Lil Nas X Teams Up with Gilead COMPASS Initiative® to Raise Nearly $500,000 for Community Organizations Addressing HIV in the Southern United States
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Launched in 2017, COMPASS helped more than 200,000 people access quality healthcare and other HIV services and trained 10,000 people to build organizational capacity and become HIV leaders and advocate
March 29, 2022 — Gilead COMPASS Initiative® (COMPASS) today announced that rapper Lil Nas X’s Montero baby registry raised nearly $500,000 for COMPASS grantees – community organizations on the frontlines working to address the growing HIV epidemic in the Southern United States. The baby registry was launched last September to celebrate the Grammy award-winning rapper’s debut album Montero and included 13 COMPASS organizations whose efforts are helping to combat the HIV epidemic in a region responsible for 51% of new annual HIV cases despite making up just 38% of the U.S. population in 2019.
The announcement comes as newly released CDC data showed that HIV continues to disproportionately impact Black people more than others due to several barriers and inequities, with 52% of Black adults diagnosed with HIV residing in areas with potential negative effects on communities caused by external stresses on human health as measured by the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI).
“I’m so thankful to everybody who donated to my baby registry and joined me in helping to transform all of these communities in the South,” said Lil Nas X. “Together we are giving much-needed resources to those who need it most – especially those impacted by HIV – and also helping inspire the leaders who are constantly fighting for HIV education and awareness.”
“Donations from the Montero baby registry will have a direct impact on communities affected by HIV and we’re deeply thankful for Lil Nas X and his sustained advocacy for HIV awareness and education,” said Dr. Shanell L. McGoy, Director of Public Affairs, Corporate Giving at Gilead Sciences. “The Gilead COMPASS Initiative® is committed to supporting the work of community-based organizations working around the clock to address HIV-related stigma, increase access to resources that support wellness, and encourage leadership and advocacy across the Southern United States. The baby registry donations are welcomed and added boost for our grantees.”
Arianna’s Center – a South Florida-based organization that engages, empowers, and uplifts the Transgender community of South Florida – was one of the COMPASS grantees selected by Lil Nas X for the Montero baby registry.
“When people like Lil Nas X use their platform for good, they have an enormous impact on the advocates and service providers who are working on the ground to destigmatize HIV and support the most vulnerable in our communities,” said Arianna Inurritegui-Lint, founder of Arianna’s Center. “Seeing the baby registry donations pour in from across the country has been incredibly validating and we’ve been able to put the money towards additional education, employment, immigration, and healthcare programs and services for the Transgender community in South Florida.”
Last year, in its fourth round of funding, COMPASS awarded 29 organizations $2,875,000 as 2021 Transformative Grant Partners working to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Southern United States. The initiative grew significantly, with the selection of new grantees, the inclusion of organizations with a specific focus on addressing HIV in rural regions and faith communities, and the expansion of the program to three new states – Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
Launched in 2017, COMPASS helped more than 200,000 people access quality healthcare and other HIV services and trained 10,000 people to build organizational capacity and become HIV leaders and advocates.
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About the Southern AIDS Coalition: The Southern AIDS Coalition (SAC) is a non-partisan coalition of government, community, and business leaders working alongside thousands of people living with HIV and our allies to end the HIV epidemic in the South. We do this through public health advocacy; capacity building assistance; PLHIV leadership development; research and evaluation; and strategic grantmaking. To learn more or to join us, visit www.southernaidscoalition.org.
About the Gilead COMPASS Initiative®: The Gilead COMPASS (COMmitment to Partnership in Addressing HIV/AIDS in Southern States) Initiative is an unprecedented $100 million commitment over 10 years to support organizations working to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Southern United States. The South is most affected by the HIV epidemic, accounting for 54% of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States. In response to the Southern HIV epidemic, the initiative focuses on providing concentrated investments in the region to reduce HIV-related health disparities, build awareness, advance education, and reduce stigma. The Gilead COMPASS Initiative® includes corporate giving programs, independent medical education grants, and the AIDSVu partnership. For more information, please visit www.gileadcompass.com.
Baby Registry Grantees:
Bros in Convo
The Bros in Convo Initiative (TBICI) is a Black Queer lead community-based organization in Orlando, FL providing gay and queer individuals of color in Central Florida with capacity building, community resources, emotion and mind wellness, health education, life skills building, linkage to HIV/STI prevention and treatment services, and peer support. TBICI is fiscally sponsored by Miracle of Love, Inc.
Arianna's Center
The following is a brief organization description: Founded in 2015 by trans Latina activist Arianna Lint, Arianna’s Center is a direct services organization with a mission to empower and uplift the transgender community of Florida and Puerto Rico. Arianna’s Center places a special emphasis on the most marginalized in our community including trans women of color, those living with and affected by HIV and those who have experienced incarceration and ICE detention. The organization provides HIV testing and linkage to care and prevention, name and gender marker change assistance, emergency stipends, advocacy and leadership development, case management, and post-incarceration support services.
