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Ready, Set, REPEAL: Ending HIV Criminalization Cannot Wait

The Health Not Prisons Collective kicked off our Ready, Set, REPEAL campaign last week! The REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act (H.R. 6111) would require the federal government to assess and recommend changes to state and federal, criminal and civil laws that discriminate against people living with HIV. We started with an amazing webinar featuring a panel of HIV decriminalization activists, a presentation from Dr. John Oguntomilade, Regional Director of the PACE program, and a message from Congresswoman Barbara Lee, champion and sponsor of the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act! In case you missed it, you can watch the recording below.

Watch the Ready, Set, REPEAL Webinar

But don’t stop there! We need all hands on deck to end HIV criminalization. Use our Ready, Set, REPEAL Toolkit for Advocates to demand that Congress pass the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act and save the date for our day of action on September 22, 2022. More information on this below!

If you want to stay in the loop, sign up for updates from the Health Not Prisons Collective. 

PWNVotes! Kicking off Fall 2022 Election Campaigns

The stakes are higher than ever. This election season, PWN will be busy running #PWNVotes campaigns in three states! PWN-Pennsylvania and PWN-Colorado are ready to mobilize and build power with Black and brown voters on key reproductive justice issues, such as abortion access without stigma, shame, or barriers. This week we’ll be hosting voter engagement strategy sessions, community building activities, and trainings on reproductive justice in Grand Junction and Denver, Colorado. And in early September we’ll kick off our fall campaign in North Philly with a cookout in the park.

In Houston, PWN’s chapter is kicking off their campaign to end voter suppression and liberate Texas. They have been showing up all over their community to encourage voter turnout and engage folks in the issues that matter most to them. PWN-Houston is this month’s Organizing Spotlight, so you can find out more about their chapter and campaign just a few blurbs down.

We’ll be knocking doors and phone banking all the way to election day! Make sure to follow our social media pages to stay up-to-date on ways to get involved, no matter where you live.

Congratulations to our very own Barb Cardell, 2022 One Colorado Prism Award Recipient

We are so proud that our own Barb Cardell, PWN training director and PWN-CO founding member, was a recipient of a Prism Award this year! The Prism Awards, formerly the Ally Awards, is One Colorado’s annual gala to honor individuals and organizations who have made a substantive difference in the lives of LGBTQ+ Coloradans and their families. This year’s Prism Awards took place on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at the Denver Art Museum. Barb also recently received an award from 5280 Denver Fast Track Cities! We are thrilled that their leadership and commitment to grassroots organizing throughout Colorado and nationwide is being recognized. Check out this incredibly moving introduction they received!

A Summer of Must-See Webinars

Our policy team has spent the summer putting on a series of engaging and timely webinars on various topics. Check out “Hands off my Black Body: Decriminalizing HIV & Abortion,” which was a part of the Road to HINAC5 Webinar Series; it featured reproductive justice advocates discussing how the criminalization of HIV and abortion is used to surveil and police Black bodies. And don’t miss “Tennessee Blues: Exploring HIV Criminalization in Tennessee,” hosted by the Health Not Prisons Collective, it explored the disparate impact that HIV criminalization has on Black women in Tennessee.

Congratulations to PWN’s August 2022 Shero of the Month: Millicent Foster of Baton Rouge, Louisiana!

You might remember Millicent from the Reproductive Justice 4 Black Lives Program organizing spotlight. Millicent Foster has been a PWN Louisiana chapter member since 2016 and currently serves as a Reproductive Justice for Black Lives Program Ambassador. This month, we got the chance to chat with her about her passion for community activism and reproductive justice.

Watch the Interview

This month we are shining the Organizing Spotlight on PWN Greater Houston Area (GHA) chapter! We asked two member-leaders, Deborah Somoye and Selena Harbor, about their chapter’s mission, function, current projects, and how allies can support them!

Read the Interview

Urge your U.S. House Representative to pass the REPEAL Act!

The Health Not Prisons (HNP) Collective is proud to present our Ready, Set, REPEAL Toolkit for Advocates. We’re mobilizing folks across the country to pass the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act, H.R. 6111, and we’ve made it really easy to do so. The Ready, Set, REPEAL Toolkit for Advocates is for people with any level of experience with advocacy. It contains everything you need in one place to become a fantastic advocate for the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act!

