1 25 1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection Description An account of the resource Eye-witness accounts of what we’ve seen and experienced provide a valuable resource to researchers and future generations to understand our past and how we arrived where we are today. Each interview in this collection has a narrator telling the story and a documenter guiding the process. Collected since the founding of the RHP, this collection is growing and is open to researchers. All interviews have been digitized and are described in the catalog; only some of them have transcripts available. None of the interviews stream online. To obtain access to an interview, you must request by contacting us directly, providing a brief description of your project and your research interests. Our email address is: info AT rainbowhistory DOT org One of our team will share the file from our Google Drive, and you can listen from home. Please be sure to have "Music Player for Google Drive" enabled on your machine to play the recording. www.driveplayer.com Table Of Contents A list of subunits of the resource. To see all interviews in the collection, click on "Items in the Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection" link below. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rainbow History Project Various narrators per oral history Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=2&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Caitlin+Firmage">Caitlin Firmage</a> Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=3&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Randy+K.+">Randy K. </a> Location The location of the interview. Washington, D.C. (HIPS office, 906 H Street) Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound. No. Original Format If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a sound file Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oral history interview with Randy K., 1967- Description An account of the resource Oral history with Randy K., who talk about his work as an advocate and activist and work with D.C.'s HIPS program, which provides harm-reduction services for sex workers. Interview conducted by Caitlin Firmage. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=40&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=4+December%2C+2015">4 December, 2015</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=47&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=The+interview+belongs+to+the+Rainbow+History+Project.+The+RHP+release+form+was+used+and+all+rights+belong+to+RHP.">The interview belongs to the Rainbow History Project. The RHP release form was used and all rights belong to RHP.</a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1970s-- Randy K. was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1967. His family moved to D.C. in 1974, and he has lived in the city since then, and sees it as his home. Randy grew up in the Adams Morgan neighborhood with his mother and four siblings. He knew he was gay from a young age and was often bullied in school. He was also caught up in the juvenile judicial system, and as a result became involved with the Big Brothers of America program. The program matched him up with Congressman Mickey Leland. Leland helped Randy with his schoolwork and helped him start taking horseback riding lessons. He served as a mentor to Randy until his death in 1989, and remained the person to whom Randy would attribute much of his success later in life. As a teenager in the 1980s, Randy often walked through the Dupont Circle neighborhood and observed the many gay clubs in the area. He would often stand in front of them and watch patrons leave, afraid to be seen going to the clubs himself. In 1984, Leland flew Randy to Houston, where the latter took aptitude tests and was diagnosed with dyslexia. This discovery made Randy feel pessimistic about the trouble he was having in school, and he decided to drop out as a result. After he dropped out, Randy started going to gay bars such as the Clubhouse, Tracks, Bachelor’s Mill, and Brass Rail. Around this time he also began engaging in sex work, as well as burglary, to make money. It was during this period that Randy first became acquainted with HIPS, a harm-reduction organization that provides services for sex workers and drug users. Randy recalls HIPS volunteers providing him and other sex workers with condoms, candy, hot chocolate, and clothes. Randy was diagnosed with HIV on January 28th, 1986, the day of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. He was devastated by the diagnosis, and remembers wishing he were on the space shuttle because he dreaded the thought of his friends and family seeing him waste away. Randy was in the Job Corps at the time, but was asked to move out of his dorm after his diagnosis because doctors there couldn’t help him. He was given the address of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, a D.C. health center that specializes in HIV/AIDS care. Despite the medications he received from the clinic, Randy felt hopeless about his illness, and as a result smoked crack, drank, and wouldn’t take his medication for many years after his diagnosis. He eventually decided to stop taking drugs, start taking his meds regularly, and turn his life around. Randy says that “HIV is the reason [he is] here today” because if not for his diagnosis, he would not have started living a healthier life. Randy lost many friends during the AIDS epidemic; he remembers going to “three funerals a week” and feeling numb to death. After being in and out of prison for many years, Randy was released in 2011 and decided that he wanted things to be different, and to stick to his plan of going back to school. He took part in Narcotics Anonymous, began attending church and eventually graduated from UDC, where he studied social work with an emphasis on public health. Randy came to HIPS as an HIV activist and advocate, working with HIPS staff member Earline Budd. He then met with HIPS harm reduction service manager Debbie Macmillan, who told him he should apply for the community health worker position, because of his HIV status and his relationship with the community. Randy loves his job, which involves helping make daily life easier for people living with chronic illness, because he feels that HIPS is a safe space in which he can be himself. He also feels that the organization does a good job of welcoming its clients, many of whom are transgender women, because the whole staff is very caring and committed to the work that HIPS does, and because many HIPS workers share experiences that the organization’s clientele also struggle with. He especially appreciates the commitment of administrators Cyndee Clay, Elizabeth MacIntosh, and Sara Knotts. Some services HIPS provides, in addition to the outreach van, which Randy says clients flock to “like ants on a sugar hill,” include a syringe exchange, showers, a clothing closet, a 24/7 hotline, laundry service, legal help, and linking clients to medical care. Randy is also a commissioner on the Ryan White Planning Council, which plans for the allocation of HIV/AIDS services and resources in the D.C. metropolitan area. This position allows him to serve as a voice for people with HIV/AIDS in the D.C. area. Randy feels that although organizations like HIPS and Whitman-Walker have pushed against the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, this stigma is still a major barrier towards seeking care for the infection or disease. Randy is glad that, as a community health worker, he is part of the fight against HIV/AIDS and the stigma associated with it. whitman-walker clinic