In this issue:
- Catch PWN at AIDS 2018!
- HIV Racial Justice Now! Join Us Aug. 8 for an Important Webinar
- PWN-USA TX Heads to the Border
- No Pants No Problem Traveling the World!
Catch PWN at AIDS 2018!
Members and staff at Positive Women’s Network – USA are excited and humbled to be representing U.S. women living with HIV at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam all next week!
Either in Amsterdam or from home, you can follow us on Twitter and get in on the conversation by using the hashtags #PWNspeaks and #AIDS2018!
Here is where you can find PWN in Amsterdam!
See our full list of suggested sessions and activities on our website here.
Sunday, July 22:
Challenging Criminalization AAI Pre-conference, 8:30 AM-5:30 PM. NEMO Science Museum, Oosterdok 2. Register at BlackBirdsRSVP. An inter-disciplinary and intersectional initiative on un-policing identity, morality, sexuality and bodily autonomy. PWN Executive Director Naina Khanna is presenting.
Monday, July 23:
Beyond Blame Pre-conference, 8:30 AM-5:00 PM De Balie, Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10. Register at Eventbrite. Beyond Blame 2018: Challenging HIV Criminalization is a one-day meeting for activists, advocates, lawyers, scientists, healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, and anyone else interested in working to end HIV criminalization. PWN E.D. Naina Khanna and PWN Policy Director Arneta Rogers are moderating.
Thursday, July 26:
Policy Fellowship Poster Presentation, 12:30 PM-2:30 PM Poster exhibition area, Hall 1, next to the Global Village (ground floor, by the Main Entrance). Check out how PWN is building the leadership bench of women living with HIV in the federal policy advocacy arena on a 7-foot poster!
The Future Is Female: Women’s Leadership in HIV Criminalization Research and Activism,1 PM-2 PM Youth Pavilion Session Room. PWN E.D. Naina Khanna will be presenting.
Who’s on deck? Building the Leadership Bench of Women Living with HIV in the Federal Policy Advocacy Arena, 4:30 PM-6 PM RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre in Amtrium 1 (L001). PWN Policy Director Arneta Rogers, Legal Fellow Rebecca Wang and graduated policy fellow Kamaria Laffrey will be presenting about the PWN Policy Fellowship.
HIV Racial Justice Now! How?
Join Us Aug. 8 to Find Out.
A racial justice lens for the HIV movement demands that we:
(1) Integrate racial justice into our organizations and political strategies;
(2) Center those communities most impacted by the epidemic in leadership and decision-making; (3) Root our efforts to advance a racial justice lens in the HIV movement in accountability to the communities that we lead;
(4) Ensure equity around allocation of resources — human, material, and financial;
(5) Work to transform and, where necessary, dismantle institutions that uphold white supremacy and compromise the wellbeing of communities of color.
PWN-USA Texas Members Head to the Border to Fight for Immigrant Rights
What does immigration have to do with women living with HIV? According to PWN-USA Texas members—everything.
Tana Pradia and Jessi Mona Cartwright-Biggs hopped on a bus to Brownsville, Texas, June 28 to protest the administration’s immigration policy of separating migrant children, including hundreds under 5 years old, from their families and detaining them in separate facilities, in many cases thousands of miles apart.
Jessi Mona explained her decision to join the protest: “I heard and saw what was happening to the children and their parents. The injustice was unbelievable. When I saw protestors trying to block a bus filled with children from leaving the border, I was wishing I could have been there on the front line in solidarity! I wanted to go and be a participant in that struggle for justice, and I was available to make the trip.”
No Pants No Problem Traveling the World!
Taking place at the International AIDS Conference, No Pants No Problem is an exceptional kind of art project, focusing on an open dialogue about specific kinds of fears and misunderstandings that people living with HIV face by presenting banners and artwork expressing acceptance, passion, and advocacy for all.
This year, No Pants No Problem is celebrating its fourteenth birthday in Amsterdam onJuly 26, starting at 9:30pm. The main party theme will be “I love sex workers.”
No Pants No Problem has left an unforgettable mark to many of those that were greatly inspired by it. Even after many years, Whitbread has received positive messages from participants, motivating her to expand this work in different countries where the topic of HIV and AIDS is still a taboo and unknown to many audiences.
Whitbread organized this year’s theme: “I love Sex Workers.” “They are my friends, sometimes my lovers, but always my community,” she explained. “I wanted to make sure that the sex workers that came to the AIDS 2018 NPNP knew that they were special. And what better way to show you care than doing advocacy in your underwear.”
Going to be in Amsterdam for AIDS 2018? Check out No Pants No Problem! We’ll see you there!
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Positive Women’s Network – USA is a national membership body of women living with HIV and our allies that exists to strengthen the strategic power of all women living with HIV in the United States. Founded in 2008 by 28 diverse HIV-positive women leaders, PWN-USA develops a leadership pipeline and policy agenda that applies a gender lens to the domestic HIV epidemic grounded in social justice and human rights.