Last week's second annual AIDS in the Heartland conference not only brought together activists, advocates and service providers from across the region, it gave them an opportunity to hear how U.S. officials are dealing with their concerns.
The three-day Midwest Regional HIV/AIDS Conference began with a pre-event Gay Men's Health Institute and ended with a Dialogue with Federal Partners, featuring retired Illinois Congressman John Porter, Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Eric Goosby, director of the U.S. Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. Lorraine Teel, executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Projects, also sat on the panel, which was moderated by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago's David Munar.
The Chicago Department of Public Health awarded Porter the 2001 AIDS in the Heartland Leadership Award for his work in Congress. Porter chaired the House Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee for six years.
At the Dialogue, federal officials attempted to calm fears about the flat-funding of some AIDS programming in the Bush administration budget.
"Congress puts this ( AIDS ) at a high priority," Porter said. "I think they're going to find a way to increase funding. Obviously, a lot of this is going to depend on what they hear from the folks back home. The president's budget is not the final answer."
Both Schakowsky and Porter urged constituents to contact their legislators with their concerns.
"It's easy to impact government and get things to move in the direction you want," Porter said. "People want to be responsive to their constituents."
"We can help open doors for you," Schakowsky said. "We have a lot of power we may be able to exercise on your behalf."
The officials fielded questions on topics ranging from the spread of AIDS in communities of color and among women to the country's responsibility to respond to AIDS abroad.
"Let's get some of this money from the Defense Department," Schakowsky said, noting that in many countries AIDS has helped promote conflict and destabilize governments. "Talk about a war...let's have a war on AIDS."
At the Gay Men's Health Institute Wednesday morning, Howard Brown Health Center's Dr. Fred Rachman summarized the findings in the GLBT companion document to Healthy People 2010. He described HP 2010 as "the surgeon general's blueprint for health for the next decade."
Rachman said the Institute was an important part of the conference because "other health issues are inextricably linked up with HIV and AIDS."
"I'm hoping this is going to be the beginning of a dialogue here in the city," he said. "This is really an exciting time in LGBT health."
One goal of HP 2010 and its companion documents is to identify and eliminate health disparities that occur along lines such as race, class and sexual orientation. Researchers identified a set of health issues of specific concern to the GLBT community, including HIV/ AIDS, STDs, depression and suicide for men, and smoking, obesity, alcohol abuse and stress for women.
According to the report, gay men have higher rates of major depression and panic attacks than heterosexual men. They also have the highest rate of eating disorders, ranking above heterosexual women. Gay men are less likely to seek out routine preventive care, but GLBTs are more likely to seek mental health services.
For more information on the report, visit www.glma.org .
The conference also saw the unveiling of the second edition of Faces of AIDS: Living in the Heartland. The 208-page book features more stories from people affected by HIV and AIDS and more statistics from the 11-state Heartland region than the 48-page first edition.
The Heartland region includes: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.