Generation Z may be the most out and proud about their LGBTQ+ identity, but data also shows they are the least informed about HIV awareness. Rapper-actor-businessman Snoop Dogg is partnering with GLAAD to change the narrative.
GLAAD — the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization — invited surprise celebrity guest Snoop to Jackson State University (JSU) on Oct. 28 to launch a new series, “Generation Z & HIV: Human Issue, Southern Solution.” Presented by Gilead Sciences, “Generation Z & HIV” made its first stop on GLAAD’s tour of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) at JSU. The goal is to convene local and national HIV advocates to arm students with essential knowledge about HIV, including that it is preventable with an injection or daily pill, according to GLAAD, as well as survivable and untransmittable when properly treated.
“A disease shows no prejudice,” Snoop said at JSU. “The best thing you can do is get protected, find more information.”
“HIV in Black communities is far from over, and Black people in the South, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, or number of total partners, remain at disproportionate risk,” said Darian Aaron, GLAAD’s director of Local News: U.S. South.
According to GLAAD, HIV diagnoses are not evenly distributed across regions or states. The highest rates of new diagnoses continue to occur in the South. Together, Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latino people made up 70% of the estimated new HIV infections in 2022. Additionally, Generation Z is the most out LGBTQ+ generation in history (at 22% who are LGBTQ), but the least knowledgeable about HIV. Only 37% of Gen Z, ages 18 to 26, said they feel knowledgeable about HIV, according to GLAAD research published in the 2024 State of HIV Stigma Study.
With GLAAD research citing fewer pieces of film and television media portraying characters living or dealing with HIV, Gen Z is not receiving the HIV information they deserve, says GLAAD, including scientific developments such as PrEP, a once-a-day pill or newly-approved, twice-yearly injection that reduces the risk of acquiring HIV from sex by about 99% when taken as prescribed.
Free Testing and Life-saving Info
Snoop, whose family hails from Mississippi, joined Aaron in a fireside chat at JSU, where they addressed recent statements on LGBTQ representation in media and the impact of HIV in the music industry.
“How do you treat it [HIV]? How do you prevent it? Hopefully, in 2025, there will be more information,” Snoop Dogg told Aaron regarding the misinformation about HIV during the early days of the epidemic. “There was no medical information to let us know what was going on. We were so scared, we stopped everything.”
Free HIV testing was offered to all JSU students, which is paramount to the “Generation Z & HIV” series, Aaron told BLACK ENTERPRISE. Two mobile testing units from Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health Center and Open Arms Healthcare Center were on campus.
“Testing remains one of the most significant ways to reduce the transmission of HIV,” Aaron said. “The HIV education they received during the event, including knowledge about PrEP, a life-saving preventative drug that reduces the risk of acquiring HIV from sex by 99% when taken as prescribed, is a gamechanger.”
Students at the Mississippi HBCU also heard from national and local HIV advocates who shared critical HIV-prevention information. JSU alum and Gilead Sciences Community Liaison Christopher U. Lane delivered remarks at the event. Gilead’s partnership with GLAAD on “Generation Z & HIV” is an extension of the work the two organizations began together in May, targeting the South, with the second annual GLAAD Down South media event.
Dr. David Malebranche, MD, MPH, senior director, Global HIV Medical Affairs at Gilead, also served as a panelist at JSU, where the event gathered scores of students in their signature blue and white school colors. Some of Mississippi’s leading HIV advocates shared life-saving information about HIV prevention and harm reduction in a non-traditional way, to inform a demographic that GLAAD says continues to be affected by the HIV epidemic.
“HIV is nearly 100% preventable through knowledge, access, and care, yet the youngest generations remain starkly unaware of the basic facts that can protect them,” Aaron said. ”The HBCU Tour is one way GLAAD is arming those most at risk with the information necessary to safeguard their health.”
Snoop: “The Key is Love”
Snoop faced controversy and accusations of homophobia this summer when admitting he initially did not know how to explain a movie scene involving a same-gender couple to his grandson. Since the backlash, the multihyphenate entertainer now says he is becoming better informed and advocates for highlighting diversity in media through his animated kids show, Doggyland, which features a same-gender couple and a song he raps called “Love is Love.”
At JSU, Snoop told the audience: “‘Doggyland’ is a safe place where I can express things and teach kids, because I’m the biggest kid of them all. And it gives me a platform to give information that allows people to learn and live, and be a vessel of information to learn. The key is love. That’s the key to everything that we do.”
He also shared that he has “always advocated peace and love and diversity,” Snoop said. “I had no understanding to a situation that was brought before me while I was with my grandson. But through time and experience and love, you learn to live and you get information, you find out how to understand things better. I have friends that are same-sex parents that reached out to me and gave me information on what did they say to their kids when things of that nature pops up and how they speak [to their children].”
In addition to joining this week’s HBCU Tour at JSU, Snoop also partnered with GLAAD to support the LGBTQ youth anti-bullying initiative #SpiritDay on Oct. 16.
The HBCU Tour Continues
Snoop’s appearance at JSU was unique to this HBCU, but Aaron says GLAAD aims to have a surprise celebrity guest on each tour stop. Representatives from Gilead will continue to participate in all future tour stops, as will local HIV advocates.
“We are particularly focused on the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV who are uniquely equipped to share their lived experiences and how they’ve navigated the persistent HIV stigma in communities of color that remains a barrier to achieving an HIV-free generation,” Aaron told BE.
Future HBCU Tour stops of GLAAD’s “Generation Z & HIV” include Aaron’s alma mater, Alabama State University, on Feb. 5, 2026, and the Atlanta University Center schools– Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, and Morris Brown College –hosted by Morehouse College, March 18, 2026.
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