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Norton Calls D.C. Teens to "Holla Back" at Town Hall Meeting to Fight HIV/AIDS (11/9/07)

November 10, 2007

Norton Calls D.C. Teens to "Holla Back" at Saturday Town Hall Meeting to Fight HIV/AIDS
November 9, 2007

Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is asking D.C. teenagers to "Holla Back" about a serious subject while having a good time at a town hall meeting: "Teens Talk about Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV/AIDS and Being a Teen Today," TOMORROW, Saturday, November 10, from 1 to 3 PM at One Judiciary Square (441 4th Street, NW). Angie Ange and Quick Silva of 93.9 WKYS, two popular, young radio personalities with whom teens can identify, will moderate the town hall meeting that is designed to give teenagers, not panelists, the floor. Norton will give a brief overview of the alarming HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly affecting African Americans, and will outline the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among teens, but then youth get their turn to "holla back." There also will be a performance by DeAngelo Redman of MTV's "Making the Band 4," who has written a song about AIDS. Students who attend will receive community service hours that are required for graduation, an indication that the D.C. Public School system sees this subject as a serious concern. As with other Norton town meetings, teenagers will be able to get free, confidential HIV tests at tomorrow's meeting, administered by MetroTeen AIDS.

The teen town hall is the fourth in a series of community meetings, directed at teens, women, men, and the clergy, that Norton has held over the past year to emphasize safe sex, testing, and knowing your status to bring down the city's AIDS rate, the highest in the country. However, the rate is expected to go down because in June, Norton got the House to remove the rider on D.C. appropriations that has kept the city from spending its own local funds on needle exchange programs for 10 years, even though these programs have brought down AIDS rates in cities across the country. The Senate is expected to follow suit. Norton said that much of the blame for the District's high rate belongs to Congress and the needle exchange rider because one-third of AIDS cases here are from intravenous drug use, primarily among adults.

The HIV/AIDS crisis has been particularly devastating among African Americans. Black teenagers make up 70 percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases among teens in the United States, and overall, African Americans make up 50 percent of all new cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control. "Residents, including teens, must be willing to take personal responsibility for the elimination of a virus which is chiefly transmitted sexually," Norton said. Teens and young adults are more likely than other age groups to have multiple sex partners and to engage in unprotected sex, and young women are biologically more susceptible to HIV, Chlamydia and gonorrhea.

All of Norton's town hall meetings sought to bring out of the shadows issues that stand in the way of preventing HIV/AIDS: homophobia, superstition, denial about STDs, deceit in relationships, multiple partners, unsafe sex, suspicions about "the down-low," the decline in marriage and its effects on children, and similar issues talked about in whispers but seldom in public discussion. These standing room only gatherings have raised awareness otherwise dormant among some sectors of the community and have sparked action to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STDs. The Congresswoman is providing free testing at all Norton events. She has been tested on two separate occasions with members of the Congressional Black Caucus.