The Rainbow Raft Pride Center and Undocu-Success Center came together to host a community health-focussed event in the Otter Student Union on Monday; a free HIV and Hepatitis C (HepC) pop-up testing site. The centers collaborated with the Access Support Network for Monterey County, an organization which provides HIV and HepC testing programs and support for Monterey County residents.
“I had always wondered, why we don’t have a testing event?” because even though the health center does do testing, I feel students don’t receive that information or it’s not communicated as thoroughly, so people don’t know that there’s that option on campus,” said Eduardo Cazarez, a fourth-year business administration major and Rainbow Raft community outreach coordinator. Cazarez worked as one of the main coordinators for the testing event.
The LGBTQ+ community holds a heavy history when it comes to sexual health. With the first reported cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the U.S. emerging in the early 1980s, thousands of people, but particularly the LGBTQ+ community with a decades long AIDs epidemic. Cazarez stressed the importance of making testing for these infections accessible and private for all. “I know the Personal Growth and Counseling Center (PGCC) is kind of far, and so students really have to go out of their way to go all the way over there. It’s kind of, in a way, a little bit too public because everyone goes to the PGCC and the health center’s right there, so we really took into account the discretion and privacy for this event.”
Cazarez said that the event followed a system in which individuals would go into the testing room one by one for their testing, and would then wait in the room for their results to optimize privacy. Each participant also received a Dollar Tree gift card after participating in the event. Cazarez claimed that the event was successful in its mission to bring accessible health services to campus at the pop-up and hopes to hold more testing events in the future to further break the stigma, “I think it definitely could become a regular thing, just kind of testing the waters and see just how they have the blood drives here in the west lounge or possibly the OSU ballroom, something that gets the ball more rolling and more people talking and such.”
“It’s not as scary as it sounds, it’s just a tiny finger prick,” said Cazarez, “…just communicate the event with your friends, just spread the word and we can collectively take care of our health.”