OTI Newsletter – December 1, 2011

OTI Newsletter – December 1, 2011

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day.

People around the world will spend today spreading awareness, honoring those whose lives have been lost, and celebrating victories in the battle against the spread of AIDS.

But for people living with HIV and AIDS, activists, and their loved ones, this isn’t just a conversation that happens once a year. In honor of the activists who have devoted their lives to this cause, On The Issues Magazine is taking a look at the activist work of HIV-positive women with a new Cafe piece by Alison Yager of the HIV Law Project:

“Since the 1990s, HIV Law Project has invested agency time and resources in training HIV-positive women in basic advocacy skills. We made this commitment early on because we understood that while outspoken AIDS activists at that time were a potent and effective force, too few women’s voices were among them. Women living with HIV, who often come from marginalized, low-income communities, turned up in large numbers when we offered the opportunity to give voice to their frustrations, and to learn collectively how to channel those frustrations into action.

In 2006 HIV Law Project went one step further. We decided to build on our work of cultivating women activists by inviting a group of alumnae of our training program to develop a new advocacy campaign. We believed that giving women the opportunity to grow an advocacy campaign would be the most authentic way to build skills and develop life-long leaders. “

Click here to continue reading World AIDS Day: Honoring Women HIV Activists Making Sex-Ed Real


Deepening the conversation with more insights fresh from The Café

Echoing at “Occupy”: The Women Behind Social Security by Carolyn Gage
My Feminist Action: Locating Sex in Sexual Harassment and Rape by Kathleen Barry
Stopping Police and DAs from Using Condoms to Convict Sex Workers by Crystal DeBoise

On The Frontline of Intimate Wars

The internet is buzzing about the upcoming release of Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Board Room by Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Merl Hoffman.

Check out Ten Questions for Merle Hoffman on Abortion Gang, and this podcast on RH Reality Check with Merle and Amanda Marcotte.

The upcoming winter edition of On The Issues Magazine will be a major, comprehensive issue on abortion. Stay tuned for updates!

Also don’t forget to keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook for daily feminist news and analysis, and stop by The Café for engaging conversation On The Issues that matter!

Thanks for reading!

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Merle Hoffman's Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto

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“Merle Hoffman has always known that in a democracy, we each have decision-making power over the fate of our own bodies. She is a national hero for us all.” —Gloria Steinem

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade and a country divided, Merle Hoffman, a pioneer in the pro-choice movement and women’s healthcare, offers an unapologetic and authoritative take on abortion calling it “the front line and the bottom line of women’s freedom and liberty.” 

Merle Hoffman has been at the forefront of the reproductive freedom movement since the 1970s. Three years before the Supreme Court legalized abortion through Roe v. Wade, she helped to establish one of the United States’ first abortion centers in Flushing, Queens, and later went on to found Choices, one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive women’s medical facilities. For the last five decades, Hoffman has been a steadfast warrior and fierce advocate for every woman’s right to choose when and whether or not to be a mother.