We Make the Road by Walking

Quentin Bell, Founder and Director of TKO, explains the importance of non-traditional care and what TKO is doing to create a Black Trans Future.

At TKO, our motto is nurturing through non-traditional care. That means…the healthcare systems we have now, are not inclusive or equitable for people who are Trans and who are queer, lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Those resource systems just don’t exist in the South. Doctors don’t know about transition-related care so oftentimes, as a Trans person, you have to carry the majority of the knowledge and be willing to make medical decisions.

TKO is the only HIV/AIDS service organization and STI clinic in the state that is run, led and operated by Black, Trans, and queer folks. We understand that hormone therapy has to be a part of the wellness that trans people receive because probably 90% of our trans clients want hormone therapy as part of their medical services not some kind of “add-on” or “elective procedure.”

HIV is not a single silo issue that we cannot get to zero by only treating the disease. And that's what we've seen organizations try to do over the last 40 or 50 years with HIV, with no success. You see organizations talk about medication adherence. They talking about getting access to doctors but we know that it’s crucial to treat the social determinants of health that allow HIV to thrive and fester in communities.

If you treat housing,
If you treat food insecurity
If you give people good jobs
If you make places affirming
If you can make access to wellness, as part of routine care
Then we can get closer to ending the HIV epidemic.

We have developed our system of care to be centered around folks who are Transgender. We understand that Trans folks are the most marginalized group of people (income-wise, discrimination-wise, and health-wise).

We create a resource pool that takes care and provides reources that Trans people are lacking. And by doing so, we’ve now created a resource pool that everyone can benefit from.