Lessons from Concurrent Pandemics of COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS

Join us for an important intergenerational conversation with LGBTQ Asians and Pacific Islanders and their allies. Our panelists will share QTAPI stories and experiences of the dual pandemics of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19; their histories as Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States; their past and current roles in community organizing and the political process; as well as other issues that are part of the current cultural and political shifts and relevant to the experiences of QTAPI individuals.

Meet the Speakers

Ignatius Bau was the HIV prevention program coordinator at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum in the mid-1990s, and served as a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and advisory groups about HIV/AIDS for the federal Office of Minority Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes for Health. He also has served on the board of directors for the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance Community HIV Project, Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, National Minority AIDS Project, and Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

Cecilia Chung is the senior director of strategic initiatives and evaluation at Transgender Law Center, a health commissioner of San Francisco and an internationally recognized civil rights leader in the LGBT and HIV community. Chung has served as the co-chair of GNP+ and is currently a member of the WHO Advisory Council of Women Living with HIV.

Vince Crisostomo is a gay Chamorro (Pacific Islander) long-term HIV/AIDS survivor who believes in the healing power of community and has dedicated more than 30 years to HIV/AIDS activism and LGBTQ communities. He is passionate about bringing health care to all and social justice equity to people of every sexual identity, HIV status, gender, race and age. Crisostomo is SFAF’s director of aging services and previously managed the Elizabeth Taylor 50 Plus Network for long-term HIV survivors. He co-chaired the HIV & Aging Work Group and was an active member of the Mayor’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council. Crisostomo has led a number of grassroots HIV advocacy and LGBTQ organizations in the United States and overseas. He was executive director of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV/AIDS, founded the Pacific Island Jurisdiction AIDS Action Group, and served as a United Nations NGO delegate for the Asia Pacific. In 2019, having won the popular vote, he was community grand marshall for San Francisco Pride. In July 2021, he was appointed to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s LGBTQI+ Advisory Committee.

NOTES

The Commonwealth Club thanks Gilead Sciences, Inc. for its generous support of The Michelle Meow Show. 

Program presented in partnership with GAPA Theatre, The Connection at the San Francisco Community Health Center, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and The Commonwealth Club of California.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.