Positive Women’s Newsletter – August 2026

Welcome PWN family! We’re happy you’re here. Is time flying by for anyone else, or just us? This summer has been jam packed with action: we celebrated our 18th birthday, our policy fellows graduated, #PWNVotes launched, and we welcomed new staff. 

PWN-USA has been on the road at conferences across the world, and we’re still going! We attended the Equality Federation Leadership Conference in Baltimore, boosting the brilliance of people living with HIV within the constellation of our collective power. Throughout #AIDS2026 in Brazil, our leaders and peers elevated the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS (MIPA) while also developing collaborations, deepening the work, and holding each other accountable. 

Through it all, we continue to weave the thread that ties all of PWN’s work together: nothing about us without us. Amidst the mounting attacks on our communities, our bodies, and our safety, we keep fighting for the liberated future we know is possible. The words of Assata Shakur continue to inspire us: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win.” 

With radical love, 

alex aphroditus

PWN-USA is planning for our future! We have started a strategic plan that will guide us through 2030. It will shape where we put our energy, how we grow, and how we keep fighting for the rights of all cis and transgender women and gender diverse people living with HIV.

To help with this work, we have teamed up with Red Ribbon Consultants LLC. Red Ribbon is a woman-owned firm that helps nonprofits and health departments plan with a social justice lens led by principles of equity and liberation for all those living with HIV. Our lead consultant, Katrina Balovlenkov (LCSW) is a woman living with HIV, and her teammate Emily, an ally in the HIV movement, will work closely with our Board, our staff, and, most of all, our members.

Here is the most important part: this plan is only as strong as your voice. PWN-USA is led by its members. So our path must reflect what you have lived, what you care about, and what you want for the future. What you share will shape the goals our Board identifies for the next 5 years.

That is why we are asking every member to take part in a Member Survey. Please watch your email. The survey will open in early August. It will stay open for about two to three weeks. It takes just a few minutes. When you finish it, you will be entered to win a $100 gift card.

The survey is just the start. In the months ahead, we will also host focus groups, survey our staff, and hold one-on-one talks with key leaders and partners. Each one helps us hear the full story. But your survey answers are the first and easiest way for every member to shape what comes next.

Keep an eye on your inbox. When the survey comes, take a few minutes to share your voice. Together, we will build a plan that shows who we are and how we plan to lead our movements in the future.

You had to be there!!! July 30, PWN-Alabama hosted a beautiful event and with wonderful turnout for their second stop on their SUMMER OF FREEDOM TOUR!

They bridged art and activism in a powerful way. Each poem touched on the liberation of our communities through voting, mobilizing, and speaking up. During the community gathering they had a table full of coins that declare people living with HIV are not your tokens, information about the impact of HIV in Alabama, and how to join the chapter in being a part of the change that is needed.

PWN-AL continues to blossom under strong leadership that adds so much passion and drive to build an unstoppable community of leaders living with HIV in Alabama. Join PWN-AL at their next stop in Tuscaloosa in August.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a rule about Medicaid work reporting requirements that will add barriers to care and threaten coverage for people living with HIV and other serious health conditions.

PWN refused to stay silent while our access to healthcare is threatened! We have flooded the public record with 25 unique comments with a simple message: Don’t let our communities get kicked off Medicaid. 

Check out and save our new guide on how to make a powerful public comment, because we deserve to be heard!

Big news! Our 18th Birthday Campaign closed at $10,127.72 — 135% of our goal, and the strongest single campaign in PWN’s herstory!

We want to lift up our three Leadership donors, each of whom gave $1,800 to power this work: TruEvolution, HISTORI, and an anonymous donor who showed up big for the women of PWN. We see you, and we’re grateful.

And to every Guardian Circle member already giving monthly, thank you for being the steady heartbeat behind everything we do. If you’re not a Guardian yet, we’d love for you to join us: $18/month sustains this work all year long, and Guardians get exclusive updates and the very real bragging rights of knowing PWN runs because of you.

Here’s what really has us fired up: 43 of our donors this campaign were brand new to PWN. That’s more than double our goal, and 77% of everything raised. Our movement isn’t just holding steady; it’s growing. We’ll have more ways for you to be part of that growth this fall — stay tuned.

PWN, the Center for HIV Law and Policy, and the Sero Project joined the Pennsylvania HIV Justice Alliance in issuing concerns about Pennsylvania Senate Bill 45 (SB45). We wrote this open letter in spirit of care, transparency, and accountability following the passage of SB45.

We celebrate the elimination of the HIV sentence enhancement and honor years of work behind this change. However, we cannot celebrate this bill without also naming the harm it causes. It is incumbent on us to clearly state that this bill puts trafficking survivors and people in the sex trades at further risk of criminalization, surveillance, and other forms of state violence. We also continue to question whether groups that are most impacted by the legislation were indeed meaningfully involved in creating and negotiating SB45.

Communities most impacted by HIV, including sex workers, will still be surveilled, targeted, and punished by the criminal legal system in Pennsylvania, and we cannot claim SB45 is a “win” when it gives the system additional tools to do so.

The #PWNCares Ambassador Program is building a network of trained, peer-led facilitators who can bring #PWNCares to communities across the country—expanding connection, empowerment, and visibility for women and gender diverse people living with HIV, especially in under-resourced and rural areas.

If you are interested in becoming an ambassador, join our monthly call!

