What HIV prevention and Fire Island's beach restoration have in common

When I decided to invest in Fire Island Pines, I wasn’t just buying a business.

I was investing in one of the most important places in LGBTQ+ history.

For generations, Fire Island has been a place where people found community, connection, and belonging. Long before social media connected LGBTQ+ people, Fire Island did. It became a refuge, a cultural institution, and a symbol of what it means to build community.

Just a year ago, however, that future felt uncertain.

Extreme weather and erosion had devastated portions of the beach. The protective dunes separating the Atlantic Ocean from Fire Island were disappearing, raising real concerns about the long-term future of one of New York’s most iconic LGBTQ+ destinations.

That’s why Governor Kathy Hochul’s commitment to protecting Fire Island mattered.

The state’s partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers to restore and strengthen the coastline didn’t just protect homes and businesses. It provided certainty. It gave residents, business owners, and investors confidence that Fire Island would remain a part of New York’s future.

Just as importantly, it demonstrated that New York understands the importance of preserving places like Fire Island. Protecting the Island wasn’t simply an environmental or economic decision. It was an investment in a community and its future.

That certainty is what allows people like me to invest.

Today, we’re investing millions of dollars into Fire Island businesses, events, entertainment, and infrastructure because we believe in the Island’s future. Those investments create jobs, drive tourism, support local businesses, and help ensure Fire Island remains vibrant for the next generation.

But preserving communities requires more than protecting places. It also means protecting people.

As the founder of MISTR, the nation’s largest provider of free online PrEP and long-term HIV care, I spend my days focused on another challenge facing our community: health care access.

Forty-five years after the HIV epidemic began, we have the tools to end HIV. PrEP is more than 99 percent effective at preventing HIV, and people living with HIV who achieve viral suppression cannot transmit the virus to their partners.

The challenge today isn’t science. The challenge is access.

For too long, HIV prevention depended on finding the right provider, navigating complicated health care systems, and overcoming the stigma that still surrounds sexual health.

Telehealth changes that.

Today, MISTR serves more than 800,000 patients nationwide and provides care to roughly one in five people on PrEP in the United States. We’ve seen firsthand that when health care becomes easier, more convenient, and more private, more people get tested, start prevention, and stay connected to treatment.

New York has been a leader in recognizing that reality. Governor Hochul has expanded access to PrEP, strengthened protections for people seeking HIV prevention and care, and helped preserve telehealth policies that make care more accessible across the state.

Those policies save lives. They reflect an understanding that ending HIV requires more than medical breakthroughs. It requires removing barriers before they prevent someone from getting care.

At first glance, beach restoration and HIV prevention may seem unrelated. I don’t think they are.

Both are investments in the future.

One protects a place that has shaped generations of LGBTQ+ people. The other protects the health of the people who gather there.

Strong communities need both.

This Pride, I was grateful that New York continues to invest in both. Because preserving Fire Island isn’t just about protecting a beach. And ending HIV isn’t just about medicine.

Both are about ensuring that future generations inherit a stronger, healthier, and more connected community than the one we inherited.

Tristan Schukraft is the founder of the telehealth company MISTR and Tryst Hospitality, whose properties include a new Fire Island location. Learn more at MISTR.com.

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