February 5, 2021: As another National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day rolls around this Sunday, February 7, our inboxes will be inundated with well-meaning emails from HIV organizations and agencies highlighting, again, the racial disparities in HIV acquisition and health outcomes. Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN) wants to use this awareness day to elevate and pay homage to the countless Black heroes—and especially sheroes—who are the very backbone of the HIV movement; who have been fighting tirelessly against stigma, discrimination, and oppression since the beginning of the epidemic despite being paid less (or nothing) and far too often denied the recognition they so richly deserve.

We are thrilled by efforts like the Racial Justice Index, announced today by the AIDS United Public Policy Council, made up of 55 of the nation’s leading HIV organizations. The Index’s mission is to assess and improve the HIV sector’s commitment to racial equity by creating assessment tools and resources to combat anti-Black racism and other forms of racism that will first be analyzed in PPC organizations and then the HIV sector. This includes hiring practices, leadership, talent retention and decision-making in the HIV movement.

The Racial Justice Index Committee, chaired by Raniyah Copeland of Black AIDS Institute and A. Toni Young of the Community Education Group—both powerful Black woman HIV community leaders—committee includes HIV service and advocacy organizations from across the country. The work of the Racial Justice Index will first assess how leadership in the HIV movement reflects the communities most impacted and will later aim to provide training and capacity building to root out white supremacy in HIV organizations’ work.  

While this critical work gets underway, PWN invites everyone in the HIV community—those living with HIV, those affected by HIV, organizations and individuals serving people living with HIV or working in HIV prevention—to join us in dedicating this and every March 12 to celebrating and honoring the accomplishments of Black women to the HIV movement. While PWN is a multiracial membership organization, roughly 70% of our members are Black and have fought for the rights of immigrants, sex workers, and people who use drugs, as well as advocating fiercely for changes and protections that improve the lives of all people living with and vulnerable to HIV, like access to care, reproductive rights, ending HIV criminalization. We urge in particular organizations that serve people living with HIV to sign on to commit to participate in our inaugural Celebrate and Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement Day this March.

We stand on the shoulders of movement pioneers like Katrina Haslip, whose tireless advocacy and community mobilization were instrumental in pushing the CDC to broaden its surveillance definition of AIDS to include conditions affecting women in 1992. Black women living with and affected by HIV have been here, taking care of each other and our communities and battling for our dignity and human rights, since HIV was known as gay-related immunodeficiency (GRID). The history and current state of HIV activism have largely been whitewashed in pop culture and media.

PWN is ready to change the narrative. Through Celebrate and Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement Day, we will elevate, uplift, thank, and celebrate not just the leaders out front, but the many Black women working as prevention specialists, peer navigators, testing counselors, and other roles where far too often their expertise and lived experience are not recognized in meaningful ways. This is a day that has been a long time coming and that has arguably never been needed—or deserved—more. Please sign on to commit to taking action to celebrate and honor Black women in the HIV movement with us.

Below, you will find a schedule of events leading up to and on Celebrate and Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement Day. Please join us, participate, and help spread the word!

Celebrate & Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement Schedule of Events

Twitter Chat
February 10, 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11 am PT

Join PWN, Black AIDS Institute, Beam, SisterSong, and Transgender Law Center for a special Twitter chat in honor of #NBHAAD & #CelebrateBlackWomen to talk about how we can make sure Black women in the #HIV movement get the credit they are due.

Celebrate Black Women’s Talent Facebook Live
February 18, 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT 

Join the PWN Black staff for a special Facebook Live where artists get to showcase their talents through various forms of artistry. What will we see? It could be interpretative dance, spoken word, music, and so much more. Just head over to PWN’s Facebook page at 5pm EST on February 18 to check it out!

ClubHouse How #CelebrateBlackWomen Came to Be
February 24, 4pm ET/3pm CT/2pm MT/1pm PT

If you are on ClubHouse, follow our National Field Organizer, Evany Turk. She will invite you to the room. 

Celebrate and Honor Black Women Art Contest
Deadline to Enter February 28 

Are you a Black woman or person of trans experience living with HIV or involved in the HIV community? Get your creative juices flowing and enter an original piece of artwork for PWN’s inaugural Celebrate & Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement Art Contest!Your artwork should reflect your vision of what it means to you to celebrate and honor Black women in the HIV movement.

There will be three winners who will receive gift cards that can be used like cash anywhere that accepts credit cards.

Learn more and submit your artwork here!

#CelebrateBlackWomen Twitter Storm
March 12, 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT

Join PWN and our partners for an hour as we take Twitter by storm. As we get closer, we will send out a social media toolkit to our partners with tweets and graphics to be used during that hour-window. 

#CelebrateBlackWomen Town Hall
March 12, 2pm ET/1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT

Join PWN and other Black women leaders in the HIV movement for discussion about what it means to honor, celebrate, protect, respect, and pay Black women–as well as some entertainment!
Register here!