The Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP) is a statewide

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

Service Organization in

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, which also serves parts of southwestern

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

and eastern

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

. Founded in 1984, NAP is based in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, with satellite offices throughout the state (in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, Kearney, Scottsbluff and others).

History

1980s

The first AIDS case known in Nebraska was an

man who died in 1983. Three cases were identified in 1984, and more were expected. A group of people concerned about the arrival of AIDS and the accompanying panic met in Omaha in 1984. The group established a

toll-free A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefi ...

hotline A hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. An example would be a phone that automat ...

that would take questions about AIDS and provide counseling. The volunteers supporting the hotline were organized as the Nebraska AIDS Project in 1985. In 1988, the

Public Health Service In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

mailed an educational booklet about AIDS to every household in America. NAP expanded the hotline's hours and added more phone lines to deal with the increase in Nebraskans' questions about AIDS. NAP expanded to provide cooking, cleaning, and transportation to HIV-positive clients, and a "Buddies" program offering emotional support. In 1989, NAP director Barbara Shaw lead the expansion to become a statewide organization. Shaw remarked that, in forming local chapters in Nebraska, "one of our biggest challenges will be to help people learn to live with AIDS rather than preparing to die from it."

1990s

The number of AIDS cases that NAP served quadrupled in a one-year period from 1989 to 1990. The national AIDS crisis was escalating. In 1990 NAP received a grant to provide in-home health services to people infected with HIV. NAP provided HIV testing in its own facilities and at

gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once served as ...

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...

s, and cultural and community centers.

21st Century

NAP sponsored

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...

fashion show in 2013, with clothes made from condoms by local designers. As of 2019, NAP works with about 500 clients.

Community support

In the early days of NAP, Nebraskans typically perceived AIDS as a problem of distant urban centers and unfamiliar gay subcultures. Still, many Nebraskans volunteered to help NAP.

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...

high school students organized a 10-hour dance marathon fundraiser for NAP in 1987. Students explained that, though there were no cases of AIDS in Tecumseh, they felt moved and frightened by the national crisis.

Opposition

In 1987, NAP and the

Nebraska Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights The Nebraska Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights, later called the Nebraska Coalition for LGBT Civil Rights, was an advocacy group in Nebraska that existed from 1981 to approximately 2002. It was based in Lincoln. The group advocated for LGB ...

mailed a survey to thousands of doctors and dentists in Nebraska, asking if they were willing to treat patients with HIV and gay or lesbian patients. About 10% of respondents said, for a variety of reasons, that they would refuse to treat patients with HIV. Some response forms were "very negative" toward homosexual or HIV-positive patients; one responded by mailing back

Evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...

literature. This information was used to create a list of safe medical providers. In 2000 the city council of Lincoln declined to provide financial support of a NAP AIDS education project. Opposition to the project was led by council member (and future Congressman)

Jeff Fortenberry Jeffrey Lane Fortenberry (born December 27, 1960) is a former United States congressman. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2022, representing as a member of the Republican Party. In October 2021, a federal ...

. He objected that the education included

use, which he found "highly controversial".

References

{{reflist

External links

Nebraska AIDS Project Website

Finding aid for the Nebraska AIDS Project Records
at the

Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library The Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library is a library on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO). The library serves as the primary source of academic research information for the UNO community through ...

University of Nebraska at Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

Nebraska AIDS Project The Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP) is a statewide AIDS Service Organization in Nebraska, which also serves parts of southwestern Iowa and eastern Wyoming. Founded in 1984, NAP is based in Omaha, with satellite offices throughout the state (in Lincol ...

Non-profit organizations based in Nebraska