Saturday, April 18, marks National Transgender HIV Testing Day (NTHTD) 2020. 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.”

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.”

In related POZ articles, 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, our December issue highlighted the 2019 POZ 100, which celebrated transgender, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary advocates.