**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

 Contact: Jennie Smith-Camejo, jsmithcamejo(at)pwn-usa.org, 347.553.5174

POSITIVE WOMEN’S NETWORK – USA FOCUSES ON THE CHALLENGES FACING NEWLY DIAGNOSED TRANS WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV IN THE 4TH VIDEO IN THE #PWNCARES SERIES 

The video will be premiered during a virtual coffee table chat this Wednesday, July 11, where the women interviewed will take questions and share more of their experiences with participants. 

July 9, 2018: Receiving an HIV diagnosis is not easy for anyone. It brings many questions about health, disclosure, lifestyle changes, romantic relationships, family and future. But for a person of transgender experience, these same questions and concerns come on top of numerous other challenges, including discrimination in employment, housing and health care and inadequate resources, supportive services and health care access related to gender transition.

Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN-USA) seeks to reach recently diagnosed or isolated women of trans experience living with HIV through the fourth video in our #PWNCares series, Keeping It Real: Being Trans & Living with HIV. The video, which will be premiered this Wednesday at 1pm EDT during a virtual coffee table chat featuring Jada Cardona and Tiommi Luckett, the women interviewed in the video, as well as special guest panelist Dee Dee Chamblee of LaGender, Inc., explores the obstacles trans women living with HIV face—and ways those barriers can be broken down.

Register for the coffee table chat here.
And watch a sneak peek of the video below.

 “The goal of this PWNCares video is to ensure that people of trans experience newly diagnosed with HIV can have access to a safety network. For a while, I lived in isolation, due to stigma around being trans and living with HIV,” said Tiommi Luckett, one of the women interviewed in the video, who will also be sharing more of her experiences and answering questions during Wednesday’s virtual coffee table chat. “It’s important to let those who are newly diagnosed or who feel isolated know that we don’t have to live in fear and isolation. I hope the webinar participants gain a deeper understanding of how HIV impacts the trans community, and that we all can work together to reach those who may be yet lost as to what to do following a diagnosis.”

#PWNCares is an interactive multimedia series created by and for women living with HIV, with the support of ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action for Women grant, with the goal of women who have been recently diagnosed or feel isolated and bringing them into supportive in-person and online communities. Research shows that health outcomes among people living with HIV are strongly impacted by social support—which, unfortunately, is not always easy to find for women and people of trans experience living with HIV, especially outside of major urban centers. As the rate of new diagnoses overall declines, funding for supportive services is also drying up—leaving newly diagnosed women and people of trans experience, who are disproportionately people of color with low incomes, with fewer places to turn. Three videos have already been released in the PWNCares series along with virtual coffee table chats. The videos come with discussion guides to facilitate their use in support groups, meetings and other events for women and people of trans experience living with HIV. Find the previously released videos and resources here.

PWN-USA seeks to bring those reached through the PWNCares series into our national network of thousands of women and people of trans experience living with HIV, which hosts six different workgroups with monthly calls on topics from communications to racial justice and healing to policy, a policy fellowship program, six statewide regional chapters and state leads in eight other states, and frequent opportunities to learn and hone skills through in-person and webinar trainings. As part of our newly approved strategic plan, PWN-USA will be increasing our focus on member engagement, including among those who find us through PWNCares, in an effort to make sure women and people of trans experience living with HIV have access to support, training and advocacy opportunities.

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