HIV Working Group to Discuss Medical Marijuana

The next meeting of The DC Center's HIV Working Group takes place Wednesday January 20th at 7:00 PM at the new location of The DC Center, 1810 14th St, NW. This months meeting will include a presentation and discussion on medical marijuana, HIV/AIDS, and the District of Columbia.

Wayne Turner will be our guest speaker. Wayne Turner spearheaded a referendum on medical marijuana in DC more than a decade ago. The measure was approved by DC voters, but Congress put on a rider, prohibiting the city from implementing the law, and renewed that rider every year -- until this current budget year. With the federal restrictions gone, Wayne will discuss why medical marijuana is an important issue to people living with HIV/AIDS in the District, and how this issue may move forward.

  

POZ Party Featured on WAMU

WAMU has a story up on the weekly POZ Party at Motley Bar.

Its called POZ: thats P-O-Z. Its creator, a party promoter named Jacob Pring, has himself been POZ for six years, and says dating can be difficult once guys learn you have HIV. He has a boyfriend now, but he says "over the course of six years, I've been turned down like 20 times because of the issue of being HIV [positive]," says Pring.

Pring says he aims to erase the stigma of being HIV- positive by giving POZ guys a chance to mingle and be themselves. Or as one regular attendee, David, puts it: "basically, to meet other people who are positive without having to worry about the whole disclosure thing that you normally have to when you're at a bar."

In fact, even POZ's DJs are POZ. Though negative folks are welcome too, like Cale Shah, a bartender who says he finds the mixer downright inspiring.

"Everyone's having a good time," says Shah. "They have a better outlook on life, and it rubs off on you."

read or here the story online at WAMU

CAVE Meeting and Protocol Review January 13th

The next CAVE meeting will take place January 13th at 6:30 PM at the DC Center, 1810 14th St, NW. Our meetings normally take place the second Wednesday of each month.

One of the roles of CAVE is to review protocols for new HIV vaccine studies and to provide input to the researchers from a community perspective.  We will be reviewing a protocol for the Military HIV Working Group in January.  If you've never done anything like this, don't worry.  The meeting will include an overview of how to review protocols.

CAVE is the community advisory board for the Vaccine Research Center and the US Military HIV Research Program. Capital Area Vaccine Effort is a volunteer panel of individuals from the general public and from the diverse communities affected by AIDS. CAVE is organized to assist and advise AIDS vaccine trials in the metropolitan DC area.  For more information visit www.aidsvaccine.org.

Save-the-Date for NMAC’s December Stakeholder Call

Thursday, December 10th at 1:00 PM (Eastern)/10:00 AM (Pacific)

Save the date for the National Minority AIDS Council’s (NMAC’s) December Stakeholder Call on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. EST/ 10:00 AM Pacific, featuring guest speaker Jeff Crowley the Director of National AIDS Policy at the White House http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/onap/staff/crowley. The call in number is 1-605-475-6333; code: 481162. You may e-mail your questions to info@nmac.org or send them through Twitter: http://twitter.com/NMACCommunity

Due to the large number of participants expected, the call will be a dialogue between Jeff and myself. We’ve asked Jeff to update us on the National AIDS Strategy.

>From 2000-2009, Jeff was a Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute and a Senior Scholar at the University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. His primary areas of focus involved Medicaid and Medicare policy issues as they impact people with disabilities and chronic conditions, including people with HIV/AIDS. Prior to this, he served as the Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), overseeing the organization’s public education, community development, and training activities. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in Swaziland from 1989-1991, and is a member of the National Academy for Social Insurance (NASI).

Mr. Crowley holds a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kalamazoo College.

The call will be limited to the first 200 participants. I am so sorry that we ran out of space last time. The call will be recorded and podcast on NMAC’s web site at a later date.

Facing AIDS: World AIDS Day 2009

This World AIDS Day, www.aids.gov invited folks from around the country to upload pictures of themselves and share how they are facing AIDS.

You can view the responses of DC residents here: Facing AIDS: Washington DC Flickr Photos.

You can view the picture responses from across the country here: Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day.

Thanks to everyone who came out and made World AIDS Day a success this year.

DC World AIDS Day 2009

Today is World AIDS Day. Below is some of the many events happening across the city. For those on twitter, please mark World AIDS Day by telling us what you are doing to Fight HIV in DC at: #fighthivindc. Flickr uses are encouraged to upload pictures of their events to our Fight HIV in DC Flickr Group Page. You can also post information about your World AIDS Day Events on the Fight HIV in DC Facebook Page.

DC World AIDS Day Breakfast: Keeping the Promise, Investing in the Future: Linking HIV/AIDS, Food Security, and Maternal and Child Health: find out more about this event

DC World AIDS Day Lunch: HIV Vaccine Research: A New Chapter (with Dr. Tony Fauci, NIH) more information about this event.

DC World AIDS Day Protest: DC Fights Back 'Systems Failure' World AIDS Day March/Rally: more information about this event.

DC World AIDS Day Reception: Our Heroes Photo Exhibit: more information about this event.

DC World AIDS Day Volunteer Opportunity: Packing Party at Motley Bar: more information about this event.

DC World AIDS Day After Party: Poz Guys & their Allies are invited to come out to the next POZ Party at Motley Bar (every tuesday at 9:00 PM). more information about this event.

If I missed your event please add it by adding a comment to this post.