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Media Contact: Jennie Smith-Camejo, jennie@votepositiveusa.org, 415.756.8754

Vote Positive USA Leverages the Voting and Activist Power of the HIV Community to Impact the 2020 Election

Teams led by women and trans people living with HIV are mobilizing hundreds of thousands of voters in crucial battleground states around key issues

People living with and affected by HIV have a long, storied history of grassroots activism, advocacy and policy wins that is perhaps best summed up by the famous ACT UP slogan: “Silence=Death.” Research, treatment access, and rights to health care are not just a wish list for people diagnosed with HIV. They are literally life and death—a fight for survival. In 2020, HIV organizing power is being leveraged to get out the vote. 

“Health care; reproductive rights; basic safety and dignity for Black people, immigrants, people of color, LGB and trans people—these are all on the ballot,” explained Naina Khanna, director of Vote Positive USA, a new 501(c)(4) organization that is harnessing the organizing skills, passion, and dedication of people living with HIV and translating them into results at the polls. “We were really clear that it’s no longer enough just to talk about the Ryan White program, ADAP, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. When our elected leaders and enacted policies actively dismantle human rights, these programs are like band aids on bullet holes. We demand and will fight for leadership that fundamentally believes our communities are precious, that understands that health care, housing, water and food are human rights, that believes in science and respects our agency to make decisions about our reproductive futures.”

Vote Positive USA (VPU), formed in the fall of 2019, has kicked into high gear over the past few months, training teams of women and trans folks living with HIV on electoral organizing skills. Those teams have been working on registering and educating voters, organizing their communities, persuading voters on crucial issues on their ballots, and mobilizing voters to cast their ballots on time and make sure they count.

VPU has been particularly active in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas, and Georgia—all battleground states with high stakes that go beyond the presidential race. VPU teams in those states have recruited dozens of volunteers to text and call voters with critical information about what’s on their ballots and how they can make sure their votes count.

VPU organizers have reached more than 100,000 Philadelphia voters about the importance of voting yes on Question 1—a local ballot measure that calls on the Philadelphia Police Department to end illegal stop and frisk. Black Philadelphians are over 50% more likely to be stopped by police without reasonable suspicion. The importance of Question 1 has been brought into sharp relief by the murder of Walter Wallace at the hands of Philadelphia police this week.

“This is one issue that concerns communities, not only in Philadelphia, but across America, where Black people’s civil rights are violated because an officer decides to exert the power of the badge to intimate, shame and degrade,” explained Andrea Johnson, a VPU Pennsylvania organizer. “This illegal practice only creates more violence and distrust between communities of color and the police.”

“In Philly, our community is bleeding out with mistrust, and rightly so,” added Teresa Sullivan, a VPU Pennsylvania leader. “Many of the voters we’ve spoken to didn’t even know ending illegal stop and frisk was on their ballot. We’re making sure that people in support get out and vote, and we’re having tough conversations with people who mistakenly believe that stop and frisk makes our communities safer.”

VPU Pennsylvania is also doing a lot of work to educate community members about how to vote safely in a pandemic, including utilizing mail in ballots and taking advantage of in-person early voting, which ended this past Tuesday.

In Colorado, a proposition that would ban abortions later in pregnancy without exceptions is polling neck and neck. Prop 115 is the fourth abortion ban to make it to the Colorado ballot in 12 years. VPU Colorado has mobilized more than 40 consistent phone and text bankers to talk to voters about the importance of safe, legal, unrestricted abortion. VPU Colorado has also been working in support of Prop 118, which would expand paid family medical leave in the state. At the time of writing, they had canvassed more than 50,000 Coloradans and identified nearly 10,000 supporters.  

“Talking about abortion with total strangers over the phone is hard, I won’t lie,” said Shannon Robinson, a VPU Colorado leader from Grand Junction. “These are really tough conversations. But there’s just too much at stake to sit back and hope for the best. Colorado is one of the last states in the country that fully grants bodily autonomy and choice to pregnant people, and people come from other surrounding, more restrictive states for that reason as well. If Prop 115 passes, it will be a devastating blow to abortion rights, not just for Coloradans but for Americans.”

In Houston, VPU H-Town Power leaders have been organizing to register new voters, call and text out critical information about early voting and voters’ rights, and make sure that people waiting in line at the polls have food, water and other accommodations, such as chairs, to stay in lines and make their voices heard despite voter suppression efforts. A collaboration with Houston in Action has given them resources and assistance in getting as many Texas voters from low-income communities to the polls as possible. To date, they have reached over 100,000 Houston voters, including texting over 20,000 to get out the vote.

“We are also proud of working the polls, handing out snacks and water to voters standing in line to cast their vote,” said Tana Pradia, a VPU H-Town Power leader. “Our team would have never thought we could reach so many voters here in Harris County.”

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