World AIDS Day 2024: Empowering Trans Women and Trans Femmes to End HIV
Today, December 1, we commemorate World AIDS Day. This year's theme is “Collective Action: Sustain and Accelerate HIV Progress.” Today, we at LifeSkills Mobile honor the resilience, leadership, and wisdom of trans women and trans femmes in the fight against HIV. As HIV continues to disproportionately impact transgender women and femmes, especially trans BIPOC, the path forward to collective action is in following the leadership within those very communities. We believe BIPoC trans women and trans femmes know best how to support and uplift each other,
grounded in building knowledge and resilience through peer mentorship to not let HIV be a barrier to living their best lives. The LifeSkills Mobile Study is built on the trans pioneers who built Project LifeSkills, which was designated by the CDC as a best practice model for HIV prevention amongst trans women and femmes. Our study took lessons from that intervention into building apps to promote effective HIV prevention (LifeSkills Mobile) and HIV care (LifeSkills Mobile+).
Through tailored coaching and skill-building in navigating healthcare, relationships, sex, and building self-worth, we empower trans women and femmes to define their lives not by the challenges they face but by the dreams and goals they pursue.
On this World AIDS Day, we call on our community to continue standing together, celebrating our achievements, and pushing for a brighter future where no one is left behind. Ending HIV is not just about medicine or policies—it’s about valuing the wholeness and humanity of trans lives. Together, through collective action, we can end HIV and create a future defined by equality, empowerment, and possibility.
Trans Day of Remembrance 2024
On November 20, LifeSkills Mobile recognizes the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). On this day each year the transgender community and our allies gather to memorialize transgender people killed by anti-transgender violence in the past year, the vast majority of whom are Black and Brown trans women and femmes. Today is a day to gather with community, mourn for those we’ve lost, and also celebrate trans resilience in the face of adversity. There are vigils planned all around the world each year for TDOR. You can learn more about Transgender Day of Remembrance, including the names and details of those lost to violence whom we know of on the TDOR website.
Art credit Art Twink, used under a Creative Commons license. Downloaded from Trans Day of Resilience: Forward Together.
LifeSkills Mobile Celebrates Self-Love on HIV Testing Day
This year, on Thursday, June 27, LifeSkills Mobile will observe National HIV Testing Day to highlight the importance of HIV testing for living a healthy, fulfilling life. At LifeSkills Mobile we believe that trans women and trans femmes have so much beauty, talent, and love to offer this world, but we can only realize that potential if we love ourselves first. So, we hope you’ll participate in National HIV Testing Day on June 27 and share this year’s message of "level up your self-love: check your status."
HIV Testing and HIV Prevention
At LifeSkills Mobile, we believe in the power of self-love and goal setting to keep your life moving in the right direction. We want you to feel happy and fulfilled in pursuing your own personal goals, whether that be in your career, relationships, education, hobbies, and more. We want you to win that trophy for whatever category you set your heart and mind to! But first, you have to make sure you are taking care of your own health and loving your own body.
HIV testing, including self-testing, is essential for engaging in this form of self-love. Today, there are more tools than ever to help you prevent HIV, including resources we offer through our study, LifeSkills Mobile. But it all begins with knowing your HIV status. If you test positive, you can promptly start HIV treatment (antiretroviral therapy or ART) to stay healthy. If you test negative, you can make better-informed decisions about what HIV prevention tools such as PrEP and condoms might work best for you and your loved ones. Knowing your status also provides access to other sexual health services, including STI testing.
We realize that discrimination, stigma, and barriers to healthcare access can make HIV testing difficult for trans women and trans femmes. Fortunately, there are free self-testing options that do not require in-person visits. If you are in the US and 17 or older, you can request a free home HIV self-test through the Together TakeMeHome program. If you enroll in our paid HIV study, LifeSkills Mobile, we will also provide you with free at-home self-tests and other HIV prevention tools.
How LifeSkills Mobile can help with HIV Prevention
LifeSkills Mobile is a paid HIV prevention study for sexually active trans women and trans femmes ages 16 to 29. We are testing a free virtual HIV prevention web app that builds self-confidence and self-worth. If you’re enrolled, you will do a home HIV test and a survey every 6 months for up to 2 years, depending on when you start the study. Participants can receive up to $275 for their time.
