Shortly before World AIDS Day on December 1st, Aidshilfe Frankfurt would like funds from the new coalition. They are at the limit with their advisory services. In addition to classic advice and work in drug help, there are more and more offers of help for the queer scene.
The poster that is hanging on the office wall behind Christian Setze-pfandt, the board member of Aidshilfe Frankfurt (AHF) this Thursday, says: “Farewell to AIDS?” This is also the title of this year’s memorial event and the topic of the panel discussion on the world AIDS Day on December 1st in the town hall. “Of course there is still the ‘old’ AIDS, when you don’t test yourself for HIV and don’t treat it, but that only happens very rarely in western countries like Germany,” says Setzepfandt. Nowadays, HIV infection is still not curable, but it is not a death sentence like it was in the 1980s. “If you are on medication, you can live the same age as non-infected people these days.”
AIDS appears in cases of sex workers living here illegally who have no access to the health system. The AHF tries to reach these people through social workers so that they can get tested and treated. There are no current figures on AIDS and HIV in Germany. The Robert Koch Institute wants to publish the statistics in mid/late December, says Carsten Gehrig, deputy managing director of the AHF. “But the number of new infections has fallen in recent years. Above all, there was no major increase in men who have sex with other men.” This shows that the educational work is working and is a reason why HIV-infected people who are treated with medication are not infectious and can have sex , without transmitting the virus.
The demand for anonymous tests, which Aidshilfe offers twice a week, is high regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Gehrig emphasizes that there are not only people from Frankfurt, but also from the surrounding area as far as Fulda. Even heterosexuals who don’t want to listen to stupid questions in rural areas. “But we are at the limit with our consulting capacities. We can no longer offer walk-in appointments, but can only make fixed appointments.” Other facilities have closed.
World AIDS Day in Frankfurt
The AHF – Aidshilfe Frankfurt invites you to their traditional reflection and memorial event on December 1st at 6 p.m. on the occasion of World AIDS Day. This will be held for the first time in the Stadthaus Frankfurt (Markt 1).
The motto is “Farewell to AIDS?” Speakers include Peter Gute (Infektiologikum Frankfurt), Sophie Hanack (Head of La Strada), Knud Wechterstein (Coordinator Rainbow Refugee Support) and Christian Setzepfandt (Aidshife). rose
The AHF can still test 50 people on two days a week. “A drop in the ocean”; many people would have to send them away. After all, it’s not just about taking blood, but also about advice and a conversation if the test is positive. Gehrig and his colleagues not only want money from the new Hessian coalition to create more capacity, “but, like in North Rhine-Westphalia, there should be free HIV tests. Then, like with Corona, more people would get tested.” A test currently costs 18 euros, as it has for years.
The work of the Frankfurt Aidshilfe, founded in 1985, is changing significantly. The name AHF became the Aidshilfe Frankfurt. In addition to the classic areas of counseling for those affected and work in drug help, many newer formats were added: counseling on sexuality for all people, fertility counseling for queer people, queer youth housing, a specialist center for LGBT* lifestyles in old age and the safe house “La Villa” – one LGBTIQ+ refugee accommodation. The main thing there is to deal very sensitively with the severely traumatized people who, in addition to their refugee history, have often experienced a lot of queer hostility in their home countries.
There are also educational offers against queer hostility in schools. It’s good that the police are showing more presence in the Rainbow Quarter, the queer nightlife district. But according to Gehrig: “The willingness to use violence against queer people is increasing. They are insulted or spat at on the line and in the trains.”