Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund

So what do they really do?

The Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund (OACF) is more than a once-a-year, fancy event. That’s their ‘Red Tie Night’ where they do raise a substantial amount of money. But is it enough?

“The first question that people ask is how much money ‘Red Tie’ raised,” said Sunshine Schillings, Director of Programming at OACF. “The better question is ‘did we raise enough?’ and that answer is no. We have never been able to fund all the projects at 100% of the ask.

“The Health Department has been at level funding and for 2014-15 they had a cut. If you look at history, we started out at very little money for the LGBT community (the first AIDS money was $7000 – OSHD). We have done pretty good to fight for ourselves. The community has done very well to fight for themselves.”

Schillings concern is that people think that one big event is all they need to raise all the money they need to fund every program needed – state-wide – for the entire year. It’s just not so. OACF funds so much across the state of Oklahoma that they fall short on fully funding any of the requests.

“I need people to be angry again. I helped build all the organizations – it can all go away we need to fight for it but we watched our friends die. We need to have our friends understand the importance of this.”

She added, “We need to be seeing things on a broader spectrum. Sure I have an equality approach on marriage, but not at the expense of losing the war on HIV and AIDS. We shouldn’t have to pick one or the other. 

“Who remembers ‘Band AIDS?’ All the bars closed down for one night and it was one big night held at the Free Spirit (on Classen) and we provided entertainers, the marketing and everything. I think we’ve lost a lot of that. You know we have 30 years in this disease and the fight is not over yet. They say things like people are living longer – but that means that costs more to take care of them and we are getting more infections.”

Schillings pointed out that it’s not just about the cost of a person’s medicines. If they are sick enough to be on SSD (Social Security Disability), that means they are making about $700 per month. The average cost to rent an apartment is $600 a month…do the math. There are just not enough resources to care for people.

“Another tag line is ‘It’s not a gay disease.’ I thought with that is that other people would help us – I saw us become complacent and – the truth of the matter is (according to the CDC) MSM’s represent 2% of the population but account for 63% of the new HIV cases. It may not be a gay disease but it is a disease that disproportionately affects our community.”

Schillings has always felt and helps build a community in which efforts of collaboration and leverage of services are used to create better cost effective services.

“We fund people working together.

This really is our disease - nobody is going to support our community like our community and everybody can do something. Just because AIDS CARE fund has one big event, does not mean we can cover all the needs of the entire state.

The Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund (OACF) is committed to a comprehensive approach to combating HIV/AIDS in Oklahoma. OACF supports its HIV service partners by insuring they have the resources and tools needed for developing and maintaining their community-based initiatives. To donate or volunteer, visit

To donate, volunteer or otherwise support the efforts (405) 348-6600 or visit www.okaidscarefund.com

by Robin Dorner, Editor in Chief

The Gayly - May 19, 2014 @ 11:50am