At the May 25^th Consortium meeting, we focused on HIV prevention and treatment and quality of life for transgender and gender-diverse San Franciscans.

Thanks to Dr. Erin Wilson for the update on HIV among transwomen in San Francisco. We had a phenomenal panel that included community member Gatsby, Pau Crego (SF Office of Trans Initiatives), Nicky Calma (SF Community Health Center), Dr. Nick Gorton (Lyon-Martin Community Health Services), and Dr. Royce Lin (SFDPH).

Many thanks to the panelists, our meeting convenor – Jenna Rapues (Gender Health SF) and our panel moderator, Shawn Demmons (PAETC/BANCC). 

Some highlights from the presentation and panel discussion –

• While services are much more tailored to the needs of trans people than in years past, the members of the trans community continue to be underserved.
• There are higher rates of HIV infection, lower rates of PrEP uptake, etc. for trans women.
• The trans male community is particularly underrepresented by research and other programming.  If transmen are not included in the data, then not all transgender people are represented/included.

Recommendations:

• More and better education about trans people and their needs in the health care community and the wider community.
• Better access to PrEP and other prevention measures; increase in/wider availability of RAPID testing.
• Include more trans people (especially trans men) in research studies.
• Support more trans people entering into the health care and social services professions.  
• Peer-based models for care & support – trans people can do better overall taking care of trans people.
• Keep working at lowering barriers, making sure that we (SF/DPH) have a truly trauma-informed system of care.

Here is a link to slides presented at the meeting – https://ucsf.box.com/s/s8mmar6yqfwh8kob159kjpdyv13zvtsm

If you’d like more information about the organizations represented, please follow these links –

• San Francisco’s Office of Transgender Initiatives: https://sf.gov/departments/city-administrator/office-transgender-initiatives
• Gender Health SF: https://www.sfdph.org/dph/comupg/oprograms/THS/default2.asp
• TransThrive @ San Francisco Community Health Center: https://sfcommunityhealth.org/program/trans-thrive/
• PAETC/Bay Area, North & Central Coast Local Partner: https://aidsetc.org/aetc-program/paetc-bancc