I first went on PrEP in 2015 after I’d just moved to Austin for a job. PrEP, the once-daily medication that reduces the risk of contracting HIV, had only been released a few years earlier and was targeted towards high-risk populations. As a 27-year-old gay Latino from South Texas, I fit the bill.
Affirming sexual health care, like PrEP, was still novel and largely cost prohibitive. Many providers were reluctant to offer the pill, and doctors and patients were still learning to navigate access to it, so only after a consultation, a series of labs and then a follow up for the results could I be prescribed the pill. I worked the early morning shift, going in at 4 am and leaving around 1, so I didn’t have to take any time off from work. It was the only reason I could make the time to attend the visits at the Austin PrEP Clinic.
Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley in the 90s, anything queer was either absent from the conversation entirely or presented as a warning. Sinful. Dangerous. The handful of times HIV and AIDS came up, they weren’t framed as health issues. They were framings of consequences. Of what happened to people that were – insert your favorite slur. It’s what was insinuated that was going to be the outcome if I were one of the slurs.
So, you carry that. You carry it into doctor’s offices and into pharmacies. I think back now on many visits with my doctors in my early 20s, newly sexually active, where having a conversation about sexual health as a gay man just never happened. I was very lucky to have great educators and support systems, and, mostly, constant access to health care. And, the Drag Race ads helped.
Things are different now. How I navigate and think about health care is different. My family and how we talk about queerness is different. PrEP is different. Access to it is too.
I think about how in just a little over a decade someone can walk right in to Kind Clinic and receive a prescription immediately. And, in writing this realized that my journey to PrEP access began at the first iteration of Kind Clinic back in 2015, the Austin PrEP Clinic.
Same Day PrEP
Same Day PrEP at Kind Clinic’s Koenig location in Austin launched earlier this month and is running on five Fridays — March 13, 20, 27, April 10 and April 17 — from 1 to 5 pm. No appointment needed and you can just walk right in. New PrEP patients and those transferring their care to Kind Clinic are eligible.
After initial intake, those who start through the program become established Kind Clinic patients with their follow-up care built in. This isn’t a one-and-done situation — it’s a doorway into ongoing, affirming healthcare. Coverage is available with or without insurance, and Kind Clinic’s team will work with patients to make it happen. Partnered with their other initiatives, like their virtual services, health care is even more accessible for their patients now.
The initiative came from a place the clinic knows well, access isn’t just about whether a resource exists. It’s about whether people can actually reach it.
“Kind Clinic has been providing access to PrEP for HIV prevention for over 10 years,” said Juan Benitez, Chief Advancement Officer at Texas Health Action. “We’ve built incredible community trust not only in the medication we’re providing, but in how that medication is delivered to our patients.”
That trust-building is intentional. It doesn’t happen by accident when the communities you’re serving have every reason to be wary — of medical institutions, of judgment, of doors that look open until you actually try to walk through them.
Built for how people access health care
I’ve watched friends cycle in and out of access to health care for their entire adult lives. One worked two jobs, lost the insurance that came with one of them. Another moved to another city and lost the provider who knew their history and the particular program that funded their PrEP access.
Finding a clinic that doesn’t make you feel like a problem to be managed changes things.
Joe Anderson, Jr., Director of Community Engagement at Kind Clinic, put it plainly: “When people want access to HIV prevention medication, they want it right then, and we want to give them the ability to access that medication exactly when they want it.”
He’s speaking from somewhere personal, too. “This pilot program will allow flexibility for people who may not ordinarily have the time to get an appointment and get started on PrEP,” Anderson said. “In the past I have had times where I worked two or three jobs and it would have been impossible to find time to get to the clinic. This sort of program would have allowed me to drop in on a day off and get access to that healthcare.”
It’s difficult to find time to go to the doctor. Kind Clinic’s system is built around how people actually live their lives.
Access for those who need it most
Benitez is clear about why Same Day PrEP matters beyond convenience.
“It’s important to understand who is more disproportionately impacted by HIV,” he said. “At Kind Clinic we specialize in care for LGBTQIA+ communities and communities impacted by HIV. It is especially important that these communities feel comfortable with who they’re getting care from.”
Anderson echoed that. “There are communities that are disproportionately impacted by HIV — our Black and Brown communities, our Trans communities — and when we talk about these communities, we know that there are barriers to even accessing healthcare.”
“At Kind Clinic, one of our core tenants is health justice and ensuring that all communities, especially communities who are disproportionately impacted by HIV, have that access.”
Healthcare can be, as Anderson put it, “confusing and cumbersome.” The goal of Same Day PrEP is to strip some of that away.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get access to the resources they need,” he said.
There’s a pill for that
Having access to PrEP relieved much of my anxiety around sex and being able to speak more openly about it. Mostly because the times have changed, and with age allegedly comes wisdom, but also because conversations around sexual health have changed.
Fewer barriers for people to actually see a doctor means they can actually ask their questions, get answers and walk out more empowered to navigate their sexual health. All in a little pill.
Kind Clinic’s Same Day PrEP is available Fridays through April 17 at their Koenig from 1 to 5 pm. Walk-in STI testing and gender-affirming care remain available separately.
