The Sero Project and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation launched the inaugural HIV is Not a Crime Awareness Day on February 28th to increase awareness of HIV criminalization laws around the country and amplify the efforts of people living with HIV to modernize or repeal those laws. One call to action was for folks to contact their legislators in support of The REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act, co-sponsored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee. If passed, this legislation would require the federal government to assess HIV criminalization laws around the country and give states guidance on how to repeal or update their policies. For more information on HIV is Not a Crime Awareness Day, watch this webinar hosted by The Sero Project.

Positive Women’s Network- USA celebrated its second annual Celebrate and Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement (CHBW) Day. With broad support from the HIV community, including twenty nine organizations who committed to uplifting Black women, PWN honored twenty Black HIV Movement Mothers and hosted a powerful Black Joy and Resilience Townhall, featuring seventeen brilliant Black women dropping pearls of wisdom, Black love, and inspiration. Finding joy and celebrating Black women who’ve been fighting for HIV decriminalization and sex work decriminalization is so needed. The HNP Collective remains committed to celebrating and honoring Black women and their outstanding work in the HIV movement every day!

The Counter Narrative Project’s blog “The Reckoning,” was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Blog category. Following a performance of UNJUST, a one act play that seeks to bring awareness to the HIV Is Not A Crime Campaign, CNP Executive Director, Charles Stephens was a panelist and discussed the importance of Narrative Shift work in the HIV justice movement.

On World AIDS Day, White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) and Director Harold Phillips released the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), 2022-2025. The NHAS specifically included the goal of reducing HIV-related stigma and discrimination by (among other tactics) encouraging states to repeal or update their HIV-specific criminal laws. If you’re reading this, you already probably know such laws are stigmatizing, out-of-date, and do nothing to keep communities safe or healthy.

We applaud this administration for naming sex workers as a priority population and calling for more resources to support the needs of sex workers living with or affected by HIV. In order for sex workers to be able to fully access HIV services without fear of judgement, it is imperative that sex work be decriminalized. One step towards this goal would be for Congress to pass the Safe Sex Worker Study Act.

While HNP is thrilled with the progress made in the NHAS, we are disappointed by its’ failure to address breast/chest feeding for parents living with HIV or the sexual and reproductive rights, health and freedom of people of all genders living with HIV. Silence on these issues is particularly alarming within the current political context of brutal attacks against bodily autonomy. Check out PWN’s statement with suggested improvements to the NHAS.

On May 3rd, we learned about a leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would explicitly overturn Roe v. Wade, the momentous 1973 decision that guaranteed constitutional protections for abortion rights. Bodily autonomy and reproductive justice are two of the core, founding principles of the Health Not Prisons Collective. We believe that all people deserve the right to inhabit their bodies as they see fit and that criminalization – of HIV, of sex work, of abortion – is state violence. Abortion bans and restrictions disproportionately impact communities that are surviving systemic oppression and particularly people who hold multiple marginalized identities. Abortion care is healthcare. HNP is committed to making the link between HIV criminalization and abortion criminalization explicit. Stay tuned for updates!

HNP is standing up for liberating abortion and protecting reproductive freedom, will you join us?

New Jersey passed a bill, S-3707, to repeal the state’s HIV- and STI-specific criminal law. This looks like an exciting step towards decriminalization. The Center for HIV Law & Policy notes, however, it’s not a total victory. New Jersey lawmakers stated in a Senate committee statement that people living with HIV and other communicable diseases can still be prosecuted under existing, general criminal laws.

There are also a slate of bills that will not make it to the governor’s desk this year. In Florida, two bills (S1074 and H0813) that would have modernized the state’s HIV criminalization laws died this legislative session. The same is true of Mississippi’s HIV modernization bill (HB334) and two HIV criminalization-related bills in Indiana (HB1158 and HB1032).

You can find more information on the progress of HIV-criminalization-related bills this legislative session from HNP partner organization, The Sero Project, here. Also, we invite you to catch up on The Sero Project’s most recent Community Conversation, and register for their next one on June 1st.

Rhode Island is considering two potential paths to decriminalizing sex work during this legislative session. Of the two, S2713 is clearly more beneficial than the other–led by a sex worker advocacy group, it would fully decriminalize selling sex, paying for sex, and other consensual, commercial sexual activities. For deeper analysis, check out this article by Reason Magazine.

In Colorado, an exciting bill is waiting on Governor Polis’ signature to become law. HB22-1288 would ensure that people in the sex trades can report or seek help with a violent crime without fear of being arrested for a sex work-related charge.

We have two more reasons to celebrate: Belgium has decriminalized sex work and Zimbabwe has decriminalized HIV transmission this year.

Colombia is the latest Latin American country to decriminalize abortion. The ruling by Colombia’s Constitutional Court means that three of the four most populous countries in Latin America – Mexico, Argentina, and now Colombia – have opened the door to more widespread abortion access. You can read more here.

• On March 10th, the HNP Collective celebrated National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD). Check out this webinar on Breast and Chest feeding for People Living with HIV hosted by the Well Project, which launched on NWGHAAD.
• Harold Phillips, Director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), recorded videos discussing ONAP’s Top 5 Priorities and HIV criminalization more broadly.

• On March 14th and 15th, The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) held its 73rd full council meeting virtually. PACHA hosted a PACHA-to-the-People community engagement session and organizations and individual community members were able to submit public comments. Read PWN’s comment here.
• The Global Network of Sex Work Projects published a comprehensive review of sex work laws implemented across the globe and their impact on sex workers. Also check out their global mapping of sex work criminalization around the globe!
• The Canadian Review of Sociology argues that the working conditions in which journalists now operate make it extremely challenging for them to improve their reporting on HIV criminalization.