NCTE Joins Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, Supports National Transgender HIV Testing Day

The National Center for Transgender Equality is honored to join our friends at the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health in support of the inaugural National Transgender HIV Testing Day (NTHTD) and the launch of the Center for Excellence’s new Transgender HIV Testing Toolkit. Today, we are urging transgender and gender nonconforming people across the country to get tested and know your status.

Trans communities in the United States are among the groups at highest risk for HIV acquisition. Trans women, particularly trans women of color, experience disproportionately high rates of HIV. In the United States, trans women are 34 times more likely to acquire HIV than all adults of reproductive age. But HIV affects trans people of all genders.

Knowledge is power: HIV testing helps you protect your own health as well as the people in your life. HIV testing can also be a first step into health care for trans and gender non-conforming people living with HIV and those who do not know their status.

The Transgender HIV Testing Toolkit provides critical information to support HIV testing services and promotes status awareness among trans people. It has been written for people who work with community-based organizations (like frontline staff, management, HIV test counselors, and outreach workers), local health jurisdictions, and HIV testing providers, with an emphasis on trans cultural competency and trans issues to HIV testing. This toolkit encourages all prevention service providers to respond to the specific HIV testing needs of their local trans communities on NTHTD and beyond.

For more information about where you can get tested, click here, or pick up a HIV home testing kit at your local drug store. If you are HIV positive and looking for HIV care in your area, visit https://locator.aids.gov.