Jaszi Johnathan Alejandro, 25
Community Health Specialist
New York, NY
Born and raised in the Bronx, actor/educator /activist Jaszi Jonathan Alejandro is currently working at New York’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), where he focuses on working with at-risk teens. At the center’s new drop-in youth center, Club1319, he facilitates HIV and STD discussions, but also art classes, theater workshops, vogueing, and as he puts it, “anything that can make learning fun and useful.”
“We deal with obstacles like peer pressure, substance use, violence, acceptance, loneliness, poverty, [poor] health and [low] self-esteem,” he notes. “All these can lead to risky behaviors or decisions, some of the factors contributing to why so many LGBT youth are getting infected with HIV.”
Alejandro has firsthand experience: Diagnosed as HIV+ in 2005, he’s made it a life mission to do anything he can to prevent new infections, to make HIV (and STD) testing a routine part of people’s lives and to eradicate the stigma and discrimination still surrounding HIV+ people.
Alejandro received the 2011 Brendan Upson Award from Brooklyn’s Teatro El Puente for outstanding leadership and dedication to bringing HIV awareness to the Latino community and is spokesperson for several popular social-marketing campaigns including “HIV Stops with Me” (above) and the GLAAD Award-winning “I Love My Boo” campaign, which targets healthy relationships amongst MSM of color.
“There is no cure for this virus,” he says. “[Right now] the only cure is education.”
CBRad
All these guys and gal seem really great with what they’re doing.
BCS
Tyler TerMeer!
Participant in AIDS LifeCycle, board member of Advocates for Youth and National Association of People with AIDS.
Was previously the Director of Men’s and Youth Programs for Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS and the Program Manager in Prevention at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), where he managed NASTAD’S Gay Men’s Portfolio. Recently took over as the Director of the Ohio AIDS Coalition.
Featured this summer in a PSA on LOGO called “I am living my truth” with other positive athletes.
http://www.tylertermeer.com/?page_id=4
WillBFair
I’m so glad we’re finally talking about prevention. And I bless Michael Parish and Brant Miller.
This may be off topic, and I’ve always worked to feed the homeless, but back in the day, I was friends with the guys in SF who started Shanti. I can’t even remeber their names now, but they were much stronger than I was. I was told that Shanti became a model for much that came later.
JayKay
Wanna know how you can help prevent AIDS?
Stop encouraging a culture that accepts and celebrates classless, slutty behavior. How about encouraging people to only have sex with someone while in a committed, monogamous relationship, instead of telling people “oh sure, go ahead and bang 30 anonymous strangers in a dirty bathroom stall in one night! Just make sure you use a condom, because otherwise that’s gross.” It might not be OMGSEXPOSITIVE and a few sluts might get shamed in the process, but it might just save a few lives.
Riker
@JayKay: Sex isn’t something to be afraid of. Sex is natural, it is fun and a great way of relieving stress. Studies have shown that people who have sex regularly are happier and healthier than those who don’t. As long as appropriate precautions and common sense are used, there is nothing to feel guilty about for those who choose to have sex.
Plus, some people just aren’t cut out for monogamous relationships, for a variety of reasons. For example, my job has me working overnights and sleeping during the afternoon/evening. My schedule doesn’t really allow for dating and things like that, but an occasional hookup helps relieve the pressure. Why should I deny myself the pleasures of intercourse just because I can’t have a boyfriend?
jack
Nice article
Mitch
@WillBFair: Why do you continue to perpetuate some myth that we’re “finally talking about prevention”? Its all anyone ever talks about. ADAP waitlists recently peaked at over 10,000 souls who did not have access to antiretrovirals. The vaccine of the month club has consistently taken priority in thirty years of scientific study, despite leading nowhere. Your continued promotion of the myth that we’re “not talking about prevention” when it has taken precedence over virtually every other necessity regarding HIV is completely destructive and selfish. You say you once worked with Shanti, a group which works to improve the lives of people with HIV, but you continually mislead people with an image of pozzies sucking up precious “prevention resources”. With “friends” like you, I can’t imagine needing enemies.
Riker
@jason: No, AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The evidence is conclusive, and has been for many years. AIDS denialism has caused thousands and thousands of deaths, and spouting it at this point ought to be criminal.
Now kindly STFU and go back to sucking off Peter Duesberg
jason
Riker,
There is no AIDS denialism on my part. AIDS does exist. Peter Duesberg believes that AIDS exists.
But AIDS is not caused by a virus. If it was, there would be millions of victims on the model of a flu pandemic.
Blaming a virus was the easy way out for promiscuous gay men who refused to see the error of their promiscuous ways. Gay men sought to tie the consequences of their promiscuity to a virus rather than to their poor choices.
Well, I’ve got news for you. Every choice that a human makes has consequences for his or her life. Don’t deny it – you know it’s true.
Riker
@jason: Nobody is blaming anything on a virus. The overwhelming body of scientific evidence points to HIV as the cause for AIDS. Not a single person has developed AIDS without first being infected with HIV.
The idea that AIDS is caused by clubbing and drugs etc was a valid hypothesis in the early to mid 1980s, when we didn’t know what was causing these wasting illnesses and deaths. However, clinging to this outdated belief on the 21st century flies in the face of science. Any idiot with a high school education who spends a few hours reading the literature on the subject can understand the clear obvious link.
Go away and rant some more about the bisexual double standard. You’re wring and pigheaded there too, but at least that particular lie hasn’t killed anybody yet.
Krishna Stone
Hello:
Thank you for including our colleague, Jaszi Alejandro, in this article. He is truly remarkable!
Krishna Stone
Communications Department
Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC)
rayy
Thank you. This is a real “A-list” and I’m sure there are many others out there who are living fulfilling lives and making a contribution.