Positive Women’s Newsletter – October 2026

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Menopause Awareness Month — two issues that are often ignored by the world.

To date, there has been no research conducted on menopause among people living with HIV, even though we know that we experience menopause earlier than folks who aren’t living with the virus. We’ve all been talking about with each other for years. And yet, scientists have ignored that call.

Meanwhile, the effects of domestic violence on our community have been noted for decades. And yet, the most meaningful engagement on this issue has come from within our community. And though we often say that we are the only ones who can save ourselves, it feels awfully lonely to see that this issue is all but ignored by our peers. That changes now.

This year, PWN-USA is partnering with various organizations from across the movement to raise awareness about domestic violence against our community and to lift up solutions. We think that if we can get everyone to talk about this issue seriously, meaningful action will happen. We already know one way to resolve this problem; as our member Wanda Brendle-Moss recently told us: Providing a woman who is experiencing abuse a safe place to live and a sustainable job is a lifesaving intervention. And so is voting. That’s why our organizing team continues to press forward with its voter engagement work.

That’s also why we keep asking members to fill out our Member Insight Survey. Because the only way we’ll know that we’re moving forward addressing your needs is if we hear from you. 

That’s the power of meaningful involvement. It’s why 28 women living with HIV created this organization. Let’s follow their lead by ensuring that PWN-USA is truly serving you.

PWN-USA, our allies, and—most importantly—our members showed up at USCHA 2026 in a big way! If you weren’t able to attend or didn’t follow along, check out PWN’s Facebook and Instagram for a glimpse of the powerful voices, stories, and expertise represented.

By our best reckoning, PWN members, staff, and allies were part of 38 workshops, institutes, plenaries, and iPosters—demanding that our voices be heard, our needs addressed, and our expertise recognized.

One new feature at USCHA 2026 was the iPoster session. Just imagine the old poster sessions replaced by screens able to call up all 100 accepted iPosters. This new approach allows more people to share their programs, expertise, research, and experiences. We loved being able to request a copy of an iPoster, and definitely won’t miss the rows of corkboards! But we did miss meeting authors face-to-face and having those one-on-one conversations about their work.

We especially celebrate “Wealth and Wellness,” where five long-term survivors shared their experiences and evolving understanding of well-being. Led by Arlene Frames, Lilieth Conolly, and Marcel Webb, with support from Sandra Rogers, Roxanne Lewis, LaDawn Tate, and Barb Cardell, the poster reminds us that lived experience is expertise—and MIPA means more than a seat at the table. This dedicated crew met early every Tuesday morning to ensure their iPoster had impact and shared their lived experiences. “We weren’t expected to survive. Now we deserve the opportunity to thrive.”

Want a MIPA refresh? Check out “Got MIPA?” by Barb Cardell and LaDawn Tate, and join us in reclaiming authentic leadership by and for people living with HIV.

Recently, there has been a lot of action in Alabama with PWN-AL calling service organizations and legislators in and showing them how to serve the community. This work started earlier this summer during PWN-AL’s “Summer of Freedom” tour, which the chapter took from Montgomery to Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, and Birmingham.

PWN-USA joined our members in Birmingham and supported them in asserting their power and desire for collaborations with numerous organizations in the city. This included a productive conversation with Nic Carlisle, the new CEO of AIDS Alabama, the leadership team of Five Horizons Health Services, and legislative aides in the offices of Senator Katie Britt, Representative Terri Sewell, and Representative Gary Palmer.

All in all, we supported their leadership by sending 5 national staffers who held 3 trainings with 15 members from 6 counties. Throughout our 4 days in Birmingham we supported members by helping them produce 1 all day convening with community members, accomplices, and agencies, conduct 1 MIPA organizational assessments, take 2 organizational tours, and implement THREE in-district legislative meetings.

We also patronized 3 Black-owned businesses during two dinners and one party and closed our training days by literally crowning each attending member with a tiara of flowers. Those flowers are manifestations of the garden that PWN-AL’s members are growing.

Medicaid work reporting requirements are supposed to go into effect on January 1, 2027; but, some states have started the process early. If you or someone you know is on Medicaid, pay attention to what’s happening in your state!

These changes can be complicated and scary, but we got you! Join us for “They Made It Complicated. We Make It Simpler: Medicaid Work Reporting and Volunteer Hours” TODAY at 6PM ET to get the facts about what’s going and how you can protect your coverage.

