Stronger Together: Coalitions as Interventions Against Intersectional Stigma

ABSTRACT

In response and in a show of solidarity, global community-led networks- MPact Global Action for Gay Men's Health, the Global Network of People Living with HIV, the International Network of People Who Use Drugs, Global Action for Trans Equality, and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects- joined forces to cocreate HIV2020, the first alternative, community-led global HIV conference.7 Although most HIV conferences have narrowed their focus to treatment, clinical care, and other biomedical solutions, HIV2020 articulated a vision for and by key population communities. HIV2020 elevated necessary blunt discussions about sex and drug use from the points of view of communities engaged in these practices rather than encasing them in public health discourse, which can often be focused on disease and risk rather than identities and pleasure.8 The community-led conference endeavored to create a radically different global gathering in which intersectional coalitions and solidarity movements could be envisioned and formed to counter divisive agendas. [...]this was the first major conference to have done so, demonstrating yet again ingenuity and flexibility. People living with HIV, gay and bisexual men, people who use drugs, sex workers, and transgender people united in open recognition ofthe overlap between their communities and a common understanding about the synergistic and compounding effects of stigma faced by individuals with multiple community memberships and identities.