096: Giuliani Alvarenga on Public Health, Legislation, & HIV
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Giuliani Alvarenga is an award-winning writer and law student living in New Orleans. A familiar face to those who have watched Trust Me, I’m Sick, they are HIV-undetectable and have a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and Gender & Women's Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Giuli is also affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and a student liaison for the American Bar Association's Health Law Section. They are also involved in immigration rights as a public health issue, and speak on this topic in partnership with various organizations, as well as contributing writing to TheBody.com) alongside last week’s guest, Charles Sanchez. In 2019, they received a Marguerite Casey Foundation scholarship to report and write a story on the chronically ill Latinx women of Los Angeles. Giuli was featured on the April/May 2018 cover of POZ Magazine, selected as one of the POZ 100 in 2019, and has also appeared on CNN en Español.

Tune in as Giuliani shares:

• that they received their status abruptly while living in the Bay Area; but with the help of a wonderful case director, became undetectable within a month
• how understanding their friends and romantic partners have been about their diagnosis
• that being HIV-undetectable means they cannot transmit the virus to anyone
• the importance of open communication with potential lovers
• how they’re addressing HIV laws in Louisiana, which often stigmatize and criminalize HIV+ individuals
• how they have learned from their past and are using their experience as a tool to create change
• why racial bias in healthcare is a public health crisis, and needs to be addressed in the legal field
• that they are an ambassador for the CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign
• how housing, detention, and immigration play a role in public health
• why advocating for people over property and profit is essential for universal healing

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