The new Medicaid work and volunteer requirements imposed by HR1 are very confusing. Healthcare is critical to people living with HIV and 46% of us rely on Medicaid. So we worked with U.S. PLHIV Caucus and The AIDS Institute on creating a toolkit that makes it easier to understand what you need to maintain your Medicaid coverage.

Our “Medicaid Work Hours Toolkit” explains everything what you need to know in advance, what the requirements are, who is exempt, and how we’re supporting members. 

About 20 million people in 44 states will be impacted by Medicaid work reporting requirements – that’s nearly one in four of all Medicaid enrollees across all states. Moreover, an estimated 3 million to 7 million people will lose Medicaid coverage in 2028 because of these requirements (and that doesn’t account for the other changes to Medicaid through HR1!). People with serious or complex medical conditions, including arguably people living with HIV, and other select groups should be exempt, but the exemption process is fraught and still being worked out in many states.

Remember: Medicaid work reporting requirements aren’t really about getting people to work. They are a ploy to use paperwork and administrative barriers to kick people off the Medicaid program. If you have questions, contact info@pwn-usa.org. Learn more at the HR1: Big Ugly Murder Bill Resource Center.

Join PWN-USA for the final webinar of our #PWNVotes 2026 training series! Voting, especially in this moment in time, is an important tool for using your voice to fight back against attacks on our community and enact positive change. The world needs to hear you, and we want to make sure you stay safe this election day. 

Our webinar on 10/21/26 at 6PM ET will prepare attendees to safely engage in voter education, outreach, and mobilization by strengthening practices for personal, digital, and community safety, reducing risks of intimidation or harm, and ensuring our efforts are grounded in accessibility, emotional and physical care, preparedness, and collective security.

Election day is only 26 days away! Are you and your community ready?

Learn more about what’s at stake; the issues on the ballot; where and how to vote; and how to stay safe on election day with the #PWNVotes 2026 Resource Hub!

With the help of our wonderful summer intern, Treasure Welle, PWN spent the summer updating a few of our key factsheets so that y’all could have access to the most up to date information on topics like HIV criminalization and harm reduction. Many of these factsheets hadn’t been updated since 2018. 

We are so happy to be able to share these new resources with y’all! Each factsheet will also be accompanied by a short video that features a member discussing the subject matter of the factsheet. Feel free to use these factsheets to get yourself up to speed on these topics, to share them at events, or with your lawmakers. 

We’ll be hosting a webinar where we go more in-depth into each new factsheet. Stay tuned!

Our new factsheets include:

• HIV Criminalization
• Harm Reduction & Decriminalization of Sex Work
• Abortion Access, Gender-Affirming Care, & Gag Rules
• HIV Criminalization as Violence Against Women Living with HIV

🕊 In Loving Memory of our sister, Dr. Yolanda Ross, DSW/LCSW-S/LCDC/MHA/CHW

Yolanda Ross, DSW, LCSW-S/LCDC/MHA was Licensed Clinical Social Worker-Supervisor (LCSW-S) and a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC) with more than 10 years of clinical and addition counseling experience. She was a mother, a woman in long-term recovery, and a fearless advocate for her community of people living with HIV.

As Dr. Ross wrote for PWN-USA’s blog: “Looking back over my life’s journey, I can truly say I am a miracle in disguise. Today, I have been clean and sober for over 12 years. I am a professional career woman, a mother to a beautiful daughter who loves me unconditionally

and has forgiven me for what I did to her, and I am HIV undetectable.”

One thing that made Yolanda extraordinary was her bravery. We saw this in her policy work with PWN on opioid use disorder & mothers. In “Policy Brief on Providing Best Practices for Opioid-Dependent Pregnant Women,” she presented guidance to the 89th Texas Legislature, asking they uptake the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ recommendations. 

Yolanda’s work was inspired by her unyielding desire to help others have better outcomes than she did. Her loss has left a hole in our hearts.

🎬 Check out PWN-Louisiana co-chair Millicent Foster in the upcoming documentary, “Beyond the Diagnosis!” Ourconic Entertainment‘s documentary will premiere on Fri, 11/06/26 at 6:30PM at the Tara Theatre (Screening Room B) in Atlanta, Georgia, as an official selection of the Peachtree Village International Film Festival (PVIFF). 

