will
include free, confidential HIV tests, is scheduled for 10 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the San Francisco Public Library, 100
Larkin St.
Beebe Memorial Cathedral offers free HIV screenings Monday
through June 27 at the cathedral, 3900 Telegraph Ave., Oakland.
Call510-869-6763 for times and information.
