In this issue:
- Meet the PWN-USA Shero of the Month, Chanica Adams
- PWN-USA Stands in Solidarity with Sex Workers
- HIV Is Not a Crime Begins Sunday! Here’s the Program
Meet PWN-USA Shero of the Month, Chanica Adams!
Our Shero of the Month for May is Chanica Adams of Detroit, Michigan. “Chanica goes above and beyond to improve the lives of people living with and vulnerable to HIV and our communities by standing up for what she believe in and our rights,” said LaDawn Tate, who nominated her.
Chanica, who graduated last month from the inaugural class of our PWN-USA Policy Fellowship and is the PWN State Lead for Michigan, got involved in advocacy after having her daughter in 2006. “I realized that the services and programs for women living with HIV were decreasing. Shortly after that, I started participating in the monthly meetings of the Ryan White Part D Community Advisory Group. This is where I found my voice and began speaking on the behalf of women utilizing the services and whose health the cuts would impact.”
“My continuing efforts in fighting this fight are battling stigma, educating, speaking out, and most importantly, staying involved in my networks and expanding them by getting involved in different relevant decision-making bodies, where policies will ultimately impact not only women living with HIV but all women,” she explained.
Read more about Chanica here.
Know a potential PWN-USA Shero of the Month? Nominate them here!
PWN-USA Stands in Solidarity with Sex Workers
As an organization that advocates for the safety and dignity of women and people of transgender experience living with HIV, many of whom are subject to violence and criminalization because of their marginalized identities, Positive Women’s Network – USA stands in solidarity with sex workers nationwide, who will be organizing multiple actions across the country this weekend in direct response to recent legislation that is jeopardizing their health, safety and right to work.
The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA)/Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers (SESTA) law, framed as an attempt to curb sex trafficking and exploitation, made website publishers liable for third-party content posted on their sites that can be considered “promotion or facilitation of prostitution.” This includes consensual sales of various sexual services as well as harm reduction services and legal information specific to sex work.
The immediate effects of FOSTA/SESTA include the closure of personals pages (like those formerly hosted by Craigslist) that allowed sex workers to advertise services, screen their clients safely and work indoors. Since FOSTA/SESTA passed just a month ago, sex worker groups and service providers are reporting a dramatic increase in street-based sex work increasing vulnerability to violence and criminalization. The loss of online platforms also means sex workers have less agency in conducting their business, creating the risk of exploitation by pimps and traffickers. Read our full statement here.
Learn more here about tomorrow’s Day of Action and find an event near you!
HIV Is Not a Crime. Advocates Convene This Sunday to Get to Zero Prosecutions at #HINAC3!
Tomorrow, people living with HIV, advocates, activists, attorneys and lawmakers working on HIV criminalization reform will begin gathering at IUPUI in Indianapolis, as the third HIV Is Not a Crime Training Academy kicks off with a special Black United Leadership Institute (BULI), where 50 HIV criminalization reform advocates of African descent will deeply examine the effects of criminalization on Black people and how the HIV criminalization reform movement connects to larger efforts to end racist policing practices and mass incarceration.
Sunday, June 3, the BULI participants will be joined by another 200 advocates, hailing from at least 30 states, Puerto Rico and six countries in North, Central and South America and Europe, at the opening of HIV Is Not a Crime III (HINAC), which is co-organized by the SERO Project and Positive Women’s Network – USA.
The theme of this year’s HINAC is “Getting to Zero Prosecutions.” A play on the oft-used term “getting to zero” for local and state plans to reduce HIV incidence, the idea is that there are many ways to end, reduce or mitigate the impacts of HIV criminalization, only some of which involve actually changing existing laws. Victories may also look different from place to place.
The program of HINAC III will celebrate successes, explore continuing challenges and dive deeply into the areas where change can happen: state legislatures, courtrooms, prosecutors’ offices, media and within the HIV community itself. Read more here.
Check out the full program here!
Can’t make it to #HINAC3? Follow us on social media to stay in the conversation! We will be using the hashtags #HINAC3 and #HIVIsNotACrime. Plenaries will be livestreamed from the HIV Is Not a Crime Facebook page. PWN-USA will also be posting live updates on Twitter, short interviews and doing some livestreaming from our Facebook page, so tune in!
Want to help amplify on social media? Here’s a #HINAC3 social media toolkit to get you started!
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.