LifeSkills Mobile is based on a successful in-person program started in Chicago in 2012 called Project LifeSkills. Over the course of 7 years, more than 300 trans women and femmes took part in the 3-week-long Project LifeSkills program. The success of the program led it to be designated a best practice model for HIV prevention amongst trans women and femmes by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since 2020 we’ve been working to go a step further and adapt Project LifeSkills into a free web app platform to reach more people including those who can’t access an in-person program.
We believe effective HIV prevention must involve setting healthy boundaries while engaging in dating, relationships, sex, and sex work. It also means building skills to navigate healthcare settings.
Ultimately, our goal with LifeSkills Mobile is to help trans women and trans femmes achieve their goals in life, and not let HIV be a barrier to happiness and success. To see if you’re eligible to enroll in the LifeSkills Mobile study, please fill out your information at this link.
Spread the word on June 27!
National HIV Testing Day reminds us of the importance of knowing your HIV status. By valuing yourself and taking charge of your health, you can make better-informed decisions and achieve your goals in life. On June 27, you can help spread the message of "level up your self-love: check your status" by talking to others about HIV testing, including using the hashtag #HIVTestingDay on social media. And if you are a trans woman or trans femme aged 16 to 29, we hope you might also check out our paid HIV prevention study: LifeSkills Mobile.
Happy Pansexual Visibility Day!
In 2024, Pansexual Visibility and Awareness Day will fall on Friday May 24.
The day was first observed in 2015, and has been celebrated annually since then. The day is marked by sharing stories, quotes, and messages of support for pansexual individuals, as well as holding events and activities to show solidarity and support for the pansexual community. It is also a day to educate people about pansexuality and the issues that pansexual people face.
The Pansexual Pride Flag has three stripes: pink, yellow, and cyan
It is a reminder of the importance of visibility and normalization of pansexuality, which is still often seen as something “weird” or “different.” Yet more and more people today are coming out as pansexual, and it is gaining more widespread acceptance
While there are many overlaps between pansexuality and bisexuality, the official definitions differ in their approach to gender. Pansexuality is often defined as an attraction to all gender identities or attraction regardless of gender identity, while bisexuality is often defined as the attraction to multiple gender identities. Both pansexuality, or “pan,” and bisexuality, or “bi,” are considered non-monosexual orientations, i.e. not being exclusively attracted to people of one gender such as with “heterosexual” or “homosexual.” It is possible to identify as both bisexual and pansexual, and many bi/pan activists have spoken out about the importance of solidarity amongst all non-monosexual people, and there not be any rivalry between bi and pan. As two prominent bisexual & pansexual advocates, Robyn Ochs and Heron Greenesmith, stated in an interview with Bustle, it is less important to strictly define the boundaries of what is bi or pan than it is to validate people’s individual identities and build solidarity together. Both the bi and pan communities have a history of solidarity with transgender and nonbinary people, and both identities recognize the many ways gender can exist beyond the binary of man/woman. In the 2015 US Trans Survey, which surveyed over 27,000 trans and nonbinary people across the U.S., 18% of respondents identified as pansexual, and 14% identified as bisexual.
Pansexual & Panromantic Visibility Day graphic, created by Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, shared with permission [copyright AWN/Erin Casey]
The term pansexual is, in fact, not a new term. The word has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary since at least the early 1900s, and has been used in its current definition since at least the late 1960s. Some famous pansexual people include Janelle Monáe, Jazz Jennings, Asia Kate Dillon, Demi Lovato, and Miley Cyrus. As trans advocate and TV star Jazz Jennings stated in an interview about her sexuality for GLAAD, “being pansexual basically means to me that you are attracted to anyone, no matter their sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, everything. There’s no limits. I’ll date anyone. It’s more that I love someone for their soul.”
Further reading/resources:
GLAAD: What is Pansexuality? 4 Pan Celebs Explain in Their Own Words
Stonewall UK: 5 common misconceptions about pansexuality
Bustle: Why The “Debate” Around The Difference Between Bisexual & Pansexual Hurts The LGBTQ Community