All Women, All Rights! A Platform for Action for HIV-Positive Women in the U.S. at AIDS 2012

Oakland, Calif. -- In the U.S., 1 out of every 4 people living with HIV is a woman, and HIV-positive women face unique barriers to care.

"The HIV epidemic is amplified by poverty, racism, transphobia, homophobia, and gender-based violence, which together create daunting health disparities for women and girls," says Dee Borrego, a trans woman living with HIV in Boston, MA. As a result, HIV-positive women have higher death rates, higher rates of hospitalization, and experience more than twice as many HIV-related and AIDS‐defining illnesses per person than their male counterparts.

The XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) taking place in Washington, D.C. has the potential to be a turning point in the domestic epidemic for women. The first U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy failed to institutionalize a response for women. The White House Office of AIDS and Department of Health and Human Services have a unique opportunity to lead this response by moving the recently passed Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS' Women and HIV Resolution from words to action.

The U.S. Positive Women's Network has served as a proud community partner of AIDS 2012, and we demand that women's needs are addressed and that HIV stigma is proactively addressed at every level of the HIV response.

At AIDS 2012 and beyond, we demand:

1. Meaningful and visible leadership of women living with HIV,
2. Research on women-controlled prevention options that uphold our sexual and reproductive rights, and
3. Bold action, including a plan and timeline from the White House Office of National AIDS Policy to address the intersections between violence against women, HIV, and women's health outcomes.

Join PWN for a press conference at the AIDS 2012 Media Center Press Conference Room 2 on July 23rd, 2012 at 10am - 10:45am titled From the Shadows -- Women, Sex, HIV, and Violence: A Report on How Trauma Drives the HIV Epidemic. The press conference will feature women living with HIV, Eddy Machtinger, MD, the Principal Investigator of a recently released groundbreaking UCSF trauma study, and federal government officials.

Click here to read PWN's platform for action! For up-to-date info and a calendar of PWN events, visit tinyurl.com/pwncal and follow us on Facebook and twitter (#uspwn).