Bigotry’s birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings
Bayard Rustin
Houstonians influence social culture in a multitude of different ways especially our understanding of sex. In a city of hot girls and pimps, the artistry portrays safe sex as an important tool for a good time. In the words of Pimp C “Lover never f**k without a rubber,” is a line sexually active individuals can relate to embody in their own lives. Culture is similar to sexually transmitted diseases or infections because they spreads and alter social environments. The bigger things are in Texas, the bigger the impact it will have on communities of color. Federal and state governments have consistently failed to protect communities of color from epidemics or pandemics. Legislation passed between 2020 and the present has undermined funding or enforcement of disease protocols, and economic inequality ensured communities that experienced a lack of access to healthcare will continue to suffer the most.
Communicable miscommunication refers to how we engage with information regarding sexually transmitted diseases. It’s easily one of the ways we can individually and socially disregard each other. As we “pass around” each other we reduce prioritization for healthy sexual conversation to police one another’s sexual experiences stemming from fear or deep-rooted stigmatization. At Texas Girl Writes it’s my job to inform how we can personally protect ourselves. Communicable diseases can be contracted at any age, from any partner, causing long-lasting effects on the next generation. In July, Houston issued an official statement about the emergency Syphilis outbreak rates that have increased by 128% since 2019. Like most sexually transmitted diseases, “Sexually active people can get syphilis through vaginal, anal, or oral sex without a condom with a partner who has syphilis.”
The miscommunication of diseases is expecting to die or be afflicted for life which is a real concern, however, “syphilis is curable with the right antibiotics from your healthcare provider.” The Houston Health Department has taken steps to combat the outbreak by incentivizing free testing centers as well as mobile clinics. I encourage all my readers to routinely take charge of your sexual health: schedule appointments, find what contraceptives you’re comfortable with, and speak directly about communicable diseases in your environments.
Reactionary culture towards diseases due to years of reproductive and medical abuse. Much like any other institution, the healthcare system has played a tremendous role in enforcing racial injustice among the most vulnerable communities nationwide. The generational distrust in healthcare severely impacts the environment present young Black people are navigating. Commonly in Black spaces conversations about STD/STI are humorously expressed to cover the intimate fear of a positive reality. A fear so intense due to its effective act of community to disengage once the stigma has set in. Stigmas are weaponized as punishment instead of care for afflicted people. The physical language will indefinitely change as handshakes or cuddles will decrease once it is common knowledge or speculated a person is infected.
As a result, the community will engage in reductive discourse misinforming and ostracizing the person. Vulnerability transmutes into shame for potential partners who mischaracterize the majority living with diseases as “dirty” or underserving of care. Several sexually engaged people often think that youth, “methods,” or trust in a consistent partner will save them from scrutiny. In theory, we’d like to live in communities where communicable diseases are null, yet these thoughts actively erase the vast majority of people living and thriving with an acquired infection. In the event you managed to stay disease-free, well regards to you but those living with such are not your morality lessons.
We must work on understanding our own biases about sexually transmitted diseases. These biases are then weaponized against oppressed communities. Ignorance of the history and misapprehension of diseases cemented an era of mass death for decades in the LGBTQ community. The HIV epidemic increased existing bias by attaching sexually transmitted diseases to a certain demographic. Holistically all consenting sexually active adults should be practicing safe sex. Sex education should be easily accessible on sexually transmitted diseases as well. It’s a major disservice to the present generation that laws restrict access to these normal materials. For example, “Fewer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools are teaching the sexual health topics that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers “essential” for healthy young people.” The longer the conversation centers around simply not having sex, we fail more children and adults.
Reproductive Justice Advocates
Through the lens of Black women reproductive justice is a nationwide movement to dismantle systems built off death and transform it into a beacon of life. For decades families have been left emotionally despondent over the high maternal mortality rates plaguing Black women. In a world already unkind to Black children, systematic reproductive injustice stops at nothing to impose barriers on the healthcare, black women endure. Black women’s struggle for liberation tirelessly hopes to be recognized for its multidimensional actions rather than servitude to the masses. Reproductive justice isn’t solely on correcting body policing, but to reflect the lack of reproductive education in households and schools. Unlearning the social stereotypes surrounding sexual engagement for Black women moves beyond not defining us as strong but accepting we are present.
As Texans, our reproductive justice recognizes the identities and struggles of an expanding Latino population. The ongoing criminalization, dehumanization, and erasure of families immigrating have produced dangerous conditions in detention centers. Following mass deportations under the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations on a federal level, Texas has disproportionately targeted Mexican-American women at the border. Regular reports of ICE agents neglecting and assaulting detainees are quietly dismissed while, “the Legislature has allocated nearly $10 billion for Abbott’s border security efforts, which include the construction of border walls.”
Mistreatment by Texas border agents are common issue faced by those seeking asylum. Reproductive stereotypes placed on Latino women invoked sterilization practices rooted in the practice of Eugenics. (link to Wisconsin story) Furthermore, “Latin American women are framed both as pregnant immigrants that, by giving birth to welfare-dependent citizens, could lead to a potential bankruptcy of the welfare system, alleging that these women and their reproductive systems are being perceived as the “core of the issue.” Reproductive justice is freeing each other from external connotations and building communities centered of bodily autonomy.
In the present, according to a study of Black women after HIV, “Representing less than 15% of all women in the United States (US) in 2018, Black women accounted for nearly 59% of women estimated to be living with HIV (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020a).” These are women who exist in all communities, some facing silent epidemics and other leading the for STD awareness. In October of 2023 I received an invitation to the “15 Years of Impact Gala”, hosted by Dallas’s own, Afiya Center. The gala proudly honored and uplifted its dedicated staff of Black women who dedicated their time “to assist marginalized women living in poverty who are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.” The awardees included were integral facilitators in addressing disparities among Black Women in Dallas such as the Co-Founder Marsha Jones and social activist Isis Brantley, and honor the late Ms.Linda Faye Freeman.
I thoroughly enjoyed the heartfelt speeches and testimonies each awardee presented, as an affirmation many Black women do not often receive. The Afiya Center in Dallas stands as testimony to “no one cares for Black women the way Black women care for Black women.” The Afiya Center is now focusing on expanding its operations to accommodate a broader range of those searching for help. We must interact and support each other in advancing adequate resources for reproductive justice.
texasgirlwrites.com 
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