In this issue:
- Meet Our Shero of the Month
- Help Get Out the Vote in Georgia
- Webinars You Won’t Want to Miss
- Celebrate & Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement
- Expert Consensus Statement on Breastfeeding and HIV
Meet Our Shero of the Month:
Tranisha Arzah
Our November 2020 Shero of the Month is Tranisha Arzah (she/they) of New Orleans, Louisiana. Tranisha has been a member of the PWN Board of Directors since 2015.
“One of the things I value most about Tranisha is the way she brings her full, fierce self to everything she is doing,” said PWN Director Naina Khanna. “Tranisha has helped remind me of the many ways that reproductive justice, pleasure, joy, and fun are key to organizing for our dreams. She is tremendously compassionate, a great listener and always willing to support others. I’m so grateful to work with Tranisha.”
Tranisha was born with HIV, so stigma is something she has lived with most of her life. But she says that internalized stigma has been the biggest challenge. “I had a lot of self-shame and anxiety about my diagnosis for a long time, and I didn’t have a community to talk to about it for over half of my life,” she explained. “In a lot of ways, I addressed my experiences of stigma in the past by being authentic with myself and connecting with sisterhoods and communities that I can share my life lessons and hopes with. I was encouraged and inspired to share my story in intentional ways, which helped me heal in ways that I needed more than anything.”
That quest for connection, authenticity, and community is a big part of what drew Tranisha to PWN. “The PWN Board of Directors is an incredibly unique and special board like no other. It’s led and driven by women who share this bond of living with HIV together. They’re all so passionate, vulnerable, and real about what it means to serve on a board like Positive Women’s Network. It’s been important for me to sit on the PWN board because it can provide greater access to network with other women living with HIV and the opportunity to continue learning and growing in different leadership styles.”
| Read more about Tranisha here |
Help PWN Get Out the Vote in Georgia!
In Georgia, two senate races went into a runoff election–so we are back at it and hoping you will come join us!
PWN is supporting GOTV efforts led by Women Engaged, an Atlanta-based, Black women-led 501(c)(3) organization that supports Black women and young adults to become impactful leaders, key decision-makers and effective agents for social change through voter engagement, reproductive justice advocacy, and leadership development.
Women Engaged is calling and texting folks in Georgia, helping them get registered to vote before the upcoming deadline Dec. 7 and to get all the info they need to vote after that. They need your help to call and text voters!
| Sign up to volunteer with PWN and Women Engaged here! |
Webinars You Won’t Want to Miss:
Mental Health Matters. Join Us Dec. 14 at 12pm EST
“Normality” feels out of reach for many of us. And even before 2020 brought its laundry list of worries, trauma, loss, and fears, many women and people of trans experience were just barely getting by.
Recognizing the signs that our mental health is suffering and knowing what we can do to address our concerns is paramount to being able to move past surviving to get to thriving.
Join us Monday, December 14, at 12pm EST/9am PST for an interactive online conversation–part of our PWNCares Sister Circle series–with an all-star panel including Alicia Diggs, Shadawn McCants, Bre Rivera, and Masonia Traylor.
| Register here! |
Get Ready for Impact with Our State Legislative Advocacy Webinar Series. Next Webinar 12/16 at 3pm EST.
We know many of the laws that most directly impact our lives are made at the state level.
As the 2021 state legislative session approaches, it’s critical to prepare to fight for the issues that affect us, including access to health care, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and criminalization.
Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 3pm EST/2pm CST/1pm MST/12pm PST, please join PWN’s Policy Department for the second webinar in the State Legislative Advocacy Training series, where we will discuss issue-based advocacy.
Learn how to advocate for issues that impact women and people of trans experience living with HIV using a racial and gender justice lens. PWN Colorado will share how they got a bill increasing access to PrEP passed in the last state legislative session.
| Register here |
From Silenced to Empowered: Confronting White Supremacy Work Culture & Anti-Blackness
December 2, Marcus Stanley, Masonia Traylor, Dean Alan Dettlaff, Dr. Samira Ali, and Venita Ray hosted an amazing panel discussion and presentation on how they are confronting white supremacy work culture and anti-Blackness using their experience with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) as an example.
