Unity Arc Advocacy Group

12/01/2025

World AIDS Day 2025 is a day of reflection, remembrance, and recommitment.
It’s a day shaped by the strength and love of people living with HIV.

This year, I’m grateful to share that Unity Arc Advocacy Group is evolving our mission and vision to better serve our communities — especially older adults, long-term survivors, and people who continue to face stigma and barriers every day.

As a person living and aging with HIV, and in my roles with the USPLHIV Caucus, the Georgia HIV Justice Coalition, and the CHLP Aging Advisory Council, I’ve learned that our stories and lived experiences must guide everything we build.

Unity Arc’s updated mission is simple and grounded:

Use storytelling, policy writing, and equitable technology to close health gaps, link people to care, and help shrink the digital divide.

Our partnership with Versante Connect and their OSMe Buddy tool is one example of this work.
OSMe Buddy helps people understand what they’re feeling, recognize symptoms, make sense of syndemics, and find supportive care — without shame or stigma.

Today, I honor:
❤️ Long-term survivors
❤️ Those we’ve lost
❤️ Elders aging with HIV
❤️ Young people newly navigating their diagnosis
❤️ Our caregivers and allies
❤️ Every organization committed to justice and dignity

Unity Arc may be small, but we are committed.
This World AIDS Day, we keep walking forward — with community, with gratitude, and with purpose.

In community and solidarity,
Malcolm Reid

11/20/2025

Unity Arc Advocacy Group Statement for Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 20, 2025

Today , on Transgender Day of Remembrance, Unity Arc Advocacy Group pauses to honor the lives of transgender and gender-expansive people whose voices were silenced by violence, stigma, and hate. We say their names, we hold their memories close, and we commit ourselves to a world where their safety, dignity, and joy are non-negotiable.

TDOR is not only a moment of reflection—it is a call to action. Trans communities, especially Black and Brown transgender women, continue to face disproportionate levels of violence, barriers to health care, criminalization, and discrimination. These injustices are preventable. They are rooted not in individual acts of harm, but in systems that decide whose lives are valued and whose are not.

Unity Arc Advocacy Group stands firmly with our transgender siblings. Our advocacy is grounded in the belief that equity cannot exist unless it exists for the most marginalized among us. As we work to close health gaps, challenge discriminatory policies, and expand access to care and technology, we do so with transgender liberation at the center—not the margins.

We remember those we lost.
We uplift those still here.
We fight for a future where every transgender person—of every age, race, and identity—can thrive openly, safely, and fully in their truth.

In memory. In solidarity. In action.

Unity Arc Advocacy Group
“Technology and policy that serve the margins first.”

Malcolm Reid CEO

11/15/2025

11/04/2025

Check out the second post in this three part series
https://bit.ly/3LrYHdw

10/30/2025

Del. Norton battles injustice, fights for equity, and defends D.C. residents amid Confederate statue controversy and personal attacks.​

Read More: https://www.washingtoninformer.com/eleanor-holmes-norton-fights-back/

10/27/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mreid5/p/from-surviving-to-steering-what-hiv?r=55uj33&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

10/22/2025

Check out my substack article.

By Malcolm Reid | Unity Arc Advocacy Group

10/20/2025

Science Can’t Save What Policy Breaks.

The CDC’s approval of a 6-month injectable PrEP (lenacapavir) should be a breakthrough in HIV prevention — especially for Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ communities that face daily-pill fatigue and stigma.

But this month’s federal shutdown and CDC staff firings are slowing that progress. Clinics are waiting for training, data releases are frozen, and outreach funding is in limbo. The result? Delayed prevention. Interrupted testing. And communities left behind.

✊🏾 Unity Arc Advocacy, with the U.S. PLHIV Caucus and , are meeting with elected officials and educating communities on real world impacts

We’re also collecting short videos or written stories from people living with HIV and organizations on the front lines — stories that show how these disruptions affect real lives.

💬 If you, your organization, or your community have something to share, please reach out to Malcolm Reid at malcolm@unityarcadvocacy.com

check out my blog, https://www.unityarcadvocacy.com/wekeepushealthy

10/09/2025

🌟 Today is Ageism Awareness Day! 🌟
At Unity Arc Advocacy, we honor the strength, wisdom, and continued leadership of older adults who champion health equity every day.

I'm here reminding others that aging is not a limitation — it’s a powerful force for change.

Ageism affects access to care, HIV prevention, and the visibility of older LGBTQ people, Black and brown elders, and others who continue to lead our communities. Challenging ageism is part of advancing equity for all of us.

💬 Let’s reframe aging as empowerment.
💪 Let’s ensure that health systems respect and include every age.
💛 Let’s build a culture that sees age as an asset, not a barrier.



Malcolm Reid

10/01/2025

Senator Chris Murphy just sent out this report from the Senate Floor: He specifies what each American can do, pronto. He says we do not have the luxury of waiting until mid-terms or 2 years at the rate the dismantling and deletions of our programs have taken place.

“Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.
So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back. The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted. In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.

Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.

So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires. The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.

The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children. They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.

Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM.

DO NOT PRESS SHARE. JUST COPY THE ENTIRE POST AND PASTE IT ON YOUR OWN WALL.

This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials. So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.

And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment.”

Every best wish,
US Senator Chris Patrick Murphy