BayWindows.com – by Ethan Jacobs – Staff Reporter
Despite the mountains of surveillance data about HIV/AIDS, when it comes to the transgender community there is precious little information about the scope of the epidemic. Lee Thornhill, prevention and education manager for TransCEND (Transgender Care and Education Needs Diversity), a trans-focused program at Cambridge Cares About AIDS, said based on the program’s work and the experiences of their clients it is clear that transgender women are at increased risk for HIV infection. Yet when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health departments collect surveillance data on new infections, trans women are generally coded into a risk category that does not square with their own identity: men who have sex with men (MSM).