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This Summer, Doing It RVA Wants To Make Sure You Get Tested

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Doing It RVA is working to ensure that Richmond stays healthy in the sack by providing free HIV and STI testing.

Usually when someone says something is “free,” there’s some sort of stipulation or drawback — but Doing It RVA is the real deal when it comes to free HIV and STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) testing. 

Doing It RVA is a coalition of nonprofit, government, and private sector partners with the same collaborative efforts and goal: to coordinate prevention and treatment of HIV and other STI’s in Richmond. Some of the many partners that make up the coalition are Richmond City Health District, Nationz Foundation, Health Brigade, Minority Health Consortium, and Planned Parenthood. 

Wyatt Johnson, the social network strategies coordinator at Doing It RVA, said the coalition has been around since May 2017. 

“A part of my role was working with the coalition to work in sync, and provide better health outcomes by organizing our efforts together,” Johnson said. “Last year around April, we started diving heavily into social media, and feeling out what our space should look like in Richmond to carve a niche for sexual health education and free testing.” 

According to Johnson, last year was their first National HIV Testing Day event. Planned Parenthood attended and dispensed Narcan, a nasal spray that can help treat or prevent narcotic overdose. 

National HIV Testing Day just passed on June 27, and Doing It RVA had an event on June 28 at multiple locations, conducting tests for several days along with the other nonprofits in the coalition. The organizations handed out free condoms and raffle prizes like Bowtie Cinema movie tickets. 

Doing It RVA isn’t just a one-stop-shop, either — they offer a multitude of different services and resources among the many nonprofits within the coalition. Along with free Narcan, the Richmond City Health District also offered, and continues to offer, information on how to properly use Narcan. 

“Our testing is a segue for a variety of other resources,” Johnson said. “Nationz has a food pantry and works heavily with the LGBT community. As a coalition, if I know Nationz offers these services or they are the closest option for somebody to get there, I can coordinate with Nationz to have them go over there. That’s the power of the coalition.” 

Just because National HIV Testing Day has passed doesn’t mean you can’t still go get tested. Every Tuesday from 5 until 6:30 pm, the coalition offers free STI testing for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV at the Richmond City Health District building, located at 400 E. Cary St. All you need for the free testing is a photo ID.

Don’t be concerned about the hours listed on Google, either. There is a security guard inside the office that will buzz you inside (and sometimes it takes a few minutes to be buzzed in, so patience is key). 

When you arrive inside the office, you’ll find a small window, just like you’re at your local doctor or dentist. Check your name in with the clerk, and you’ll be given a very brief form to fill out about sexual history as well as personal information. At this point, it’s important to know that if you haven’t seen the signs already, no cellphones are allowed — even if you’re in the lobby waiting for your number to be called. 

The clinic is very cautious about verifying identity, information, and making sure that you, the patient, understand what is going on. Once you’re called, you’ll be seen by a clinic employee in a private room, where they verify most of the information you filled out. Your doctor will ask what testing you’d like to receive, inform you a bit about the methods of testing, and provide suggestions if needed. 

Several of the tests can be done with a simple urinalysis, while others require a throat swab, which is sort of like brushing your teeth too far back on your tongue. Some, however, will require blood to be drawn. 

Don’t fret. You’ll have some time to sit and muster up the courage before you proceed to the room, where you’ll be pricked with a needle and have blood drawn; all in only 2-3 minutes. The employees taking blood are very friendly and gentle, and will confirm your identity to ensure there is no mixup between test tubes. 

When you’re all done, you’ll head back to the initial window where you started, and the clinic will provide you with an important piece of paper: one with both the date your results will be available, and a vital code that you must present to receive your results over the phone. If you wish to head back in person, that’s alright, too — you can swing back by on any other Tuesday to see them in person. 

The brief wait and blood draw are a small price to pay to get ahead of potential health concerns that may help you and/or your partner. Feel free to pick up some free condoms if you need at the front desk, and enjoy the rest of your day knowing you’ve taken the next step in preventing and treating HIV and STI’s. 

