Overview

What contributions can LGBT activists make to eliminating the inequities that drive the HIV epidemic in countries that are hostile to sexual and gender minority rights? In Breaking Barriers: Sexual and Gender Minority-led Advocacy to End AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, Robin Lin Miller and George Ayala tell the story of a transnational partnership among community activists from eight countries to address the entrenched stigma and discrimination that blocks sexual and gender minority people from accessing affirming HIV care. Through their extended case study of Project ACT, they demonstrate how activists contributed to social progress within their country environments, despite great obstacles. Documenting the project from its inception through to its untimely demise due to the Covid pandemic, Miller and Ayala highlight the many ups and downs endured by activists and their allies as they tried to promote access to health care in politically and culturally hostile national contexts and with limited financial resources. They raise questions about the role of donors and partners from the Global North in supporting progress on the ground in Global South countries. They also consider effective strategies for evaluating human rights-focused HIV advocacy in these fraught environments. Ultimately, Miller and Ayala provide readers guidance on principles of practice for human rights advocacy and for planning, carrying out, and evaluating projects that aspire to create structural change to improve access to affirming HIV care for sexual and gender minority people.

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9780197647684

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Robin Lin Miller is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University, where she directs doctoral training in community psychology and is associate director of the master's degree and certificate in program evaluation. She earned her PhD in psychology from New York University. She began her career as an evaluation specialist for the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in the earliest years of the HIV epidemic. She has since evaluated diverse community-designed and led programs in the US, Africa, and Caribbean for adolescents, Black gay and bisexual men, and other at-risk populations (e.g., ex-offenders, bisexual girls, male sex workers). George Ayala is the former Executive Director of MPact Global Action for Gay Men's Health and Rights, where he led the agency's overall strategic direction and high-level global advocacy with funders, governments, and multilateral organizations. He worked collaboratively with activists worldwise to advocate for equitable access to HIV and other health services for sexual and gender minority people. Dr. Ayala currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Alameda County Public Health Department where he oversees the cummunicable disease, chronic disease prevention, family health, and public health nursing divisions. He sits as the department's representative on the local HIV Planning Council and served as incident commander of Alameda County's Monkeypox response. He earned his PsyD in clinical psychology from Rutgers University. As a community psychologist, Dr. Ayala has focused his research on the socio- structural predictors of health, HIV service access and utilization among sexual minority men, and the comparative advantages of community-led HIV responses.

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