PWN-USA is excited to announce that DeOnyae-Dior Valentina has joined the team as our Campaign Coordinator!

After becoming a member, she was selected as a PWN Policy Fellow, where she strengthened her skills in policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, and movement building while developing her practicum project, Trans Futures. Her journey from member to fellow to staff reflects PWN-USA’s commitment to developing leaders from within its community.

Prior to joining, DeOnyae-Dior worked across the intersections of HIV advocacy, child welfare, youth justice, housing justice, and LGBTQ+ equity. 

As Campaign Coordinator, DeOnyae-Dior is excited to support PWN’s chapters in building member power, cultivating leaders, and advancing campaigns that create lasting change for women and people of trans experience living with HIV. She believes the people most impacted by systems should be at the forefront of transforming them and is honored to continue that work with the PWN community.

🎂 Congratulations to the PWN-Pennsylvania chapter who celebrated their 17th anniversary this month!

🤓 Work with Us! Apply to be a canvasser in our fall #PWNVotes Campaigns. We are looking to hire canvassers in the Philadelphia and Houston area. At this time we are prioritizing canvassers. Phone bankers will be hired on a rolling basis. Apply here!

🗣 We invite you to join us for our next White Folks Anti-Racism Caucus Learning Group as we continue our shared anti-racism learning journey and strengthen our practices together. We meet every other Thursday at 7PM ET/6PM CT. 

Everyone is welcome to attend. While this group is intentionally designed as a space where white people in the HIV movement can learn, reflect, challenge one another, and hold each other accountable, we value the presence and participation of everyone committed to racial justice and building an anti-racist HIV movement. We do not ask communities of color to educate us but instead are committed to doing this critical work with each other.

The White Folks Anti Racism Caucus connects members to collaboratively engage in conversations focused on anti-racism, challenging white supremacy, and centering race and anti-Blackness. Our gatherings follow The Circle Way, use shared group agreements to create a brave space for growth, and combine discussion with structured learning. Previous sessions have included facilitated conversations around texts such as Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, and we’ve also hosted White Folks Institutes at the HIV Is Not A Crime (HINAC) Conference.

Reach out to Barb@pwn-usa.org for more info!

Sister Circle Virtual Support Group – August 6th & 20th

Are you a PWN member living with HIV? Join our virtual support group, Sister Circle, for a space to release, connect, and find peace! ✨ Join us Thurs, 08/06/26 and 08/20/26 at 8PM ET/7PM CT/6PM MT/5PM PT. Registration required to attend: bit.ly/PWNCARES (all caps). Hope to see you there! 💗

Beyond HIV BASIC: Organizing for privacy, dignity, and freedom from state violence – August 10th

Join the HIV BASIC Collective for this discussion of The Consensus Statement on HIV Bodily Autonomy, Surveillance, and Informed Consent (BASIC) and the next steps in this work to build collective power for an HIV response grounded in bodily autonomy, informed consent, and freedom from surveillance and criminalization.

Webinar is on Monday, 08/10/26 at 3PM ET/2PM CT. Register here!

#PWNVotes Training: If We Don’t Tell the Story About How Women Living with HIV Are Saving Democracy, Who Will? – August 12th

The #PWNVotes Training Series exists to build the knowledge, skills, confidence, and political clarity of trans and cis women, gender-diverse, and trans people living with HIV to lead transformative voter engagement and civic power in our communities.

Join us on Wednesday, 08/12/26 at 6PM ET/5PM CT/4PM MT/3PM PT for our next training: If We Don’t Tell the Story About How Women Living with HIV are Saving Democracy, Who Will? Register for all our trainings here!

PWN National Membership Call – August 13th

Our next PWN members call is Thurs, 08/13/26 at 4PM ET/3PM CT/2PM MT/1PM PT. Note: you must register as a PWN member before getting the Zoom link. PWN members include women (cis and trans), gender diverse, and transgender people living with HIV. Register here!

• “HIV care conquered the virus. It’s failing to keep some patients alive, UCSF study finds” by San Francisco Chronicle (07/19/26)
  • Featuring Evany Turk

• #HIVResists: July 2026 Monthly Policy Update (07/30/26)
• #PWNVotes 2026 has launched! (07/15/26)
• Watch Our #PWNVotes Training Series on YouTube!
• “These consumer brands are bankrolling the biggest ICE supporters in Congress” by Popular Info (07/20/26)
• “FBI agents were told they would no longer investigate confrontations with ICE” by NBC News (07/19/26)
• “Anti-Trans National Legal Risk Assessment Map: July 2026” by Erin in the Morning (07/13/26)
• “Hundreds of Organizations and Individuals Demand Robust Health Data Safeguards To Sever Public Health from Criminalization” HIV BASIC (07/08/26)
• “Black Organizers Are Preparing for a New Era of Voting Rights Battles” by Capital B News (07/07/26)
• “Medicaid funding is resuming for Planned Parenthood after being cut off for most of a year” by AP News (07/06/26)
• “Supreme Court Rules Title IX Means ‘Biological Sex’ In Devastating Anti-Trans Ruling” by Erin in the Morning (06/30/26)
• “Texas Supreme Court Blocks Immigration Defense Fund” by HoustonPress (06/30/26)
• “Federal judge blocks Trump effort to make voters show proof of citizenship” by The Guardian (06/24/26)
• “Prairieland Protesters Sentenced to 30 to 100 Years for ‘Terrorism’ Charges” by Truthout (06/23/26)