Twenty-Seven Years of Women Living With HIV: Past, Present and Future

1997. Women account for more than half of HIV cases worldwide. In March, The NAMES Project Foundation presents a month-long online quilt display on its World Wide Web site featuring panels made for women who have died from AIDS, in honor of National Women's History Month. Seventy-five percent of the cases among women are in women of color. Sandra Thurman, former Executive Director of AID Atlanta, is named AIDS Czar. Therapist Penny Chernow starts the first support group in San Francisco for older women with HIV. The National Conference on Women and HIV takes place in Pasadena, CA and chants of "Do Research to Save Women's Lives" echo the conference halls. The Los Angeles Times publishes an article on the conference.

Princess Diana, one of the first public figures to urge compassion for people living with AIDS, dies in an automobile crash. Poet River Huston's book, Portraits of Women Living with HIV, is released. The book's idea was stimulated by River's own HIV diagnosis and the lack of images of women living with HIV in society. Catholic World News reports that Mother Teresa plans to start a new AIDS Ministry in the United States. Her religious order, The Missionaries of Charity, currently run five hospices for persons living with AIDS.