HIV Is Not a Crime Awareness Day, celebrated on February 28, brings together community members and organizations to stand in unity against the harms and violence caused by HIV criminalization. Black and brown communities, especially Black and trans women, are disproportionately targeted by HIV criminalization laws.
As part of the movement to end the HIV epidemic and associated criminalization and stigma, our team at ChangeLab Solutions has been helping to create tools and resources and facilitate state-level training programs to help states reform outdated criminalization laws and policies. Today, we invite you to participate in HIV Is Not a Crime Awareness Day in three ways:
LISTEN to the Public Health Review Morning Edition newscast with ChangeLab Solutions’ vice president of external affairs Iyanrick John and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials’ (ASTHO) host Robert Johnson. In a few minutes, they explore key issues related to HIV criminalization as well as strategies that state health departments are using to modernize outdated and harmful HIV-related laws.
READ the new blog post on HIV.gov, Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. Requires States to Update Outdated HIV Criminalization Laws, which highlights the origin of HIV Is Not a Crime Awareness Day. It features ChangeLab Solutions’ work — which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and done in partnership with ASTHO and the Network for Public Health Law — to facilitate modernization and reform of HIV criminalization laws.
ACT by using CDC’s HIV Criminalization Legal and Policy Assessment Tool, which was created in collaboration with ChangeLab Solutions. This tool is designed to help state decision makers assess how HIV-related laws and policies in their jurisdiction — including HIV criminalization laws — may inhibit or advance health equity. Specifically, the tool can help decision makers identify opportunities to strengthen legal and policy protections for people with HIV by aligning laws and policies with evidence-based best practices.
Thank you for helping to raise awareness that HIV is not a crime!
2/28/2024
