WASHINGTON DC - Legal experts, medical providers, and AIDS activists will hold a press conference Wednesday on the case of several HIV+ people and activists who were arrested in April outside Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office at a demonstration against Republican cuts to AIDS funding and ban on syringe exchange funding in the District of Columbia.   The activists were arrested the same day as Mayor Gray and Council Chairman Brown—who were protesting the same Republican budget “riders” that hurt District residents and sovereignty.

But unlike the Mayor and Chairman, who were released on a $50 fine, these activists are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office, threatened with 6 months in jail, and a criminal record. The press conference will document failures of the US attorney’s office to follow through on promises in the case and the failure of the US Attorney’s current policy of drug-testing people engaged in no-violent acts of civil disobedience.

WHEN: Wednesday February 8, 2012  /  12:00pm NOON

WHERE: Steps of the Wilson Building

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20001

WHO:             

Daniel Brito, Government Relations, Drug Policy Alliance

TBD, National Lawyers Guild

Christine Campbell, DC Fights Back & DC Community Coalition

Charles King, President, Housing Works

Antonio Davis, AIDS activist being prosecuted, ACT UP Philadelphia

Matthew Kavanagh, AIDS activist being prosecuted, DC Fights Back & Health GAP

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The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation’s leading organization promoting alternatives to current drug policy that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. Board includes prominent figures from both the left and the right who are renowned for their leadership in the fields of business, law, medicine, media and politics– from Sting, Russell Simmons and Arianna Huffington to the former U.S. secretary of state, secretary of defense, surgeon general, attorney general, and chairman of the Federal Reserve. 

Housing Works is the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the United States, as well as the nation’s largest minority-controlled AIDS service organization providing lifesaving services such as housing, primary medical care, job training, and legal help, to more than 20,000 homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.

The National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and most extensive network of public interest and human rights lawyers working within the legal system that for 75 years has represented progressive political movements using the law to protect human rights and to attain social justice. 

DC Fights Back: DCFB is an all-volunteer community-based network of people living with HIV and their allies in the Washington, DC area who fight for the medical, social, and economic needs of people living with HIV.

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) Philadelphia is a group of individuals united in anger and committed to ending the AIDS crisis through direct action. They are led by people with HIV and people of color who’s communities are most impacted by the HIV epidemic. 

Health GAP (Global Access Project) is an AIDS activist group that campaigns to eliminate barriers to global access to affordable life-sustaining medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The newest queer student group on Penn’s campus is the LGBT Colors Project.

“The LGBT Colors Project will be a publication that gives queer people of color a voice at the University of Pennsylvania.  The publication will be the first LGBT publication on Penn’s campus as well as the first publication dedicated to the interests of queer people of color in the Ivy League. The LGBT Colors Project will publish articles, essays, poems, fiction, and interviews to provide visibility and support to the diverse and talented queer students of color at Penn. Beginning in the fall of 2011, the publication will publish twice an academic year in the fall and spring semesters.”

Their deadline for submissions is November 13. Submit your piece to lgbtcolors@gmail.com with your name; if you prefer not to have your name published, they will honor your request.