User:Rhitorical/sandbox

The ball community is heavily impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic as transgender people of color and men who have sex with men (MSM) are the highest risk communities for contracting the virus in the US. Since the 1980s, many notable members of the ball community died due to HIV/AIDS complications including Willi Ninja, Hector Xtravaganza, and Angie Xtravaganza. In the United States, MSM make up roughly 83% of all estimated HIV diagnoses in males. Young black men are especially at risk for contracting the virus. From 2006 to 2009, the percentage of black MSM, aged 13–29, who were diagnosed with HIV increased by 48%. In 2022, new HIV diagnoses in MSM aged 13-24 decreased by 31%, although new HIV diagnoses amongst black MSM decreased by 16%. Many healthcare providers and medical service professionals have since reached out to the community to perform research, teach sex education, offer free testing, and host balls to promote safe sex, such as the Latex Ball that is hosted by the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York.

Researchers with ProjectVOGUE also reached out to the ball community for assistance with vaccine trials and testing because minority participation is generally very low. This low participation stems from a historical distrust that African-Americans and Latinos have had of the government due to government-sponsored projects such as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. ProjectVOGUE is led by researchers and professionals from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Florida International University, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the MOCHA (Men of Color Health Association) Center. They aimed to create a partnership with the Western New York ball community and held monthly meetings where safe sex methods were taught along with information about the HIV trial vaccine. Community members were initially incentivized to attend with $25 gift cards and transportation vouchers.

These joint meeting sessions also branched out to cover topics such as substance abuse, STI prevention, violence within the ball community, and more. ProjectVOGUE researchers utilized the House "family" structure by taking 15 "mothers", "fathers", founders, and more on a retreat to gauge the community's knowledge of HIV, while encouraging them to teach their "children" about HIV prevention. At the end of the study, participants had an increased knowledge about HIV, HIV vaccine research, and were more likely to participate in a study. The ballroom family structure amongst many Houses may also include HIV prevention activities internally, with house "mothers" helping educate their children on safe sex behaviors. However, HIV prevention workers have expressed concerns that additional measures are needed to ensure that such behaviors are applied in practice.

Many other partnerships have formed across the country between the healthcare industry and the ball community to encourage HIV prevention. Although HIV/AIDS took, and continues to take, the lives of many ball participants, the community has grown tighter as a result of collective mourning and shared celebrations of life in the wake of grief.