Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)

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Capitol Hill Office 
2136 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C.
20515
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National Press Building
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Washington, D.C. 20045
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2041 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E.
Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20020
(202) 678-8900 tel
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As Norton Gets Tested for AIDS, She Calls on Black Leaders
to Get Active in the Fight Against Black AIDS Epidemic
September 27, 2006

 

Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) issued a statement after leading 15 other members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in getting tested for HIV/AIDS in a clinic van she arranged to have come to the Capitol today.  The Congresswoman is planning other events as well to raise the level of concern and action in the District, which has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the U.S.

"I want to thank the 15 CBC members who joined me in getting tested for HIV/AIDS today in a Unity Health Care clinic van at the Capitol.  I got my results in 20 minutes, and so can any resident at almost any health care facility. African American Members of Congress got tested, frankly, to make a statement to both Black leaders and to the Black community. To Black leaders, we say that as public officials, members of the clergy, civic and other leaders, we have an obligation as yet unmet, to markedly raise the level of our own advocacy and action to help quell the Black epidemic of HIV/AIDS.  To each and every African American, we say that the least we owe our families and communities at a time when HIV/AIDS is spreading uncontrollably among African Americans is to get tested."

This morning Norton also spoke on the House floor on the Black AIDS epidemic and said Congress should not go home at the end of the week without reauthorizing the Ryan White CARE Act.  She said that as the stereotype of the disease has shifted from homosexual to Black "the one constant is its spread."  Norton said that she intended to get tested today because the key missing ingredient in the African American epidemic has been Black leadership on testing, safe sex, and condoms, and on "overcoming homophobia, which is in league with the disease in the Black community."

The Congresswoman's full statement on the House floor follows.

"The international vortex of AIDS is Black Africa. In our country, it is Black America.  How did half of the AIDS cases become African American? Even worse, new cases are overwhelmingly Black.  We've seen this disease stereotyped as homosexual and now as Black.  The one constant is its spread.  Yet, unlike many diseases today, AIDS is preventable and can be contained and defeated.  The answers are not complicated, beginning with leadership.  I will be tested on the Capitol complex grounds in a D.C. health van this afternoon to set an example to help prevent the epidemic spread of the disease.  Leadership on safe sex and condoms. Leadership on overcoming homophobia, which is in league with the disease in the Black community. And above all, leadership from the Congress of the United States, which must not go home without reauthorizing the Ryan White Act."