Laurel Sprague Offers Plain Talk on Stigma and Gives an Update on the First Year of the PLHIV Stigma Index in the U.S.
, November 26, 2014
Laurel Sprague
HIV stigma is slippery. People can unknowingly play into HIV stigma, or not recognize the impact of stigma in their community. And stigma is enacted at all levels — by individuals, by communities, through public and private structures and in social and legal polities.
Given all this, how do we pin down, document and confront HIV stigma? Since 2008, the People Living with HIV (PLHIV) Stigma Index has measured and revealed the shape of stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV. And the Stigma Index isn’t a study that delivers a report to sit on shelves. Planning and carrying out the index empowers people with HIV, and is itself a force of addressing HIV stigma.