Health Care Access
Harold Phillips appointed ONAP director
On the 40th anniversary of the publication of the first reports of what later became known as AIDS, Ambassador Susan Rice, the head of the Domestic Policy Council, announced that Harold Phillips, a Black gay man openly living with HIV, would be appointed as the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). Most recently, Mr. Phillips served as the Senior HIV Advisor and Chief Operating Officer of the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative in the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and he has previously worked with the HIV community.
ONAP is an incredibly important piece of the domestic HIV response. In the Obama administration, ONAP provided overall guidance on the response but became defunct under the Trump administration. Under the Biden administration, Mr. Phillips has said that ONAP will lead the development of a new National Strategy on HIV/AIDS, updating the HIV National Strategic Plan released in January 2021. This new plan will build on the existing one to incorporate Biden administration priorities, better address social determinants of health, and improve health equity. Positive Women’s Network – USA looks forward to addressing these gaps alongside other networks of people living with HIV and Mr. Phillips.
UN high-level meeting on AIDS & new targets
The United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS took place June 8-10. This meeting culminated with the adoption of new targets for ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, called the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030. The declaration will serve as an important road map to advance the global HIV response over the next five years. A few of the commitments the signatories made were to:
- Put gender equality and the human rights of all women and girls in diverse situations and conditions at the forefront of efforts to mitigate the risk and impact of HIV;
- Commit to the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GIPA) principle and to empower communities of people living with, at risk of, and affected by HIV, including women, adolescents, and young people, to play their critical leadership roles in the HIV response; and
- Review and reform restrictive legal and policy frameworks, including discriminatory laws and practices such as those related to HIV non-disclosure, exposure, and transmission; imposing HIV-related travel restrictions and mandatory testing; and laws that unfairly target people living with, at risk of, and affected by HIV, with the aim of less than 10 percent of countries having restrictive legal frameworks that lead to the denial or limitation of access to services by 2025.
The political declaration gets into more specifics about what countries can do to achieve these commitments and has numerous other commitments as well.
It is important to note how far the world is from reaching these commitments. The HIV Policy Lab released a report ahead of the meeting and noted, among other things, that only 42% of countries do not criminalize HIV exposure/transmission/non-disclosure and 21% of countries do not have laws regarding gender-based violence. Hopefully, these new commitments will reenergize countries to achieving these goals.
The Supreme Court upholds the Affordable Care Act (again)
In California v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by rejecting a challenge by eighteen states and two individuals which threatened to strip over 21 million people of health care.
This lawsuit was a cynical strategy to get the Supreme Court to do what Congress would not: deny health care to tens of millions of Americans made vulnerable by preexisting health conditions and/or low incomes. You can find PWN’s full, detailed statement here.
Latest O’Neill Institute briefs
Late last month, the O’Neill Institute released policy documents related to aging and HIV and actions needed to end the HIV epidemic. Both are chock full of ideas about how the federal response to the epidemic can better meet the needs of people living with HIV. It includes many of the policy issues that PWN has pushed for women and people of trans experience living with HIV.
The policy brief on aging, titled Meeting the Needs of People Aging with HIV on the Path to Ending the Epidemic, calls out the dearth of research around aging in women and transgender people living with HIV, specifically as it relates to menopause, sexual and reproductive health changes, hormone therapy, and caretaking responsibilities.
It also addresses social isolation and the need for social connection, especially for people who have experienced trauma, predominantly women, LGBTQ individuals, and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC). The issue brief on ending the epidemic, called Urgent Action Is Needed In 2021 To End HIV In The United States, focuses on expanding the Ending the Epidemic Plan to create commitments to improving quality of life for people living with HIV, meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS (MIPA), data protection, and ending criminalization.
Economic Justice
President’s Budget
President Biden released his budget request
for fiscal year 2022. This may sound boring, but it’s a really important piece of the appropriations process! It not only gives us insight into President Biden’s priorities, but is also a starting point for negotiations with Congress as to what will be funded next year and for how much.
The President’s budget increased overall funding for domestic HIV programs. Importantly, it removed the Hyde Amendment, which prohibited spending on domestic abortion care, and a ban on the use of federal funds to purchase syringes as part of syringe exchange programs. A big area of disappointment (and potential area for advocacy in Congress) is that the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program (HOPWA) only received a $20 million increase in funding, about $200 million below what advocates asked for. There is a lot more going on in the budget, so be sure to check out the breakdown of it here.
As negotiations get underway in Congress, we will provide more information on ways to get involved in ensuring the good things in the President’s budget are in the final bill and how to change the things that were not as good as expected.
Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice
Women’s Health Protection Act introduced
The Women’s Health Protection Act was introduced this month! We covered it last month, so we’ll keep it short and sweet. If passed, the WHPA would create a statutory right for health care providers to provide abortion care, and a right for patients to receive that care, free from medically unnecessary restrictions that single out abortion and impede access.
This is HUGE, especially for folks living in places with requirements like mandatory ultrasounds, waiting periods, and biased counseling for abortion care! Take action now by emailing your representatives!
Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda
Over 30 Black reproductive justice organizations and advocates came together to create an amazing policy agenda that outlines the needs of Black women, femmes, girls, and gender-expansive people: In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. It includes topics such as voting rights, Black maternal health, economic and environmental justice and so much more.
It’s also an amazing resource if you are still wondering, “What is reproductive justice?” and want to know the history of the movement (which was created and led by Black women). Also, the section on religion and reproductive justice contains an honest discussion on the differences between religious freedom and discrimination. Definitely set some time aside to read this one!
Ending Criminalization
Divesting from pandemic policing and investing in a just recovery
The COVID19 Policing Project, of which PWN was a member, announced in late May that it was sunsetting the project and released a final report entitled Divesting from Pandemic Policing and Investing in a Just Recovery. The project describes itself as having spent the pandemic tracking COVID19 related public health orders and enforcement, documenting pandemic policing, and strategizing toward a just recovery.
Its final report includes the following strategies for a just recovery such as:
- Preventing the diversion of recovery resources in the American Rescue Plan Act and CARES Act to policing
- Ensuring federal stimulus funds from the American Rescue Plan Act are used to support communities and not police
- Ensuring Biden’s mask executive orders and local and state mask mandates provide clear guidance on exceptions and eliminate law enforcement from the response
The COVID19 Policing Project put out many wonderful, transformative resources during the pandemic, and the resources they created will help future advocates move community-led responses to public health and disasters forward in the future.
LGBTQ Rights, Safety, and Justice
An LGBTQ-inclusive sex ed report from all the big players
SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE), Advocates for Youth, Answer, Black & Pink, the Equality Federation, GLSEN, the Human Rights Campaign, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America released a new report entitled A Call to Action: LGBTQ+ Youth Need Inclusive Sex Education which explains the need for LGBTQ+-inclusive sex education programs and supports.
This report can serve as a helpful guide for folks, like parents, educators, and students themselves, to (1) become advocates for LGBTQ+-inclusive sex education; (2) ensure that school is a safe and accepting space; (3) implement LGBTQ+-inclusive sex education; (4) talk to children and teens about sex and sexuality; and (5) to work to remove state-level legal and policy barriers to LGBTQ+-inclusive sex education in schools.
The whole report is fantastic, but if you’re short on time, check out the end, where there are specific actionable things for youth, parents, community members, educators, and policymakers to do today to start making a difference.
LGBTQ anti-poverty priorities for the recovery
The National LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Action Network wrote a letter to congressional leaders outlining the LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Priorities for the implementation of the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan. The National LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Action Network describes itself as a coalition of over 100 organizations working in the LGBTQ, anti-poverty, and anti-hunger movements to increase awareness about and action on LGBTQ poverty. The letter includes many solutions to stem the harm that the pandemic has inflicted on LGBTQ folks, including:
- LGBTQ-inclusive paid family and medical leave which includes time off for gender-affirming care and care to chosen family
- Expanding affordable housing and homeownership opportunities for LGBTQ people and other underserved communities.
- Promoting LGBTQ-competent and affirming training policies and procedures in workforce development programs and strengthening non-discrimination enforcement in employment.
The full letter includes a number of important solutions to the problem of economic justice for LGBTQ folks and many of the solutions could be incorporated into other advocacy efforts.
Fulton v. Philadelphia
The Supreme Court issued a narrow ruling in Fulton v. Philadelphia which gives Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia a right to renew its contract to provide foster care services to the city, even though it will not certify same-sex couples as foster parents, in violation of a non-discrimination requirement in its contract.
This ruling is being touted as a win by LGBTQ and civil liberty organizations because the court did not take the broader position of stating that government contractors, like this foster care agency, have a right to discriminate based upon their religious beliefs. This means that governments can and should continue to enforce their non-discrimination laws.
You can read more about the case from the ACLU, which represented two organizations that intervened in the case, and from Lambda Legal, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
Ending Violence
Is that more SCOTUS I hear? (Sanchez v. Mayorkas)
The Supreme Court, in addition to all of the other cases decided this month, delivered an opinion in Sanchez v. Mayorkas, which asked whether immigrants who have been granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) can use a process called adjustment of status to obtain lawful permanent residency (often referred to as a “green card”) in the United States without leaving the country.
The TPS program permits foreign nationals from certain designated countries (you can find a current list here) who are in the United States to remain here and obtain employment authorization (currently there is ongoing litigation concerning their eligibility for travel authorization).
While the reasoning in the opinion is very much in the weeds of immigration law, the holding essentially means that people with TPS status who would like to become lawful permanent residents but entered the country without authorization must first leave the United States and then reenter as a lawful permanent resident. This is the case even if the person has already been approved to receive an immigrant visa authorizing the individual to enter the country as a lawful permanent resident.
As a practical matter, if these immigrants leave the country, they face a years-long bar to re-entry due to their initial unauthorized entry. For many people living with HIV and LGBTQ individuals who reside in the U.S. under TPS protection, returning to their countries of origin can mean losing access to health care, as well as facing discrimination and violence.
This case has made it much more difficult for TPS holders to obtain lawful permanent residency and thus employment and other benefits. This ruling will have a detrimental effect on TPS holders living with HIV already facing barriers to accessing employment and health care.