I’m the Operations Manager at an HIV site so I write policies and procedures for our organization and help manage our programs.
There were folks in our training who had never thought about a situation with a pregnant client and some in the room thought our clients would never need abortion referrals. This training was a very good way for us to make the point that “noooo, you do.”
Our volunteers are gay men who are only used to working with gay men. After the Provide training, we initiated a conversation with our volunteers about keeping abortion care on their radars. Abortion is an intersectional issue. It comes up when we talk with clients about sexual health because we talk about protection and STD planning, and anyone might bring up abortion.
We have occasionally had an anti-choice volunteer, but we make it clear that being reproductive justice-minded is important in doing LGBTQ+ work. Our message is we’re pro-trans and for using medical care to transform your body and we’re pro-abortion. Our supporters understand even if they don’t agree.
Provide’s training made it more clear than ever that LGBTQ+ people can be anybody and they really need every resource we can offer. It reinforced to our staff and our volunteers that even a simple service, like HIV testing, needs to be seen through an intersectional lens if you’re going to do it properly.
Operations Manager, HIV testing site, TN
