This story is part of a digital issue of Queer Kentucky surrounding Harm Reduction and its intersection with the LGBTQ+ community.⁠ Check out the full digital issue here.

When we discuss harm reduction, a few common examples spring to mind: needle exchanges, fentanyl testing strips, and education about the health impacts of substance use. But in the Bluegrass State, we don’t stop at these discrete interventions. Harm reduction leaders across the region are advocating for an even more potent strategy: organizing their communities to target the systemic causes of harm, not just their symptoms. 

For Shreeta Waldon, Executive Director of the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition, successful harm reduction is about listening and empowering people. 

“What I do is liberate you to live the life you want to live—the kind that makes you say ‘I want to get up and live today,'” says Waldon. “My job is to make space for each person’s liberation, for themselves—not the liberation I imagine for them.”

Waldon’s work with KyHRC directly serves those impacted by substance use and addiction. Their work aims to provide resources which contribute to an individual’s personal liberation, whatever form that may take. Liberation, in this sense, means the freedom to make decisions for oneself—a personal freedom that substance use disorder can often eradicate. 

“We fight for humanity. I got a degree to help people live,” says Waldon. “People who use drugs need the same things as everyone else. Harm reduction is an ecosystem of recovery. We’re all part of this.” 

Kentucky’s “ecosystem of recovery” has many pieces, but Waldon emphasizes the importance of creating a cohesive whole through inter-organization collaboration.

“Over the last fifteen years, we’ve all been driving in our lane,” says Waldon. “‘I’m doing my job, this is how it’s going to be done.’ Nobody talks about how to pivot with each other. A coalition is about coming together with organizations and people—it’s a dance.”

Waldon’s vision for a more collaborative ecosystem was recently illustrated by a major legislative win, led by Jon Parker, executive director of AVOL Kentucky, and Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, Parker and Hartman were discussing the current state of HIV/AIDS advocacy in the region. With lockdowns occurring, in-person HIV testing had been disrupted. The obvious answer was to mail HIV self-test kits to people in need, but Parker noted that Kentucky considered that a felony. 

“Sometimes these laws get written and hidden and nobody’s looking at them,” said Parker of the obscure law. If we don’t raise our voices, it won’t change.”

The obscure law, KRS 367.175, was a small, miscellaneous list of “other unlawful acts,” primarily prohibiting trade monopolies. Tucked within this statute was a clause that prohibited the “sale, delivery, holding, [and advertising]” of HIV self-tests. The HIV Is Not A Crime Coalition, powered by the Fairness Campaign, successfully advocated for this clause to be struck with the signing of a bipartisan bill (HB349) in June, 2023.

This situation highlights the need for policy to keep up with public health. When policy lags behind—or worse, prohibits—effective healthcare, we need to (1) notice, and (2) advocate for change. 

Ernesto Scorsone, vice president of JustFundKY, is no stranger to this advocacy. As a former judge and state senator, Scorsone has a long history of protecting LGBTQ+ Kentuckians, from the eradication of anti-sodomy laws, to fairness ordinances and beyond. The seasoned advocate has this advice for Kentuckians looking to make a meaningful change in their communities:

“What we need is local organizing,” he says. “The fight for queer people is not over with any legislative progress. We have to be proactive—we have to push the envelope. We have to be involved at the local level—that’s where you can be most effective. Neighbor-to-neighbor, members of the same faith community, that’s where we really have an impact.” 

Liberation can take many forms, but this much is clear: harm reduction requires both immediate interventions and long-term political advocacy. These local leaders are doing the work, pounding the pavement, and working to realize their dream of a healthier Kentucky. Especially in these troubling times, the only way forward is through. To sit back is to slide back, and too much is at stake for us to remain silent. Act up, get loud, and join the fight for liberation today. 

You’re in good company.