HIV disparities are an ongoing problem affecting LGBT populations, particularly Black gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) and transgender women (TGW). The etiology of these disparities is multi-factorial, but medical mistrust and anti-LGBT stigma are key barriers to HIV prevention and care access that likely contribute to disparities. A public health department and university-academic collaboration in partnership with clinical and community partners was funded to improve HIV prevention and care access among Black GBMSM and TGW. Recognizing medical mistrust and anti-LGBT stigma as significant prevention and care access barriers for these communities, the project included the development of Baltimore in Conversation (BIC), a program designed to understand and address these barriers. BIC engaged community voices through small-group conversations about lived experiences as LGBT persons, storytelling nights with presentations of personal narratives of resilience, and photo-story exhibitions of local LGBT persons. Innovative evaluation tools were designed and embedded within BIC. The evaluation sought, through qualitative and quantitative approaches, to inform programming with community perspectives and, ultimately, to determine whether BIC programming reduced medical mistrust and anti-LGBT stigma. The evaluation findings showed evidence of progress towards reducing medical mistrust and anti-LGBT stigma and provided community feedback used to make programming more relevant to experiences and needs of local LGBT communities. For example, analysis of small-group conversation transcripts provided community-informed and locally relevant language and images for an HIV prevention media campaign for Black GBMSM and TGW. Analysis of in-depth interviews of photo-story participants suggested participation led to reductions in internalized stigma and external stigma from important members of their social networks. This public health-academic collaboration created the opportunity to develop, evaluate and improve a public health program through a community-informed approach. The overall findings, suggest reductions in medical mistrust and anti-LGBT stigma.

Disclosure No significant relationships.