Jerry Turner
Jerry Turner is a true Hero. His selfless support to the San Diego HIV community has been long and meaningful to so many. His contributions truly deserve to be remembered. And he's not done yet!
Diagnosed HIV+ in 1985, Jerry began volunteering with the Stop AIDS Project, an Internationally recognized model of grassroots prevention and support. As part of the outreach team, he talked to people on busy streets and outside bars and nightclubs about the challenges and issues posed by HIV and AIDS. Between 1985 and 1990, he facilitated more than 100 meetings, often held in the living rooms of residents, updating people about the epidemic and helping them discover ways they could help bring an end to the epidemic. With the community forum planning team, he worked on over 20 forums and workshops on pressing topics related to the AIDS epidemic. He was a Stop AIDS Project
board member acting as liaison between the board and the staff and volunteers. He revamped the city’s Safe Sex Workshop as the Safe Sex and Intimacy Workshop because he found people knew how to have safe sex and that intimacy was a greater concern. He co-developed and facilitated a monthly disability workshop for UCSF’s AIDS Healthcare Project and AIDS Benefits Counselors. The two part program explored the emotional and practical aspects of going on disability. He presented the workshop at AIDS Medicine and Miracles in 1996.
After a move to San Diego in 1998 he volunteered as a peer advocate at Being Alive where he also facilitated two peer support groups. In 2000 he completed CRIA’s HIV Treatment Education program. He was elected POZabilities Board Chairman and Managing Director in 2015 and led the organization to 501(c)(3) status. He is especially proud of his work starting the HIV/AIDS Long-term Survivors contingent in the San Diego Pride Parade and working to include The San Diego HIV Community Consortium as a program of POZabilities. His awards include the 2022 Dr. Brad A. Truax HIV Care, Treatment, and Support Services Service Award; the 2012 San Diego Pride Champion of Pride Award, the 1997 San Francisco Points of Light Award, and the 1996 Sam B. Pucket Memorial HIV Prevention Award and was inducted into the San Diego LGBTQ Veterans Wall of Honor in 2024.
He retired from POZabilities in 2024 and is developing an HIV and Cognition workshop . He lives in San Diego, California making fabric art.
