March 10, 2023– today marks the 18th annual observance of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (#NWGHAAD). At PWN, NWGHAAD is an opportunity to reflect on what we can do better for women, girls, trans, and non-binary folx living with HIV, and to honor the memory of those who have passed and in whose names we continue to fight.
Positive Women’s Network USA was born from the vision of our 28 founding members–whose love and leadership we honor today–as they sought to fill a critical gap in the domestic HIV response: fighting for the rights and dignity of women and people of trans experience living with HIV. Historically, both in narrative and response, there’s been a disproportionate focus on prevention, testing, and “risk” that stigmatizes and erases the lives and experiences of women already living with HIV. We refuse to be invisible, on NWGHAAD and every day, we are here protecting and uplifting the dignity and humanity of all women living with HIV.
PWN’s work to create community, nurture leaders, expand economic opportunities, and build the power of women living with HIV is more urgent than it has ever been. From inflation, gentrification, and the housing crisis to the onslaught of anti-trans legislation, the dismantling of our reproductive rights, and the anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-immigrant climate, our members are living under constant attack. Violence against our people comes in many forms and is exacerbated by state surveillance, overpolicing, and criminalization. Despite that, as always, women with HIV, especially Black women, lead the way, founding and shaping organizations that fight for our lives and inspire us to greater visions of transformative and revolutionary action for our community.
