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✊🏾 2025 National Day of Action ✊🏾

This National Day of Action to End Violence Against Women Living with HIV, Positive Women’s Network – USA affirms: HIV is a gender justice issue, and violence against our bodies is at the center of the HIV epidemic. We call on policymakers, healthcare providers, and communities to dismantle these systems of harm and to invest in the leadership, safety, and dignity of all cis and trans women and trans and gender diverse people living with HIV. Ending violence against us is not optional, it is essential to ending the epidemic.

We REMEMBER those we have lost, 
We RESIST oppression and violence in any form, 
and we RECOMMIT to advocacy and action.

🤩 USCHA 2025 🤩

PWN showed up strong and visible at the 2025 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA), with our members and staff leading and presenting in 4 Institutes, 2 plenaries, and 21 workshops, while also organizing 3 actions, 2 quilt-making sessions, and a community dinner with 20+ members.

Members stepped into leadership at every level and we celebrated moments of connection, creativity, and action. At the same time, we uplifted hard truths: we expected more recognition of our Dandelions/Lifetime survivors, needed an opportunity to honor the movement leaders we have lost, and expected a stronger political analysis and connection to the current political crisis.

Our members voiced a clear desire for more intentional preparation, stronger accessibility, and for spaces truly led by people living with HIV. USCHA reminded us of both our collective power and the ongoing need to create spaces where our communities are fully honored, supported, and centered.

💫 #PWNCares Mutual Aid Fund Launched! 💫

We are proud to announce the official launch of the #PWNCares Mutual Aid Fund! Applications are now open to any trans or cis woman, gender diverse or transgender person living with HIV over the age of 18, to receive up to $500 of mutual aid funds for healthcare, housing, or whatever you most need.

Resistance to fascism is built with acts of community care. We are here to do more than survive. We are here to live, to love, and to thrive together.

If you, PWN sibling, are facing an economic hardship, submit your application today! 

If you are not a trans or cis woman, gender diverse or transgender person living with HIV but you believe in our work, make a contribution to our mutual aid fund. The #PWNCares Fund is finite, and the only way to sustain it and ensure it helps as many people living with HIV as possible, is to give.

🥳 Welcome Helina! 🥳

PWN is excited to announce that we have welcomed our newest staff member, Helina Haile (she/her)! She is our Lessow Reproductive Health Law Fellow, working with our policy team. Helina is an Ethiopian immigrant peacebuilder interested in using law and policy as a tool of healing for BIPOC communities and individuals by pursuing a justice that heals.

🎉 This year, the PWN-Louisiana (PWN-LA) chapter will honor their work over the past decade with a gathering that brings the community together to celebrate this milestone. Chapter co-chair Meta Smith-Davis describes the group as the “Southern Storm,” and says “The More We Learn, The More We Grow. The More We Grow, The More We Glow.”

PWN-LA will also take this moment to acknowledge the reality of cis & trans women, gender diverse, and trans folks living with HIV in Louisiana, especially when it comes to reproductive justice and HIV criminalization. Co-chair Millicent Foster sums it up perfectly: “Community strength and perseverance mixed with passion makes it all worth it.”

Please join us in celebrating our members and chapter for this accomplishment and their 10 years of advocacy, sisterhood, and action!

🥳 This year we celebrate the PWN Pennsylvania chapter turning 16! Positive Women's Network USA's first affiliated chapter, PWN Pennsylvania, is celebrating their sweet 16 this year! PWN-PA began in Philly in 2009 as a group for women living with HIV coming together to share any resources they had. Co-chair Kenya Moussa says "We set trends at PWN-PA! No one is doing the work like we do: committing to harm reduction, canvassing, and action alerts." Today, the PWN Pennsylvania chapter organizes women living with HIV across the state to ensure people living with HIV live long, healthy lives free from stigma, discrimination, and HIV criminalization. Co-chair Cookie Cruz says "It was a beautiful celebration! We had 10-12 people show up for our sweet 16." 

🤠 Congratulations to Alicia Diggs for publishing 2 journals! Still Waters: 30 Days of Scripture, Reflection, and Restoration & In Love with Myself: Finding Inner Peace and Acceptance Journal. Alicia also received the 2025 AMP Grant to host 2 events focused on HIV criminalization and stigma.

💯 Shout out to our PWN-South Carolina Regional Outreach Coordinator Franceina Hopkins for recruiting new chapter members!

🎤 We are so proud of PWN-PA co-chair Kenya Moussa & two of our supporters for testifying in support of Councilmember Kendra Brooks’ resolution to block national guard troops being deployed to Philly. These are great opportunities for our members to use their voices to advocate for policies that impact their lives and develop their public speaking skills. And, the resolution passed! Congrats to our advocates on the ground in Philly! 

  • "HIV/AIDS funding cuts force Philadelphia programs to scale back services" by Philadelphia Gay News (10/22/25)
    • Featuring Waheedah Shabazz-El
  • "HIV/AIDS Activists Unveil #CutsKill Quilt on Capitol Hill" by San Francisco Bay Times (09/11/25)
    • Featuring Marnina Miller
  • "Cuts Kill! — Kill the Cuts!" by Poz.com (09/08/25)
    • Featuring Marnina Miller
    • "'Every single dollar that they are threatening to cut from HIV funding isn't just a number on a spreadsheet. It's someone's medication, it's someone's housing, it's someone's health care and lifeline,' said Marnina Miller, co-executive director of the Positive Women's Network. 'We will not go back to the days of funerals every week. We will not go back to silence and HIV stigma. We will not go back to a time when our communities had to fight just to be seen as full humans. We will not go back to politicians ignoring our pain while our people died. We will not go back to those days.'"

If you’ve been to a PWN celebration in the past few years, then you’ve grooved to the song stylings of our very own DJ Big Sal, a.k.a. Sallie Thomas – the decriminalization specialist on our policy team. Now she’s bringing you a song selection to get your joy on!

You can check out our previous celebration playlists on Spotify HERE!