Housing Works: Housing Prevents AIDS. Housing Improves Health.

Fighting Discrimination

Housing Works has long been a leader in fighting acts of discrimination and stigma directed at people with HIV/AIDS and other marginalized groups. In recent years, Housing Works held a high-profile swim in in Alabama in protest of an HIV-positive boy who was banned from a swimming pool at an RV park. We have rallied on the U.S./Canadian border in support of Obama lifting the longstanding and despicable ban on people with HIV visiting or living in the U.S.

Two of our most vigorous ongoing antidiscrimination campaigns are related to transgender issues—transgender people are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. We are also fighting against HIV testing policies that ignore the discrimination that an HIV-positive diagnosis brings.

• In 2008, a transgender woman, Tracy Bumpus, was the victim of a transphobic tirade by an employee of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA). We are engaged in a landmark lawsuit on behalf of Bumpus against the NYCTA, grounded in New York City’s Human Rights Law

• Since 2002, Housing Works has been on the forefront of the effort to pass statewide antidiscrimination protections for transgender New Yorkers known as the Gender Expression Non-discrimination Act. GENDA passed the State Assembly in 2008 and 2009.

• Housing Works believes written informed consent and pre- and post-test counseling are essential tools to counter profound AIDS stigma around HIV testing.

What can you do?

• Support our advocacy work by becoming a Housing Works member
• Subscribe to our AIDS Issues Update e-newsletter to stay current on the issues and receive action alerts