Photos: Doing It RVA/via Facebook

MonGays Week Two: Tangerine

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Every Monday throughout June, The Byrd Theatre will celebrate Pride Month with #MonGays, a series spotlighting the LGBTQ community. This week, Tangerine masterfully depicts the lives of black transgender sex workers on the big screen. 

Have you ever sacrificed yourself for someone else to make a relationship work?  After Sin-dee Rella took the fall for her drug dealing boyfriend and spent the past twenty-eight days in jail she expected some loyalty.  When her best friend reveals that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with another woman while she was locked up, Sin-dee loses it and sets off on a comical quest for revenge across Los Angeles.

The plot sounds so classic and relatable it could be a beloved 1990s comedy. The genius behind Tangerine, Sean Baker’s breakaway success from 2015, is that it builds such a familiar storyline around a demographic we rarely see onscreen: black transgender sex workers.

Sin-dee and her best friend Alexandra aren’t treated as exotic or different. Their blackness, their transness, and their livelihoods earned from sex work are never presented as things to separate the characters or audience from one another.  

On the contrary, the themes that stitch this diverse cast of characters together — friendship, sacrifice, and a yearning for love — are so timeless and universal that anyone who watches Tangerine will forget all of the markers society would typically evoke to prevent our connecting with characters like Sin-dee and Alexandra. As one movie critic put it: “Finally, a film with transgender main characters that doesn’t focus on the fact that they’re transgendered.”

Over eighty-eight minutes Tangerine allows the humanity of its two protagonists to naturally shine. From the intimate way in which they know each other’s best and worst tendencies to their choice of a simple donut shop as their favorite hangout spot to plan their shenanigans, Sin-dee and Alexandra are afforded a level of personification and richness normally denied trans characters.

Zakia McKensey, the Executive Director of Nationz Foundation, says she was “captivated by the trailer for the film, because the experiences of the characters are reflective of the lived experiences of transgender women in America.”

Society often judges those who engage in sex work to make a living; however, the isolation and prejudice that face many trans people often mean they are shut out from the formal economy. Tangerine “shows a perspective of the survival mode that some transgender women have to resort to, due to discrimination, oppression, unemployment, and being disowned by their families,” explained McKensey.

After the victories of LGBTQ rights under the Obama administration and the broader sea change of American public opinion from grudging tolerance to acceptance, it can be all too easy to believe that homophobia and transphobia is declining. Although that may be true at the societal level, the policies of the current administration don’t reflect this.

The Trump regime’s allowance of doctors to refuse to treat trans patients, adoption agencies to turn away potential LGBTQ parents, and homeless shelters to shut out trans people prove that the rainbow sheen of our modern era only goes so deep. This is why McKensey sees screening Tangerine at the Byrd as “an amazing opportunity to bring awareness to the transgender community and unite folks to understand that Transgender Women of Color are being murdered daily, denied so many rights, have no protections, and only want to live, exist, and be their best selves.”

The hostility of the moment only increases the importance of helping a broader swath of American society to identify with black trans people. So when Nationz Foundation was approached by Virginia Pride to sponsor week two of MonGays, McKensey made her decision in the blink of an eye. “I wanted to participate in MonGays because we’re excited to be an African American, trans-led organization afforded the opportunity to be a part of a monumental moment in Pride history here in Richmond.”

For those less interested in representation and queer politics than in pure filmmaking, Tangerine offers attendees the chance to watch a movie filmed entirely using three iPhone 5S devices. As the first phone-shot film to win at Sundance, Baker’s film earned him wide notoriety as a director pushing the envelope of technique in order to tell the poignant stories of the downtrodden. The simplicity of his cinematography will offer Richmonders an unfettered look at the humanity of black trans characters — one we seldom see on the silver screen.

Tangerine will kick off the second week of MonGays — a queer film series celebrating the LGBTQ+ community every Monday during Pride Month — tonight at 7pm at the Byrd Theatre.