They outlined how organizations, such as non-profit, for-profit, governmental, and non-governmental organizations, can perpetuate White Supremacy Work Culture using Marcus’ experience with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) as an example and provided a framework/example of how to support and advocate for Black staff.
Additionally, they presented the presentation that was accepted by the 2020 Texas HIV/STD Conference and then rescinded by Texas DSHS leadership and provided tools to amplify the voices of the Black staff that have been silenced through the White fragility and systems of oppression and outline next steps for supporting the advocacy of Black Liberation moving forward.
| Watch the recording here |
Celebrate & Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement.
When Black women are safe and free, we will all be safe and free. When Black women thrive, we will all thrive.
PWN honors every Black woman who has committed any part of herself to our collective fight against HIV and its impacts.
We invite organizations to celebrate and honor Black women in the HIV movement with us.
| Sign up here |
PWN will be hosting the first annual Celebrate and Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement Day on March 12, 2021. We ask you to join us in the following:
- Reflect on the role and power of Black women within your own organizations, including professional development and career advancement opportunities for Black women, and how Black women are reflected throughout your decision-making structure.
- Honor the expertise of Black women working for and volunteering with your organization, including through equitable pay, creating safe spaces within the organization for Black women, and by committing to ask what they need to show up as their full selves each day.
- Support and fund Black women-led organizations
- Demand a domestic HIV response that centers the needs and leadership of Black transgender and cisgender women, including but not limited to a federal policy agenda that elevates the priorities of Black women living with HIV, appointments by Black women to senior roles in the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) and appointments by Black women living with HIV the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS (PACHA).
- Commit to an internal audit of anti-Blackness and creating a plan to address it.
- Pledge to celebrate Black women on March 12, 2021.
| Read our World AIDS Day statement and sign up here |
Expert Consensus on Breastfeeding & HIV
Kudos to our partners at The Well Project and International Community of Women Living with HIV – North America (ICW-NA) for their launch of the Expert Consensus Statement on Breastfeeding and HIV in the United States and Canada calling for parents living with HIV to have access to the information, support, and tools they need to make informed infant-feeding decisions.
The statement was authored by 21 multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral experts. The Well Project and ICW-NA invite all individual and organizational stakeholders working in HIV and intersectional communities (including gender justice, women’s health, reproductive justice, and others) to sign onto the statement and consider how this information relates to their work. These two organizations, which focus on the health and well-being of women living with HIV, are releasing the statement today in conjunction with World AIDS Day to elevate an important gap impacting the HIV community.
The Expert Consensus Statement on Breastfeeding and HIV in the United States and Canada calls for stakeholders to:
- Recognize, account for, and advocate to change the intersectional conditions that specifically impact women living with HIV, particularly as they relate to their infant-feeding decisions
- Understand and respect the fundamental rights of women and other birthing parents to make informed, uncoerced choices about their sexual and reproductive health, contraception, pregnancy, and medical care, and about the care of their children
- Develop provider education and tools to address the complex realities facing parents living with HIV in their infant-feeding decisions and their rights to make informed decisions about the best course of care and treatment for their children
- Create resources and support peer-to-peer systems to provide parents living with HIV with comprehensive education and support around infant feeding
- Engage in policy reform to ensure guidelines reflect the rights of women and other birthing parents to parent their children and best practices; center their intersectional lived experiences and agency, and address the criminalization of women living with HIV, including those who breastfeed
- Advance research to understand existing data on HIV and infant feeding and identify and address remaining knowledge gaps
| Learn more and sign on here! |
PWN Is Hiring!
Finance and Operations Manager
The Finance and Operations Manager (FOM) is the central administrative hub for PWN’s people (staff, board, and members), money (income, expenses, assets, and liabilities), and technology (systems and devices). The position holds a balance of big-picture and detail-level projects and responsibilities.
| View the full job description and instructions to apply here |