Center for HIV Law & Policy

06/05/2026

Who pays the price when policy decisions put our health and survival at risk?

Repping CHLP's , Jada Hicks joined fellow advocates and partner organizations at The Cost of Survival Rally at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

The action featured a giant receipt to illustrate the true cost of the $1 trillion in cuts to healthcare that take effect later this year, speakers (pictured are Carl Baloney and Joseph White from AIDS United), and handmade panels from the quilt. The message? Health cuts kill, and we will not let our community pay the price.

AIDS United organized the event, held in partnership with the Seven Days in June: Health is Primary campaign, a national call to elevate health as a governing priority.

06/05/2026

Coming up this Monday!

🌟 The South is rising! Join the Southern HIV Impact Fund for our Summer Webinar Series!

Our first session on June 9th at 2 PM ET features advocates from across the Deep South who are connecting the dots between democracy and health equity. Moderated by Maximillian Boykin, panelists Linda M. Dixon, Evany Turk, and Jada Hicks will share how they're fighting back against attacks on voting rights, Medicaid, federal HIV funding, and Project 2025 in Black, Brown, and marginalized communities.

Come ready to connect the dots and leave with tools to act. Be part of the movement!

Register for the webinar at bit.ly/SHIF-SWS1 or join us LIVE on YouTube or Facebook!

06/03/2026

It’s the Pride edition of What’s Happening!

LGBTQ+ communities have long understood what’s at stake when governments, healthcare systems, and law enforcement gain power over our bodies and personal information. In this 45th year of the HIV epidemic, we face new threats to many of the same principles HIV advocates fought to protect for decades. Pride in Privacy means whether it's HIV care, PrEP, gender-affirming or reproductive healthcare, our bodies and our health information belong to us. Read more and sign the HIV BASIC Consensus Statement. Read more at hivlawandpolicy.org/basic

Today CHLP's Jada Hicks joins fellow advocates and partner organizations at The Cost of Survival Rally at the U.S. Capitol. The event will highlight the deep connections between HIV advocacy, healthcare affordability, housing, food access, and economic stability. Hosted by AIDS United, the rally is held in partnership with the Seven Days in June National Week of Action. More at sevendaysinjune.org

Beyond Do No Harm will feature stories from CHLP at two Pride month events. When Healing Becomes Resistance: Interrupting HIV Criminalization, as told by CHLP’s Jada Hicks and Tennessee advocate Lashanda Salinas, will be discussed at Resistance Lab on June 8, and Storytelling Media Project on Monday, June 29. Sign up at hivlawandpolicy.org/events

Plus: In a significant step toward ending HIV criminalization in Louisiana, new legislation limits prosecutions to conduct that poses a “substantial likelihood of transmission” and creates new protections for people living with HIV. CHLP supported the years-long advocacy work of the Louisiana Coalition on Criminalization and Health, which laid the groundwork for these reforms. Read more at hivlawandpolicy.org/news

And coming up in July, CHLP's Jada Hicks and Sean McCormick will be participating in a full day of HIV-focused programming at the annual Lavender Law conference in Chicago. Presented by CHLP and partners, this programming is designed for HIV advocates to reconnect, learn from one another’s work, and engage on emerging legal and policy issues. Read more at hivlawandpolicy.org/events

Read it online: https://mailchi.mp/9a9e3e2e86c5/whats-happening-this-week-at-chlp-17478089

06/02/2026

Years of advocacy have paved the way for historic reform as Louisiana takes a significant step toward ending HIV criminalization. Legislation signed by the governor narrows the state's HIV exposure law by limiting prosecutions to conduct that poses a substantial likelihood of transmission.

The passage of this reform measure is the result of grassroots-driven advocacy and collaboration. CHLP’s Positive Justice Project has long worked with the Louisiana Coalition on Criminalization (LCCH), the group leading the state’s decriminalization work.

“These reforms represent an important step towards eliminating the threat of HIV criminalization, but decriminalization efforts in Louisiana will continue,” said Sean McCormick, CHLP Staff Attorney. “CHLP will remain a steadfast partner in implementing these reforms and pushing for additional changes to punitive laws targeting PLHIV in Louisiana.”

While HB808 significantly narrows the law's reach, HIV exposure remains criminalized in Louisiana. Advocates view the legislation as an important step toward full repeal and will continue working to eliminate laws that single out PLHIV for criminal penalties.

For info at hivlawandpolicy.org/news or https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/news/louisiana-enacts-landmark-reform-hiv-exposure-law

06/01/2026

Pride has always been about more than visibility. LGBTQ+ communities have long understood what’s at stake when governments, healthcare systems, and law enforcement gain power over our bodies and our personal information.

And in this 45th year of the AIDS epidemic, when gender-affirming care, health data, bodily autonomy, and the human dignity of q***r and trans people are under attack, we are facing new threats to many of the same principles HIV advocates have fought to protect for decades.

HIV BASIC (Bodily Autonomy, Surveillance, and Informed Consent) brings these struggles together under a shared vision: people should be able to make decisions about their bodies and healthcare free from coercion, criminalization, surveillance, and stigma.

