Black History Month may be behind us, but February 2025 was marked by the unraveling of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, blatant Nazi salutes, and the nonstop rollback of human rights. So, what now?
March shifts the focus to women’s history, but for some, protecting women may be seen as preserving fertility rather than safeguarding bodily autonomy or as a battle against “woke” threats to gender expression, sexual orientation, and identity. But we have not forgotten February. We have not forgotten Black history. And we have not forgotten the urgent need to protect Black girls and women.
March 10th was National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (#NWGHADD). Only one day exists to remind folks that a public health crisis impacts women and girls. In 2021, Black women constituted 54% of new HIV diagnoses among women in the United States. Black women are continuing to die from HIV/AIDS at staggering rates, 15.3 times more likely to die from HIV infection than white women. The time for change isn’t now—it was yesterday. We missed the deadline. Bold, innovative action is overdue.
Black heterosexual women are more likely to acquire HIV from a steady sexual partner and less likely to use condoms in these relationships than with casual ones. Sexual networks, overlapping relationships, and dating within the same community encourage a cycle that puts Black women at increased vulnerability to HIV. However, this behavior is not specific to Black women. Are Black women engaging in the same behaviors as white women yet facing different outcomes? Or do they have less access to care and fewer opportunities for targeted, informed outreach?
This is not about personal choices. It’s about larger systems that impact who people date, relationship power dynamics, and access to needed healthcare. To truly protect Black women, we need big changes—better healthcare access, more substantial community support, and policies that tackle the root causes of HIV acquisition. It’s not just about telling people to change their behavior. It’s about building a world where the needs of those most vulnerable are prioritized, creating a world that allows for open, honest communication within sexual relationships and embracing Black love.
Black love is a connector. It protects Black women in our communities. To address this, we (Drs. Crooks and Singer) developed PrEP-ing for Black Love a three-session program designed to support HIV prevention by fostering community and sisterhood through interactive education and skill building. Black love has been described in the literature as a shared cultural understanding that Black people are connected through race and discrimination. Black women are socialized to aspire to have Black love, often at the expense of themselves, and embrace its complexities.
When we asked women in our group what Black love meant, one woman said:
“This right here is Black love. It helps us start conversations with people now. We have new information we can share. We need to have more Black love, and we don’t have each other like we should.”
Our program prioritizes Black love—as self-love, love within Black families, and love within Black couples. Black love is not just an interpersonal experience; it is communal and felt deeply within Black communities.
But there is a gap. The same experiences of discrimination that bind Black families in love also leave them without the support they need. Where is the love for Black love?
Black love should not mean an increased risk for HIV. Black love could mean prioritizing our health, safety, and joy. Black love needs some love. Group-based care and HIV prevention education are one way to lovingly support Black women in making needed space to talk about relationships, collectively address challenges, and consider pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as an empowering method of self-protection, self-love, and Black love.
PrEP to need by demographic ratios highlights the critical need to focus on prevention-related services for Black women. It is also well demonstrated that Black communities have better outcomes when services are available from Black providers. This emphasizes how imperative it is for healthcare professionals, especially Black women providers, to place PrEP near the top of our prevention agenda when discussing culturally appropriate options with our patients.
The bottom line is HIV needs two things to spread: Someone to get it and someone to give it. We now live in a time where no matter where we are in that equation, we have the power to stop HIV in its tracks.
