Sacramento honors lives lost to AIDS, focuses on racial disparities in people affected

Sacramento community leaders on Friday urged for a renewed commitment to reducing HIV and AIDS stigmas, particularly for communities of color.

They gathered to commemorate the 35th anniversary of World AIDS Day. The event is observed each year on Dec. 1 to remember the millions of people lost to AIDS and HIV since the epidemic began in the early 1980s.

HIV and AIDS continues to impact millions of people in the United States every year, particularly Black and Latino communities. At the end of 2021, Black and Hispanic people made up nearly 65% of the estimated 1.2 million people in the United States with HIV. These communities account for about 70% of the new infections each year.

“There should be a state of emergency happening right now because of that alone,” said Clarmundo Sullivan, founder of Golden Rule Services, a South Sacramento-based nonprofit.

Friday’s commemoration was held at Golden Rule Services, an organization founded in 2000 with a focus on reducing HIV-related health disparities among people of color. Back then, Sullivan said there was a lack of resources for these community members.

Today, inequities persist for multiple reasons — systemic racism, homophobia, poverty, income, and the lack of stable housing.

“Unfortunately, we see that people of color are not being treated as equally as their white counterparts,” Sullivan said.

Education is an ongoing issue as well. Roughly 13% of people with HIV did not know they had the illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People also need to understand that HIV is no longer a terminal illness, and individuals can spend healthy years living with a diagnosis, said MacArthur Flournoy, a certified prevention specialist for Golden Rule Services. He has lived with HIV for 37 years.

“What I have discovered is that the best medicine is to be of service,” Flournoy said. “And I’ve been given the opportunity and calling to make myself available and in that I have found the strength and the joy of living.”

Flournoy encouraged people to take advantage of free support offered including HIV interventions, testing, case management and health education. Newer resources, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (known as PrEP), are highly effective in preventing HIV.

Education and resources are distinctly important in the Sacramento region.

In 2019, the county was listed as part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ initiative to reduce new HIV infections. The initiative identified 50 local areas that accounted for more than half of new HIV diagnoses in the country. Zip code 95823 in South Sacramento has the highest percentage of people living with HIV in the county, Flournoy said.