That’s why we believe in Pride in Privacy, because whether it's HIV care, PrEP, gender-affirming care, or reproductive healthcare, our bodies and our health information belong to us.

This Pride Month, join us in defending the right that we all have to privacy, dignity, and the freedom to live as our full selves.

Join CHLP, Positive Women's Network - USA, The SERO Project, Transgender Law Center, HIV Justice Network, and 300+ individuals and organizations in signing the HIV BASIC Consensus Statement today at https://tinyurl.com/hiv-basic

05/20/2026

CHLP’s S. Mandisa Moore-O’Neal explains what we mean when we say abolition.

When we say abolition, we’re talking about a living political framework, a viable organizing strategy, and something that we practice every day. Abolition demands that we get rid of the interlocking systems of prisons and policing known as the prison-industrial complex, but also the conditions that create the need for these systems.

As part of our recently completed strategic planning process, CHLP developed this and other shared definitions for terms that deepen collective understanding of our work. These definitions help anchor reflection and assessment as our work unfolds within an ever-changing terrain. Check out CHLP’s justice and liberation glossary at https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/glossary

05/19/2026

In the Trump/MAGA government's list of HIV/AIDS awareness days, National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NAPIHAAD) has been erased. We observe this day under protest because we refuse to let the erasure, scapegoating, and marginalization of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities extend into the HIV response.

This erasure echoes a long history of exclusionary immigration policies, medical racism, and systemic underinvestment that has left many API communities underserved and overlooked in healthcare and public health systems.

– We will still name the realities of HIV in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, including the barriers to culturally responsive prevention, testing, treatment, language access, and care.

– We will still challenge HIV criminalization, surveillance, and data practices that fuel stigma, racial profiling, and the policing of immigrant and marginalized communities.

– We will still fight the structural inequities, medical racism, and chronic underfunding that deny many API communities the resources and healthcare they deserve.

We have the power and an obligation to resist systems that depend on invisibility and exclusion. It is still National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

05/11/2026

CHLP Public Health and Advocacy Strategist Kytara Epps will be presenting at the HIV & Infant Feeding Symposium, a Continuing Medical Education (CME) organized by the University of California Law San Francisco/UCSF Consortium. The event will be held on Zoom on Thursday, May 14, from 9am-1pm PT/noon-4pm ET.

This half-day online symposium provides information about supporting women and birthing people with HIV in their infant feeding journey. Speakers will share updates on data and guidelines regarding breast/chestfeeding for people with HIV, discuss the nuances of shared decision-making and the practicalities of guideline implementation across different settings, and provide materials that participants can use to advance informed free choice in infant feeding decisions, combat stigma, empower pregnant and lactating people with HIV, and change culture and policy in their institution.

More info at https://www.uclawsf.edu/event/infant-feeding-hiv/

05/06/2026

How it started: In March, the HIV BASIC Coalition, led by CHLP, Positive Women's Network - USA, The SERO Project, Transgender Law Center, and the HIV Justice Network, started building a broad-based coalition grounded in shared values to demand that public health respect the privacy, consent, and bodily autonomy of people living with HIV.

How it’s going: Today, 160+ organizations and 190+ individuals have signed The Consensus Statement on HIV BASIC to stand up for these principles. They represent the minimum standards for a just HIV response that addresses our crumbling public health environment, rising inequality, unacceptable health inequities, and escalating state violence.

And we’re not done yet. Join these orgs and individuals and sign the statement today at https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/resources/consensus-statement-hiv-bodily-autonomy-surveillance-and-informed-consent-basic-chlp-et

Endorsing organizations (join this list in formation):
Advocates for Trans Equality
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
BREHA Collective
Black South Rising
Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation
Desiree Alliance
Drug Policy Alliance
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Equality California
Equality New Mexico
Equality Ohio
Equitas Health
Freedom Oklahoma
FreeState Justice
GLMA
If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice
Lambda Legal
Legal Action Center
Mpact Global
NASTAD
National Black Justice Collective
National Harm Reduction Coalition
NMAC
NOW
Restorative Action Alliance
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
SIECUS
Silver State Equality
Southern AIDS Coalition
Trans Equity Consulting
Triad Health Project
The U.S. PLHIV Caucus
The Well Project
Woodhull Freedom Foundation

05/04/2026

CHLP’s Kytara Epps explains what we mean when we say: patriarchal violence.

When we say patriarchal violence, we’re talking about the systematic cultural and interpersonal forces that discriminate, harm, and oppress women, girls, and trans and gender non-conforming people. Patriarchal violence upholds and enacts the patriarchy to position men above gender and sexual minorities in a sex-based hierarchy. It intersects with other forms of oppression, such as racism and classism, to disproportionately affect people of color and poor people.

As part of our recently completed strategic planning process, CHLP developed this and other shared definitions for terms that deepen collective understanding of our work. These definitions help anchor reflection and assessment as our work unfolds within an ever-changing terrain. Check out CHLP’s justice and liberation glossary at https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/glossary