Dear John,

We say World AIDS Day is every day at Equality Federation and throughout our network because we work on this critical issue year-round. Thanks to your continued support and advocacy, I'm very proud to say this is even more true this year!

As you can imagine, our shared fight against this epidemic is personal for so many of us living with HIV. World AIDS Day is a time to commemorate the loved ones we’ve lost in this fight while honoring the advocacy that keeps so many of us living with HIV alive. 

Over the past year, despite ongoing legislative attempts to strip away LGBTQ+ people’s rights, we helped our state partners tackle difficult public health and HIV policy priorities that are now setting the standard across the nation. I had the honor of working with Freedom Oklahoma, FreeState Justice in Maryland, Silver State Equality in Nevada, Garden State Equality, Equality Ohio, PROMO in Missouri, Fair Wisconsin, Georgia Equality, Save Our Sisters United in Texas, and Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum, to name a few. 

We held trainings. 
We attended conferences. 
We contributed to reports. 
We got the word out there that

Equality Federation prioritizes HIV advocacy work, every day. 

Did you miss any of it? 

• Watch the HIV plenary during our 2023 Leadership Conference in Denver, featuring Harold J. Phillips | White House Office of National AIDS Policy, Jesse Milan Jr. | AIDS United, Atlantis Narcisse | Save Our Sisters United, Robert Suttle & Kamaria Laffrey | Equality Federation HIV Trainings Co-Instructors
• Read TheBody article co-written with Southern AIDS Coalition: Let’s Talk About How HIV Advocacy Prioritizes Just About Everyone Except Black Gay Men with HIV
• Learn more about why we do this work in my AIDSVu Spotlight: Equality Federation on LGBTQ+ Political Activism & HIV Criminalization
• See why we need more resources in Funders Concerned About AIDS publication: Philanthropic Support to Address HIV in 2021 Report featuring FreeState Justice and Fran Hutchins (Regional Profiles - page 101)
• Get up to date on HIV Policy & Advocacy with Equality Federation’s 2023 Workshop Series & Trainings curated by Robert Suttle and Kamaria Laffrey

None of this work would be possible without our partners like the Center for HIV Law & Policy, AIDS United, Sero Project, Williams Institute, Positive Women’s Network, Southern AIDS Coalition, and YOU! But our shared fight against an epidemic that has plagued our community since the 1980s is not over. We still have a lot of work to do in order to continue making history by changing laws that can change lives.

Of the HIV-related bills we tracked in 2023, 90% of them were good bills, the bad news is that nearly 90% of these life-saving bills either died or got stuck in committee. Our network of partners can change this and continue making history, but we can’t do it alone.  

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to another year of working together because we are committed to the end of HIV in all the communities we call home.

Most appreciative,

Mike Webb

Public Health Policy Strategist

Equality Federation

Equality Federation
818 SW 3rd Ave.
141
Portland, OR 97204-2405
United States

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