A Courageous Studios production with Gilead Sciences, Blind Angels is a new docuseries on HIV in the American South. This production honors the grassroots activists and organizations who are working to destigmatize and raise awareness of HIV in their own communities. Each episode spotlights a different activist as they work to bring HIV awareness, education, prevention, and care to their communities.
The South is currently considered the epicenter of the HIV epidemic in the United States, comprising just over half of new HIV diagnoses in 2019. Many people in the South live in poverty and without health insurance — in fact, when compared with the rest of the country, the South had some of the highest rates of poverty and uninsured people, according to 2017 data. Additionally, people of color and other marginalized communities face even higher rates of HIV in this region, with Black and Hispanic/Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) and Black women bearing the brunt of the epidemic. Transgender people living in the South also face disproportionately high rates of new HIV diagnoses. The Blind Angels series explores the challenges faced by some of these communities—including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee—and shines a light on the impact of courage, family, and love.
Blind Angels celebrates the people who are working every day in the American South to fight for access, education, and resources that can help end the HIV epidemic.