Spring 2025

Greetings readers,

Since our last newsletter came out, the US has sunk further into fascism. The Trump administration has ushered in a fierce, rapid, and expansive wave of criminalization, state-sanctioned violence, and mass surveillance, particularly for immigrant, BIPOC, and trans communities. This wave coupled with the active dismantling of federal administrative agencies and bodies, such as USAID, HHS, and PACHA, is already having devastating consequences for people living with HIV and people most impacted by HIV.  

• Trans and non-binary people are being attacked through targeted federal and state policies that seek to erase them and further erode their bodily autonomy. 

• Disappearances, detentions, and deportations are on the rise as the Trump administration continues its assault on immigrant communities, particularly student protesters against the genocide in Palestine. ICE detention has been, and continues to be, a deadly place for people living with HIV.

• Trump is using political power to punish perceived enemies, crack down on political speech, and intimidate others from opposing the state, for example, by using masked ICE agents to arrest an elected official. 

• Our federal healthcare infrastructure is being decimated: grants have been slashed and funding for HIV prevention, services, and treatment and Medicaid are in danger of being cut. These cuts will likely reverse progress advocates have made over the last several decades, further entrench stigma in the broader society, and decimate people living with HIV’s ability to access the care that they need. 

• Protections for data privacy are being eroded as Trump’s DOGE seeks to share sensitive personal data across federal agencies in a power move to control, consolidate, and crack down on our personal data.  

The Trump administration’s hateful rhetoric and policies are further emboldening state legislatures across the country to propose and pass anti-abortion, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, anti-democratic bills. 

We at  the HNP Collective not only condemn these attacks, but also call them out for what they are: a symptom of white supremacy, anti-Black racism, transmisia, xenophobia, and homophobia. As our communities continue to be attacked on multiple fronts, we at HNP know that interrupting criminalization, incarceration, and  militarization will be even more important. As advocates for people living with HIV,  we affirm the need for the HIV community to have safe spaces to build community through events like HIV is Not a Crime Training Academy, develop new strategies for resisting fascism and authoritarianism, and creating communities of care.  We at the Collective will continue to keep you informed and block and build in service of the world we deserve.

Sincerely, 

Elena Ferguson 

On Behalf of the HNP Collective