26 April 2017

It can be in a doctor’s tone when asking a routine medical question, or in the way a nurse raises an eyebrow. The stigma surrounding HIV can be exhausting. For Angela Hodges, a 51-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., stigma initially led her to deny her HIV-positive diagnosis. Hodges lives at Miriam’s House, a residence for women who are HIV-positive and experiencing homelessness. The stigma has made it difficult for her to go to medical facilities. For example, Hodges described a conversation for an entirely unrelated surgery. The first question the doctor asked was, “How did you contract HIV?” Fear of judgment can deter people from having conversations about sexual health. For Black women, and especially for those with low incomes or who are homeless, information about treating the symptoms or halting the spread of HIV has been lacking.

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