Dear Mr. Perry,
We write as people living with HIV and their allies to express our deep disappointment with your latest film, Temptation. This disappointment is made all the greater because you have done much that can be applauded. Audiences see your plays and films not simply as entertainment, but as opportunities for inspiration, spiritual healing, and unity.
This Mother's Day, Positive Women's Network - USA reclaims and redefines motherhood from our perspective. Stand with us! Sign on and show your support for HIV-positive women on Mother's Day.
"Tyler Perry's Temptation left me emotionally pained, angry and disappointed. Mr. Perry, a brilliant film maker, missed a genuine opportunity for honest and accurate community education around HIV. Instead, Temptation perpetuated HIV sensationalism and stigma. It demonized people living with HIV as irresponsible and portrayed women who acquire HIV as an undesirable, reclusive, sub-species, destined to live out their lives in suffering," commented Waheedah Shabazz-El, a woman living with HIV.
It's not an April Fool's joke!
Today and tomorrow the Kansas Legislature will consider a bill that would expand the authority of state and local health officials to impose isolation or quarantine on people living with HIV and other infectious diseases. But quarantine statutes are designed for dangerous diseases spread through casual contact, thus presenting a danger to overall public health.
Yesterday, March 10th marked National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and March 8th marked International Women's Day. We at the Positive Women's Network USA (PWN-USA) are filled with the simultaneous promise of hope and sadness at lost opportunities.
The U.S. Women and PrEP Working Group, a coalition of more than 50 women from leading AIDS and women's health organizations, today called on US government agencies to coordinate a national agenda that will quickly and accurately answer questions about how the antiretroviral (ARV) drug Truvada can best be made available as an HIV prevention option for women at risk of HIV infection.
This Valentine's Day, Positive Women's Network -- United States of America (PWN-USA) shows our love for women by participating in One Billion Rising's day of action to raise awareness about violence against women and girls.
Updated: Positive Women's Network-United States of America Congratulates the PACHA for passing Criminalization Resolution
In observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Positive Women's Network -- USA (PWN-USA) urges the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) to pass resolution condemning HIV criminalization laws and end the pipeline of unjust incarceration of Black men and women living with HIV in the United States
Inspired by global networks of women living with HIV and supported by leaders in the United States, Positive Women's Network (PWN) was officially founded by 28 diverse women living with HIV in June of 2008. Its purpose was to create a unified voice and building collective power for HIV-positive women across the United States. When PWN was founded it was with the understanding and goal that one day it would transition from WORLD, an organization which provided a structural umbrella for U.S. Positive Women's Network to establish itself as an independent organization, in its own right.
As 2012 ends and 2013 begins, we are thankful for the incredible blessings and abundance this past year has brought.