A new report from Texas Health Action suggests demand for healthcare services catering to LGBTQ+ communities is rising, but officials worry there are gaps that still need to be addressed.

Kelle Martin is the executive director of Allgo, a decades-old safe space for the LGBTQ+ community in Austin.

“It was birthed from folks who sat at the intersectionality of being queer and being brown,” Martin said.

That intersectionality also plays into the history of HIV and AIDS. The epidemic has killed more than 700,000 nationwide since 2018, according to the National Institutes of Health. Nearly 13,000 with AIDS die each year in the U.S.

“Since its inception, one of Algo’s signature programs was Informe-SIDA, which was a program that sought out to help people impacted by HIV,” Martin said.

Texas Health Action has also stepped in to ease that impact, and it has done so for more than a decade.

“I think one of the best pieces of news in this report is the number of new people accessing PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention,” Christopher Hamilton, the nonprofit CEO, said.

A report shows the Kind Clinic has administered more than 30,000 HIV and STD tests and has helped about 26,000 Texans get access to healthcare.

“I believe last year we saw about 3,000 new patients just within Travis County. And we don’t expect that to decrease anytime soon,” Hamilton said.

However, Hamilton said HIV is hitting Hispanic and Latino communities harder than their white counterparts.

“We’re always trying to find ways to connect with community in different ways so that we can get people interested in, started on PrEP, remove every barrier that we can,” Hamilton said.

Martin believes that starts with a deeper cultural understanding at the doctor’s office.

“You have barriers such as not going to the doctor’s office and not seeing yourself represented in any of the … whether it’s the staff, the pictures on the wall. You might need some type of language access,” Martin.

Texas Health Action is also hoping to close a gap with younger generations to ensure everyone has access to the care they might need.