#  HIV Discrimination and Criminalization 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 16, 2014** 

 05:00PM - 07:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Plimpton Room, Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy St.**  



 

 



 

A talk by Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director, Lambda Legal

 ![Kevin M. Cathcart, Executive Director Lambda Legal](/sites/g/files/omnuum8271/files/wgs/files/staff_kcathcart_8x10.jpg)

 

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is more than thirty years old. Testing and new drugs now make living with HIV manageable but the epidemic is stil with us. In the last two years there has been a 12% increase of HIV/AIDS among gay identified men and men who have sex with men.Yet the cultural stigma of AIDS remains. After decades of, often successful, legal battles legal discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS is still a harsh reality. Thirty-five states have laws, which are actively enforced, criminalizing the transmission of HIV.

Kevin Cathcart will discuss the progress the LGBT movement has made on these issues and the future challenges it faces. He will also discuss the effect that the emergence of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs such as Truvada will have on this fight.

This will be a vital eye-opening talk for anyone concerned with LGBT health issues.

[**Kevin M. Cathcart**](http://www.lambdalegal.org/about-us/staff/kevin-cathcart), Executive Director of Lambda Legal since 1992, is a leading strategist and spokesperson in the movement to achieve full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and people with HIV. Under his leadership, Lambda Legal, the country’s oldest and largest LGBT legal organization, protects and promotes equality for all people — regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status — through impact litigation, education and policy work.

Important programs begun during Cathcart's tenure include Lambda Legal's Foster Care Initiative to improve care of LGBT youth in foster care, whose needs go largely unmet throughout the country. With its national Marriage Project, Lambda Legal plays a leading role in litigation and education to win the freedom to marry. Lambda Legal also has an HIV Project and a Transgender Rights Project.

A longtime leader in the lesbian and gay community, Cathcart served from 1984 to 1992 as executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) in Boston. Cathcart graduated from Richard Stockton State College (New Jersey) in 1976 and the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1978. He received his J.D. from Northeastern School of Law in 1982.

***Part of this year's Gender & Sexuality Seminar Series on the future of the BGLTQ movement after marriage***

## After Marriage: The Future of LGBTQ Activism

#### *the 2014-15 Gender & Sexuality Seminar Series*

Since 1991 the LGBT movement has struggled to secure the right to legally marry for lesbians and gay men. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia now permit same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional for the federal government to deny federal benefits of marriage to married same-sex couples. At least twenty other states are now facing legal challenges to their ban on same-sex marriage. The fight for marriage equality is, essentially, over.

 After two decades focusing on this fight what are the most important issues facing the LGBT movement now?

This seminar series will bring together four prominent lawyers and activists who will examine crucial issues facing the LGBT movement today: increased discrimination against and criminalization of people with HIV; how class and poverty effect the LGBT movement; the problems of relying on federal law to secure LGBT equality; and how religious exemptions and conscious clauses are undermining LGBT anti-discrimination law.

The series will culminate in a day long symposium with the seminar speakers discussing these issues with one another as well as a keynote by writer/activist Jewell Gomez.

*Sponsored by the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, GLAD, the Harvard College Office of BGLTQ Student Life, the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition, the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, and the Open Gate Foundation.*



 

 



 

 

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