Reflecting on Another Successful International Conference on Stigma

February 7, 2026

As the new year begins, it is always a good time to reflect on the positive aspects of the last year. For those working to end stigma, the International Conference on Stigma is an integral part of those efforts.

The 16th Annual International Conference on Stigma was a hybrid conference held from November 18-20, 2025. With two days virtual and one day in-person at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., about three hundred people participated [read more]

The Overwhelming Concept of Contraception

By Brielle Collins

January 26, 2026

Entering college, the decision of whether or not to get on birth control loomed over me. There were endless options and, most importantly, pages of seemingly threatening side effects that felt like they would alter my life. Overall, navigating sexual health and wellness as a woman gets unnecessarily complicated, incredibly overwhelming, and completely impossible. 

You don’t want to get pregnant, but sometimes you don’t want to rely solely on a condom. You start weighing your options, scrolling through TikTok, Googling late at night, and talking to friends about the potential side [read more]

Trust or Mistrust: Sickle Cell Warriors Unraveling Medical Mistrust

Temitope Creppy

Joanne Adelberg, MS

September 1, 2024

Sickle cell disease primarily affects about 100,000 Americans, and greater than 7 million people worldwide.  Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of genetic disorders that affect red blood cells, causing them to become shaped like crescents or sickles. The sickle-shaped cells can travel through the bloodstream, getting stuck and cutting off blood flow, leading to intense pain and organ damage. Patients with SCD may experience chronic pain and have learned to manage frequent acute pain crises, leading [read more]

Internalized Stigma & the Environment: Reflections from a Photo Narrative Project

Authors/Contributors: Internalized Stigma Interest Group

May 1, 2024

The Internalized Stigma Interest Group, of the Howard University annual International Conference on Stigma, is a network of people interested in promoting the awareness and reduction of internalized stigmatization of all types of oppression, especially related to stigmatized health conditions such as HIV, mental health challenges, sickle cell, and substance use challenges. We are activists and academics, people with lived experience, researchers, program workers, clinicians, students, and many other things – sometimes within a single individual! Everyone is [read more]

Silent No More: The Perspective of Heterosexual Men Living with HIV

By  Temitope Creppy, Senior, Howard University

January 1, 2024

“I was refused treatment because I refused to say I was homosexual.” These are the words of a 50-year-old African-American man diagnosed with HIV who was wrongly discriminated against and denied medical treatment due to stigma that persists in the healthcare environment. Healthcare professionals doubted his relationship with his wife, and people in his daily life still consider him homosexual because he lives with HIV. Unfortunately, across the country this is the reality of [read more]

Zero HIV Stigma Day

By Kalvin Pugh, IAPAC

July 1, 2023

Stigma is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as: a set of negative and unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something. In the more than four decades of the HIV Pandemic, the medical, scientific and communities most impacted by HIV have made incredible strides; moving us from what was once death sentence, to now a manageable chronic condition. That progress has been unequal across race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and geographic location due to several factors but one of the primary culprits remains from the earliest days of [read more]

Peer Support

By Positive Sunbeam

April 1, 2023

Since becoming public with my HIV status just this last fall, I find myself in a place of discovery.  What does my life look like without keeping HIV a secret?  How does the vulnerability uncovered become an asset to my gifts sharing in a world in much need of safe vulnerability?  How do I extend to others while not lessening self care of less stimulation and information from social media?  Aging with HIV- what is the best support for my own mental health?

I am grateful to Howard University, Who Can You tell? program, The Well [read more]