Central Alabama Alliance Resource & Advocacy Center
Central Alabama Alliance Resource & Advocacy Center’s mission is to serve, empower, and become an ally to individuals and communities in Alabama through education, advocacy, and grassroots programs related to chronic health disparities (HCV, HBP, Diabetes) and HIV. We provide meaningful prevention programs and perform our services with compassion and care. We strive to promote hope, tolerance, and social justice for all people affected by chronic health disparities and HIV, and their communities.
CAARAC’s service reach spans seven counties, including 4 black belt counties in Alabama. The counties served are Autauga, Dallas, Elmore, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, and Montgomery.
Community Health Prevention Intervention Education & Research (CH-PIER)
We are Community Health-PIER, located in Greenville, MS in the heart & soul of the MS Delta. We are a small community-based organization that provides healthcare to the LGBTQ+ and other communities who are suffering from health disparities in any capacity. With the small staff that we have, we make sure we are mighty in our community engagement. Making sure we promote health and wellness through prevention, intervention, education, and research. We are sincere in educating and aiding our community in prioritizing their sexual, mental, and emotional health. We realize that the health of rural communities is not catered to or have resources like larger cities and towns, so we are deliberate in disseminating information and offering our services to those in need. Ensuring these communities are not left behind in understanding their bodies and how to take care of them.
Thrive SS
THRIVE Support Services is a 501c3 agency that provides support and linkage to culturally affirming and compassionate care for Black same-gender-loving men with HIV. Their mission is to achieve health equity for Black gay men living with HIV through direct support, advocacy and building collective power.
The Counter Narrative Project
CNP is an organization that stands in the tradition of Bayard Rustin, James Baldwin, Essex Hemphill, and other movement leaders, artists, organizers, and visionaries committed to countering narratives and speaking truth to power. Its mission is shifts narratives about Black gay men to change policy and improve lives.
Transinclusive Group
Transinclusive Group, Inc. is a Transgender-Led LGBTQ+ tax exempt, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Founded in 2017, Transinclusive Group advocates to protect and defend equality for Transgender and LGBQ+ individuals in South Florida by building trust and relationships with community providers to end discrimination, stigma, and racial disparities in order to address social determinants of health, with a concentrated focus on serving people of color.
Compassionate Atlanta
Compassionate Atlanta is a grassroots community-building non-profit which seeks to raise awareness about the benefits of compassionate action throughout the Greater Atlanta area. We do this by teaching and encouraging people of every persuasion and walk of life to channel their concern for the wellbeing of others into tangible action. The goal is to build healthier, more connected, abundant, and thriving communities.
We advance and shift the local and global culture by centering compassion with everyone we connect with and everything that we do.
Relationships Unleashed
Relationship Unleashed was founded in Memphis, TN in 2014 by two passionate African American community leaders with the purpose to create social, cultural, and professional equity for members of the Black LGBTQ + community and the community of Shelby County, TN. This work to end the stigma and existence of HIV has become a labor of love, where we regularly use personal (out-of-pocket) funding to ensure the community has the proper services they need. We put a lot of thought and actionable efforts into how we wanted to enter the nonprofit sector. One pillar of our distinction would be “if we were for the people then they should be out front leading.” In order to achieve this we had to be intentional about employing and empowering trans-gendered and same-gender loving folx, promoting the health and dignity of those impacted by drug use with Harm Reduction practices.
OLTT
Somos una organización de base comunitaria, conformada por mujeres Trans para personas Trans (Transexuales, Transgénero e Intersex) y nuestrxs aliadxs, mantenemos nuestro enfoque de trabajo para la visibilidad y elegibilidad los derechos humanos y el bienestar de nuestra comunidad, mediante el empoderamiento, la organización comunitaria que permita fomentar una incidencia política en equidad e igualdad.
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We are a community-based organization, made up of Trans women for Trans people (Transsexuals, Transgender and Intersex) and our allies, our work approach is focused on the visibility and protection of human rights and the well-being of our community, through empowerment, community organization to promote advocacy in equity and equality.
Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference
Represents a cross-section of progressive African American faith leaders and their congregations to build the capacity of faith leaders’ understanding of and engagement with the social determinants of health uniquely impacting African American trans and queer communities and African American cis-gendered women in the Southern region of the United States (in partnership with Historically Black Institutions of Higher Education).
What's In The Mirror?
What’s in the Mirror is a non-profit organization and social movement that provides mental health awareness and suicide prevention to communities of color through art, advocacy, and affirming care with a focus on women, youth, and LGBTQIA+ persons.
The Normal Anomaly
The Normal Anomaly Initiative began in 2016 in Houston as a blog to tell the stories of people at the margins. Touching their population through learning cohorts, development initiatives, HIV Testing, employment linkage, transportation, a thrift story and more, The Normal Anomaly Initiative is “Eliminating Barriers and Creating New Norms”.
