EDGE Chicago

It wasn’t too long ago that the city’s only HIV/AIDS service organization that specifically serves Chicago’s Latino residents faced the likelihood of closing its doors, but the agency has persevered and has a number of ambitious goals it hopes to meet in the new year.

Founded in 1988 with the mission of providing a free clinic for those at risk and already living with HIV/AIDS in Humboldt Park, Vida/SIDA has broadened the services it offers to its clients. In addition to providing free, anonymous and confidential HIV and STI testing and counseling, Vida/SIDA offers community and peer education through street outreach. And it has also become known for its annual Paseo Boricua Pageant, which spotlights transgender residents, and its annual recognition of World AIDS Day.

In the new decade, Vida/SIDA stands on the brink of several ambitious initiatives meant to further reinforce its role as a leader in a community that continues to become increasingly comfortable with its LGBT residents. By the year’s end, the organization hopes to open the city’s first interim and permanent housing program for homeless LGBT youth. Vida/SIDA also seeks to launch a program meant to provide resources to the entrepreneurial efforts of trans residents.

"We hope to transform this community," Juan Calderon, program director of Vida/SIDA, said. "We hope we can open a lot of doors for the residents in this community and grant them a safe space for them to transform their lives and build community."

The effort to open an LGBT-targeted homeless shelter is being done in collaboration with La Casa Norte, another Humboldt Park organization renowned for their services for the homeless. According to Calderon, Vida/SIDA has begun the zoning process for the shelter and is brainstorming fundraising ideas to reinforce its start-up funding. The effort comes in direct response to the needs of the neighborhood’s LGBT youth.

"A lot of students in the community are needing to drop out due to not having a safe space because they were open about their sexuality," Calderon said. "Obviously, we need to start addressing the issue of homophobia and transphobia in this community and need to stop talking about it as ’tolerance’ of the LGBTQ community. We need acceptance."

Similarly, the entrepreneurial program for local trans residents is meant to provide an alternative means to garner income, independence and take steps toward a healthy lifestyle. As Calderon explained, transphobia and the already-difficult economy have combined to limit employment options for trans Chicagoans, pushing many toward sex work and other dangerous directions.

"There have been discussions in Chicago about how we can best provide services to the transgender community and we know their problems," he said. "We want to build an incubator model to cultivate their businesses, help them develop business plans and find employment alternatives."

While funding remains an obstacle for both initiatives to take wing, Vida/SIDA is confident they will find support from within the neighborhood, owing both to its legacy from more than 20 years of supporting healthy lifestyles and its recent successes. The exhibit of renowned gay activist and cartoonist Daniel Sotomayor’s work at the Institute of Puerto Rican Art and Culture and a candlelight vigil honoring Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, among other events, were well attended by local residents. The area’s elected officials have also been particularly supportive of the organization’s efforts to counter long-standing tensions facing the area’s LGBT residents through increased visibility and activism.

"Some people won’t be supportive of us, but we need to challenge these residents and remain on the vanguard of these issues," Calderon said. "I think that through these efforts, we will continue to educate them on how to accept others, realizing that our human sexuality is exactly that: Human. I think we’ve already transformed this community [from what it was.]"