Our April 2021 Shero of the Month is KeivaLei Cadena of Hilo, Hawaii. Keiva is well-known in HIV and trans advocacy spaces and is an inspiration to countless people living with HIV, not just in Hawaii, but around the nation. Earlier this year, she was awarded the Persistent Advocate Award at AIDSWatch 2021.

“I can’t think of many people more inspiring than Keiva,” said Jennie Smith-Camejo, PWN communications director. “She is so incredibly generous of her time, talent, and self, sharing her own experiences to educate, empower, and inspire others in their personal lives, while also advocating for the policies that can improve life for people living with and vulnerable to HIV and trans folks. When she speaks, she’s this extraordinary combination of warm, empathetic, and fierce that makes you stop and listen.”

A native Hawaiian born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area who moved to Hawaii to be closer to her mother and her roots, Keiva credits case workers who kept her connected to support and medical care in her early days of antiretroviral treatment with saving her life. In turn, she has dedicated her career to helping people living with and vulnerable to HIV get the services, care, and support they need to either prevent HIV or live full lives with it. Last year, she went from community engagement coordinator at Hawai’i Health and Harm Reduction Center to the prevention programs and community engagement manager at the Hawaii HIV/AIDS Foundation (HIHAF).

That advancement would not have been possible without her sobriety. Keiva has been in recovery for ten and a half years and counting. “I have been able to raise children, establish a career, give back to my family and my community, and live independently. I’ve been able to give myself a reputation as a fighter and a resource to others like me. I’ve been able to serve my community and change lives,” she explained. “I was able to establish a network of people living with HIV across the state of Hawaii who now look to me for information support and guidance, and I’ve been able to travel across the country and put a native Hawaiian face in the fight against HIV stigma and discrimination. I could not have done any of those things in the last 10 years without the gift of sobriety.”

According to Keiva, the concept of meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS (MIPA) shaped her perspective on working in the HIV field–and today, she is the embodiment of MIPA. “Understanding the concept of meaningful involvement absolutely changed the way I looked at my work and my objectives,” she said. “I quickly realized that I had something to offer and that it was important. I realized that my experience and my perspective could affect others and quite possibly make living with HIV and navigating a system that was not made for us a little bit easier for another young trans person newly diagnosed with HIV. That without my participation and the participation of others, the system would continue on without our input. There is no way we can achieve our own vision of a better quality of life without us creating the blueprint. Getting more trans people living with HIV meaningfully involved in community advocacy and providing services has become my continuous goal when I’m developing programs or events in my community.”

Beyond her work with HIHAF, Keiva is a fierce advocate for the rights and needs of people of trans experience in Hawaii. “Since the opening of this year’s legislative sessions, we have been focused on a number of bills that directly affect trans youth and trans health care,” she said. “Our goal this year was to motivate insurance providers to act on providing the necessary preparation services needed to get our folks ready for reassignment surgery. Many of these services are deemed ‘not medical’ and these insurance providers use that as their easy way out of not paying for ‘bottom surgeries.’ If we don’t qualify for the procedure because we’re ‘not ready,’ then they don’t have to pay for it. We see this as a form of discrimination and had our allies at the capitol submit a bill on it. We’re making strides but so much more needs to be done, including more protections for our trans youth in school.”

Asked about the parallels and differences between advocacy around trans-specific issues and HIV-specific issues, she explained, “Hawaii is a very progressive state and we are very lucky to have so much respect and visibility at the legislative level. I see the trans advocacy work very similar to that of HIV advocacy wherein we are dealing with a lot of stigma and equity. However, Hawaii has had its grasp on quality HIV services and protections for many many years and, aside from staying relevant and visible, there is little that needs to be done in the HIV arena at the legislative level. Social justice is social justice, and we have many lessons from the fighting years of HIV in Hawaii that we carry into our work in getting the trans community what we need.”

She has a powerful message for trans youth struggling to find their place in the world. “I want young people of trans experience to know that they’re not limited to what society’s expectations of our community is,” she said. “Looking back at my own lived experiences, I think I limited myself to believing my only talents were in sex work, doing hair and make-up, performing in clubs, and being the comic relief for family and friends… We still see that in television and movies today. As I’ve gotten older and as I find myself in these professional spaces where we’re celebrated for our intelligence, our fearlessness, and our resilience, I feel I cheated myself by not expecting more of myself at a younger age.

“I really want young people to understand that the trans experience is an avenue to greater wisdom and a greater perspective on life, on relationships, on the whole journey. It strengthens our human ability to heal ourselves and others. We really do have so much more to offer the world. Truly, there is nothing we can’t do.”

What’s next for Keiva? “I have a few goals. I want to tell my story. Writing a book that documents the adventure of all those scary lows and the amazingly exhilarating highs is absolutely something I plan to accomplish one day. But for now, I’d like to get through this pandemic and continue moving forward contributing to the national advocacy work that I have loved doing with the many mentors and colleagues that motivate and inspire me. I also want to focus my new role as the prevention programs and community engagement manager at HIHAF here in Hawaii. I recognize how significant it is for a trans person to be at this table and I want to make a difference here. I’ve come so far professionally and I don’t want to let down my community or the people that believed in me and lifted me up to be where I am today.” 

You can hear more about Keiva in her own words in the video below, produced for Positively Trans, and you can learn much about advocating for yourself with care and service providers from her in the 2019 PWNCares video and community event, Be Your Own Best Advocate.

Big congratulations to Keiva on all her accomplishments–we know the best is yet to come!