The film sets out to change the one kind of story that has been told about women living with HIV for too long: a story of shame, silence, and endings that come
too soon. It will explore the stories of three extraordinary women in Mississippi and Louisiana—Dominique Grant, Dr. Joyce Turner-Keller, and Millicent Foster—who are living openly and thriving with HIV in the region hit hardest by the epidemic. Learn more here!

PWN National Membership Call – October 9th

Our next PWN members call is Fri, 10/09/26 at 4PM ET/3PM CT/2PM MT/1PM PT. Note: you must register as a PWN member before getting the Zoom link. PWN members include women (cis and trans), gender diverse, and transgender people living with HIV. Register here!

Sister Circle Virtual Support Group – October 15th & 29th

Are you a PWN member living with HIV? Join our virtual support group, Sister Circle, for a space to release, connect, and find peace! ✨ Join us Thurs, 10/15/26 and 10/29/26 at 8PM ET/7PM CT/6PM MT/5PM PT. Registration required to attend: bit.ly/PWNCARES (all caps). Hope to see you there! 💗

Transformative Justice and Intimate Partner Violence with Accountable Communities Consortium – October 22nd

Transformative justice has been a valuable tool for addressing violence outside of harmful state-based systems. As our movements have grown we’ve seen community members turn towards transformative justice practices to address the range of violence our communities experience. When faced with questions of domestic and sexual violence many community members can feel overwhelmed.

This workshop is designed to support community members in building skills to better understand intimate partner violence (IPV) and explore the possibilities and pitfalls of transformative justice practices in addressing IPV. We will discuss how transformative justice practices can support people surviving abuse, people being abusive and the communities who love them.

Join the Accountable Communities Consortium on Thurs, 10/22/26 at 3-5PM PT/5-7PM CT/6-8PM ET. Registration is sliding scale $1-25. This workshop will be presented via Zoom with opportunities for questions. We will be using zoom generated captions. A recording will be available for people who register for up to one month after the workshop. For questions please reach out to Shannon@accountablecommunities.com.

• “The Nifty 50s: Coming Out Twice” by POZ (09/01/26)
  • Featuring Katie Willingham
• “Video: At U.S. HIV Conference, AIDS Activists Protest New Threats to NIH” by POZ (09/22/26)
  • Featuring Kamaria Laffrey & Barb Cardell
• “USCHA 2026: ‘United and Unbreakable’” by POZ (09/24/26)
  • Featuring Waheedah Shabazz-El, Kamaria Laffrey, & Sonya Milliman
• “Colorado’s anti-trans ballot initiatives face financial allegations” by LGBTQ Nation (10/02/26)
  • Featuring Barb Cardell

• #HIVResists: Our (Kinda) September 2026 Monthly Policy Update (09/24/26)
• Watch Our #PWNVotes Training Series on YouTube!
• “ICE amassed millions of voter records in sweeping fraud hunt, documents reveal” by Democracy Docket (10/07/26)
• “GOP states sue Democratic-led states in Supreme Court over abortion shield laws” by MS Now (10/01/26)
• “NYT: Six Major Hospitals Reach Agreements with the DOJ to Halt Gender-Affirming Care to Transgender Youth” by Democracy Now! (09/23/26)
• “BREAKING: Tennessee AG Launches Investigation into State’s Abortion Fund” by TN Repro News (09/23/26)
• “Trump administration cuts ACA coverage for 750,000 people it says were ‘fraudulently’ enrolled” by NBC News (09/22/26)
• “Supreme Court says Trump can’t enforce new mail-in ballot regulation” by NBC News (09/14/26)
• “What Voter Suppression Looks Like in Practice” by The American Propsect (09/09/26)
• “The Guide To Anti-Trans Democrats In The 2026 Elections, By State” by Erin in the Morning (09/08/26)
• “The Public Health Cost of Eliminating Race and Ethnicity Data” by Federation of American Scientists (09/04/26)
• “Federal Judge Rules Trump Cannot Force Schools To Exclude Trans Athletes In California” by Erin in the Morning (09/03/26)
• “21 States Sue Federal Government To Block Anti-Trans Under-19 Medicaid Ban” by Erin in the Morning (09/03/26)
• “Trump again appeals to Supreme Court on mail-voting restrictions with midterm elections looming” by AP News (09/03/26)

If you’ve been to a PWN celebration in the past few years, then you’ve grooved to the song stylings of our very own DJ Big Sal, a.k.a. Sallie Thomas – the decriminalization specialist on our policy team. Now she’s bringing you a song selection to get your joy on!