Student Activist Fights HIV/AIDS
Masonia Traylor advocates for education to end the AIDS epidemic
By Jeremy Craig
When Masonia Traylor learned she was positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the grief she experienced stopped her in her tracks.
“It was extremely traumatizing and devastating,” she said. “It caused me to be extremely disappointed in myself, and it actually caused me to take about three years to come back to school.”
Traylor felt alone. Though the disease can affect any demographic group, traditionally, service and education efforts in the fight against HIV have been aimed primarily toward white gay men.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while African-Americans represent 14 percent of the U.S. population but account for almost half of new infections (44 percent), and 41 percent of all Americans living with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than three decades have passed since HIV was first identified, and there is more awareness that it can affect anyone regardless of sexual orientation, gender or race. But as an African-American heterosexual woman, Traylor had a hard time getting the support she needed.
“It was unfortunate I didn’t have anyone I could relate to,” said the Georgia State nonprofit leadership major. “I didn’t know anybody who looked like me, and there was no cultural competency behind my initial diagnosis.”
Traylor always wears red pumps to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS.
Cultural competency is a concept that helps professionals use the right communication and health service techniques, because techniques that work with one culture may not work with another.
It’s something Traylor sees as vital in stemming new HIV infections and getting recently diagnosed people the care they need.
“We need to be able to understand culturally where this patient may be coming from when they’re trying to accept their diagnosis,” she said. “And there may barriers they have in life, such as housing issues, food, child care, transportation— just basic necessities.
“Coming from a heterosexual African-American female, living with HIV, it’s just the icing on the cake for all of the other barriers you may experience,” she said. “We don’t hear about HIV maybe as often as you would among gay men.”
When Traylor was first diagnosed with HIV, she had finished an associate’s degree at Georgia Perimeter College and needed a break from school. But she was inspired to start working toward her bachelor’s degree by another woman who experienced something similar, activist Marvelyn Brown.
“She mentioned she stopped going to college because she was HIV positive. She was too ashamed and had too much fear to continue going,” Traylor said. “Learning from that situation, I wanted to persevere even stronger and harder to show that, ‘you know what? Even though I have HIV, I’d still like to have my bachelor’s degree and not let it be an excuse for not completing it.’”
Graduating this summer, Traylor’s next step is to help others like her who once felt alone when diagnosed with the virus.
She’s working to start two nonprofits, one focusing on youth and HIV, and another that works on health and wellness initiatives with cultural competency in mind.
In the end, Traylor believes the key to ending the epidemic is knowledge.
“The biggest thing I tell all youth, and even when I’m speaking to my friends and parents, is that knowledge is the one thing no one can take away from you,” she said. “And the things nobody can do for you when it comes to HIV/AIDS is to respect yourself, check yourself and protect yourself.”
Photos by Carolyn Richardson