Join us in demanding that the U.S. Congress pass the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act, furthering our vision of a future in which our communities enjoy their human rights to bodily autonomy and live free from all forms of state violence, including laws subjecting them to discrimination, policing, surveillance, and incarceration. 

Congress must pass H.R. 6111, the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act now!

Get the Toolkit

Reproductive Justice Teach-In: Join us in the fight to liberate abortion

On June 24th, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. We’ve already begun to see the disastrous results of abortion bans and restrictions across the country, disparately affecting already marginalized and vulnerable populations. We’re outraged, furious, and ready to fight!

Now more than ever, it’s time for the HIV movement as a whole to join in the fight for Reproductive Justice. We’re calling on you to make that commitment by attending our Reproductive Justice Teach-In, where we’ll have a community discussion about what reproductive justice is, what it means for the HIV movement, and steps you can take for reproductive freedom. 

Register for the Teach-In

#PWNCares Sister Circle Virtual Support Group

Aug 25 & Sept 8

Join us this month on Thursday, August 25th and next month on Thursday, September 8th at 8pm ET/7pm CT/5pm PT for #PWNCares Sister Circle. #PWNCares Sister Circle is a virtual support group for women and people of trans experience living with HIV. Registration is required for participation. PWN members will receive a link to join the group once they sign up. We encourage you to join us and invite a friend!

Register for Sister Circle

PWN New Members’ Coffee
September 20

Join PWN-USA for a new member’s coffee Friday, July 19th at 5pm ET/4pm CT/ 3pm MT/2pm PT. Learn more about PWN and how to get connected; meet our staff and some long-term members where you can ask questions and connect with other women living with HIV.

Register for New Members’ Coffee

Save the date: Ready, Set, REPEAL Day of Action!
September 22nd

We need you to stand with us and make your voice heard: laws that criminalize people living with HIV are outdated, discriminatory, and not based in science or human rights–they disrupt and destroy lives. Ending HIV criminalization cannot wait. 

Mark your calendar and get ready to uplift your advocacy efforts on social media on September 22nd!

Join our team of dedicated staff! We’re looking for a Finance and Operations Manager and a Voter Engagement Program Manager! Is this the opportunity for you? Click the button below to apply! Could this be a great opportunity for someone you know? Forward this email to them!

Apply Now

Diagnosis to Destiny
By Lynette Trawick

Author Lynette Trawick penned her first book, Diagnosis to Destiny. An enthralling story of trials, tribulations, fear, self-sabotage and ultimately overcoming, triumph and victory! She shares her life story of a life changing diagnosis that ultimately led her to her life’s destiny journey! This real-life story will draw you in and leave you applauding in the end!

Lynette is a wife, mother, woman living with HIV, and PWN member. She is an advocate and public speaker empowering the lives of people who are living with HIV to overcome every obstacle and live beyond their diagnosis.

Get it Here

“Initiative to Stop HIV’s Spread Gains Post-Pandemic ‘Reset'”
By Shira Stein, Bloomberg Law

Check out this piece featuring PWN co-director, Naina Khanna, and Movement Mother, Dazon Dixon Diallo, founder and president of SisterLove Inc.!

“‘What we’re seeing with the confluence of HIV, Covid-19, now monkeypox, is the same communities are being impacted over and over,’ said Naina Khanna, co-executive director of the Positive Women’s Network—USA, an advocacy organization for women living with HIV.

“Dixon Diallo said her organization has been seeing more people further along in their HIV/AIDS progression when they’re diagnosed than typically seen, especially young Black men who have sex with men.

“‘If we don’t center blackness in this response and recognize the racial inequities in how HIV is being responded to in the United States, we will not get to the end of HIV,’ she said.

“Khanna said the way to prevent disparate impacts on communities of color is to not just focus on the biomedical solutions like drugs, but to ensure that people with HIV have access to health care, stable housing, food, and quality of life. The new National HIV/AIDS Strategy adds quality of life as a measure for success.”

Read the Full Article