Gilead Awards HRC $5 Million to Fight HIV
Gilead has given HRC $5 million to raise HIV awareness and reduce stigma around the disease in communities of color.
Global biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences has given the Human Rights Campaign a three-year, $5 million grant to help fight stigma around HIV in Black and Latino communities with the hopes of ending the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030.
Two years ago, Gilead gave $3.2 million to three of the HRC Foundation’s various initiaitves — its HIV and Health Equity Program, its Historically Black Colleges & Universities Program, and its Transgender Justice Initiative — to perform in-person and digital outreach aimed at educating close to 14 million people about HIV, including testing and treatment options.
The programs focused on developing various leadership opportunities for dozens of emerging Black, Indigenous, and People of Color LGBTQ leaders, and supported more than 100 community-based organizations in efforts to promote HIV awareness, especially among communities of color.
In addition to continuing those efforts, the HIV and Health Equity team will use the additional infusion of $5 million to develop an innovative benchmarking tool for institutions that provide HIV services so that they can evaluate the quality of programs and their outreach efforts to BIPOC LGBTQ communities.
The $8.2 million over five years marks the largest grant the HRC Foundation has ever received.
“Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, racism and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination have created dangerous hurdles for those seeking prevention or treatment,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “With the generous support of Gilead Sciences, we’ll be able to continue providing critical resources to help overcome these hurdles, especially focusing on Black and Latiné communities in the U.S. South.
“We’ll also be able to expand our efforts, as we seek to remove institutional barriers often unknowingly created by HIV service providers. We must decrease the disparities that place an unnecessary burden on Black and Latiné LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV.”
“Gilead is committed to advancing health equity, particularly in Black communities and other communities of color that are disproportionately affected by HIV,” Deborah Telman, executive vice president of corporate affairs and general counsel for Gilead, said in a statement.
“This grant will build on the impactful work HRC has done with community partners and HBCUs to increase awareness of HIV treatment and prevention options and reduce health disparities, combat discrimination and fight stigma,” she added. “By working together, we can help end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere.”
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