Transgender women of color—especial Latinas and African Americans—see disproportionately high rates of HIV. And they’re at higher risk of contracting the virus. To raise awareness of these facts and to educate the communities about the benefits of HIV testing and treatment, advocates designated April 18 as National Transgender HIV Testing Day (NTHTD).

The University of California, San Francisco’s Center of Excellence for Transgender Health (Trans CoE) partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch the awareness day, but as of last year, the transgender health center no longer leads the effort (though its website continues to offer relevant data on trans health).

“In the United States, it is estimated that around 1.4 million adults identify as transgender,” according to the Trans CoE. “Transgender women are at high risk of having HIV and of contracting HIV. Transgender women of color, especially Black/African American and Hispanic/Latina women, experience disproportionately high rates of HIV. There is a gap in research on HIV and transgender men; few studies have gathered HIV prevalence data for this population.”

View this post on Instagram

NATIONAL TRANSGENDER HIV TESTING DAY 2020! Join us this April 18th as we commemorate the National Transgender HIV Testing Day alongside our Community Partners. San Francisco Community Health Center needs your support for this event as we will be hosting a live-streamed panel discussion via Facebook at 6:30 pm PST. We are honored to have Community Leaders from El/La Para TransLatinas, UCSF Alliance Health Project, and the Public Health Institute who are willing to share their life-changing experiences and wisdom that highlights the importance of HIV testing. We will launch our event with a series of digital stories featuring our honored Community Leaders. We hope you will tune in and join us this Saturday, April 18th! For more information, link is in our bio! #NTHTD2020 #TransHIV #TransIsBeautiful #HIVTesting #HIVAwareness #HIVprevention #PrEP #TransHIVTesting #NationalTransgenderHIVTestingDay #NationalTransgenderHIVTestingDay2020 #NTHTD #SFCHC #SanFranciscoCommunityHealthCenter #Transgender #Trans #GNC #NonBinary #Queer #LGBT #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #TransLife #PublicHealth #SanFrancisco #BayArea #Livestream #FacebookLive #Facebook #Watch #TuneIn

A post shared by SFCHC’s HIV Prevention Team (@hivpsfchc) on

CDC.gov offers additional information on NTHTD, including social media resources—photos, sample tweets, hashtags and more—so you can raise awareness. The “Let’s Stop HIV Together” campaign highlights ways to promote testing among and treatment for transgender people.

What’s more, discrimination against the transgender community remains a challenge. For example, see this Human Rights Campaign blog post from last month: “Amid Global Pandemic, Idaho Governor Brad Little Prioritizes and Signs Anti-Transgender Legislation.”

For related HIV articles in our sister publication POZ, see “New Research Sheds Light on HIV Among Transgender Men and Women” about a session at this year’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections and “3 Reasons COVID-19 Poses a Higher Risk for the LGBTQ Population.” Plus, the POZ December issue highlighted the 2019 POZ 100, which celebrated transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary advocates.