In this issue:

• Meet Our Shero of the Month
• Organizing Spotlight: Counter Narrative Project
• NHAS Update and World AIDS Day
• COVID-19 Vaccines & PLHIV Update
• Webinars You Won’t Want to Miss
• PWN Is Hiring

Meet Our Shero of the Month: Julie Dillon

PWN’s December 2021 Shero of the Month is Julie Dillon of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Julie Dillon is an activist, and co-chair of the Pennsylvania Chapter for Positive Women’s Network since October 2021.

Julie was introduced to Positive Women’s Network – USA by a colleague that felt PWN was doing a lot of great work. She says, “There are organizations that care, have resources, and are trying to get you connected; PWN is just another organization that replicates those values so it was an easy transition for me.” Julie was an integral part of PWN’s integrated voter engagement efforts earlier this year for Philadelphia’s 2021 elections. This was Julie’s first time participating in voter engagement, phone-banking, and door knocking, as part of PWN’s get-out-the-vote work.

PWN’s Civic Engagement Coordinator Kelly Flannery says, “Julie is a brilliant leader who brings joy and laughter wherever she goes. While we were organizing together around the 2021 General Election in Pennsylvania, a problem came up that I had no idea how to solve. I went to the chapter pretty concerned, and WOW! Julie let her leadership skills shine. She went into problem-solving mode and within a half hour, we had a solution. To me, this show’s Julie’s personality. She is indomitable: Julie sees a problem, keeps her cool, and works with the people around her to find creative ways to succeed.”

Organizing Spotlight:

The Counter Narrative Project

This month’s organizing spotlight is on the Counter Narrative Project (CNP)! Founded in 2014 to amplify the voices of Black gay men, CNP works at the intersection of narrative and social justice. PWN is proud to have collaborated with our brilliant comrades at Counter Narrative Project for many years. Their commitment to creating beauty in our movement, storytelling, archiving history, loving and honoring the legacy of Black gay men is unparalleled and continues to inspire us. In that spirit, we bring you the genius of Charles Stephens, CNP Founder, and Executive Director, in his own voice below. You can support CNP’s important work by donating here.

We interviewed CNP Founder & Executive Director Charles Stephens to learn more about their work. Of CNP he says, “CNP is a love letter to the great artist-activists like Essex Hemphill, Marlon Riggs, and Joseph Beam. These figures have provided so much joy and inspiration to our movement. They sparked our political imaginations and offered an early intersectional analysis for the HIV movement. Our hope is that CNP pays tribute to their legacy through how we engage the arts and culture, shift narratives, and advance HIV justice.”

Today, how is CNP countering narratives and speaking truth to power to change policy and improve lives?

CNP understands that narrative change precedes social change. Successful social movements change policy by changing narratives. To that end, CNP speaks truth to power to change policy in the following ways: (1) Through creating original content that promotes visibility for our community and issues impacting us. (2) Through telling the stories about our community as a way to raise awareness and also centering our humanity. (3) Through mobilizing our community, including artists and cultural workers to use their platforms to advance racial and HIV justice.

COVID-19 Vaccines & PLHIV Update

To help keep track of the latest CDC COVID-19 vaccination recommendations (primary series, supplemental and booster doses), HIVMA created a new summary table: COVID-19 Vaccination Recommendations for People with HIV. HIVMA will also have the table translated into Spanish shortly.

The more detailed FAQ also has recently been updated.

NHAS Update and World AIDS Day Statement

The recent World AIDS Day follows another year of struggle, grief, and loss in our community. In 2021 alone, PWN lost two of our founding members –Loren Jones and Juanita Williams. Both were giants, forging new paths towards reproductive justice, economic equity, and an HIV research agenda that centers the needs of Black women. It is on their shoulders, and many more, that we stand today.

But this World AIDS Day, we also celebrated progress. We applaud the White House Office National AIDS Policy for its release today of the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), 2022-2025, and look forward to a robust partnership on its implementation. After years of organizing with our comrades, we made big gains in this updated NHAS, and we want to see more: PWN applauds progress in the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy, calls for meaningful involvement by PLHIV networks!

Webinars You Won’t Want to Miss!

Let’s Talk About Sex (Work & HIV Criminalization)

Sex workers are disproportionately harmed by laws and penalties that target people based on HIV-positive status. Yet HIV decriminalization efforts have not consistently centered or elevated sex worker leadership. Join the Health Not Prisons (HNP) Collective for a discussion and live Q & A on HIV criminalization laws, their impacts on sex workers, and how the HIV and sex work decriminalization movements can better partner and collaborate.

Moderated by Tyler Barbarin, Positive Women’s Network, panelists include Ashunte Coleman (LIPS Tampa), Lynly Egyes (Transgender Law Center), Chauncey McGlathery (Sero Project), Tiffany Moore (Council of Justice Leaders, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation)

HIV Racial Justice Centering Black

HIV is a racial justice issue, this training will ensure that PWN members have a strong foundation to discuss racism, are educated about the broader impact of HIV on Black communities, especially women in the past and into the present moment.

PWN Is Hiring!

Communications Director

The communications director leads the efforts of Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN) to elevate the voices, experiences, and priorities of women and people of trans experience living with HIV online and in the media.

This is accomplished through the strategic use of and skillful management of the various online platforms PWN uses to communicate with our members and base—including social media, our WordPress website, our Action Network email list—as well as through proactive media outreach; training, and support for member and staff spokespeople; thought leadership within the organization and coalition spaces, especially as pertains to framing, messaging, and communications strategy; and creation of collaterals that educate and mobilize members and base.

The communications director is a senior leadership role in the organization and contributes to organizational strategy as well as supervising communications-related staff and consultants.