Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton spoke to attendees of the HIV is Not a Crime Training Academy via a pre-recorded video. In the video, she thanked attendees for their hard work and vowed that, if she were to win the Presidential election, she would reform antiquated HIV criminalization laws.

“This issue matters deeply to me,” she began, “and I’ve always tried to do my part in the fight against this epidemic.”

She went on to say that “we’ve come a very long way” since the early days of HIV but that we still “have a long way to go.” She then acknowledged how the disease disproportionately affects “communities of color, transgender people, gay and bisexual men and young people, around the world.”

It was a frank address and demonstrates Clinton’s renewed interest in characterizing herself as a candidate dedicated to eradicating not only HIV itself, but also the negative stigma often associated with the disease.

The address comes a week after she met with leading HIV activists at her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn for a “blunt, heartfelt and productive” conversation. Many believed this meeting was necessary after she embarrassingly, and incorrectly, honored the late Nancy Regan for her “effective, low-key advocacy” that began the national conversation on HIV/AIDS.

Aside from Clinton’s speech, attendees at the HIV Is Not A Crime event enjoyed words from Kerry Thomas, who is currently serving a 30-year sentence for, essentially, having sex while also having HIV. Many in the activist community see in Thomas’ unjust incarceration the perfect justification for reforming HIV criminalization laws.





h/t: HIVPlusMag