People Living with HIV need to be meaningfully involved in the federal government's HIV/AIDS strategy

Our communities and our work were tested in 2021. But faced with a year of loss and challenges, we supported one another and made huge strides together. This year, we have some big resolutions we demand to see the federal government meet in its newly released National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) as it begins implementing this 5-year plan to address HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

For 2022, we resolve to continue pushing for a federal HIV/AIDS strategy that goes beyond biomedical interventions. We know our “health” is measured beyond simply viral loads or suppression. Instead, we need a strategy that understands how racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia operate, and how criminalization and capitalism compromise our quality of life, our safety, our access to quality healthcare, and our rights to sexual pleasure and reproductive justice.

This year, we demand the federal government’s HIV/AIDS strategies make these 5 resolutions a reality:

1. End molecular HIV surveillance (MHS), an invasive and non-consensual strategy currently used by the government, from the local to federal level

2. Include the US People Living with HIV (PLHIV) Caucus in the NHAS’s creation of its Quality of Life indicator

3. Meaningfully involve people living with HIV by designating seats for representatives the US PLHIV Caucus on the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) and other federal advisory bodies

4. Commit to supporting the whole spectrum of sexual and reproductive rights of people living with HIV

5. Commit to decriminalizing HIV so people living with HIV can live free from institutional stigma and discrimination

With these resolutions, we’re asking the federal government to commit to supporting people living with HIV in the ways we need. While we know 2022 will come with its own set of challenges, we continue to demand better because we deserve better.