Our feelings are valid. Sit with them, name them. We have a wide range of emotions that are then managed by our choices, intentionality, and impact. Our feelings can be what we use as fuel to get through the next four years in protecting our community and sustaining our organizations, pushing back with strategy and substance — without evoking further harm to ourselves or one another. How? We are still grappling with concrete steps as we hear from our most trusted subject matter experts — you.

For one, we are feeling the fear and anxiety and want to encourage you that this is not a time to be reactive to the onslaught of every single tactic that comes out of the White House administration. We know that they are coming for all of us, but we must believe that they won’t succeed and we won’t be quiet about it. It is their goal to keep us trapped in our feelings, being solely reactive and not having the capacity, resources, or clarity on how to strategize and fight back. This is a time to leverage the anger and be responsive to what the community needs, in light of what we’re being threatened with.

This is a time to acknowledge the feeling of defeat but not give in to it. Channel it by taking a moment to assess the bandwidth of your coalitions, networks, organizations, advisory boards, etc. Focus on what you can influence, collaborate with those doing things that you aren’t able to identify capacity for, and be flexible with those who are offering time and energy as a resource. We all have a lane, we all have a role to play — we can only swallow this bitter pill of our crumbling democracy one sip at a time. 

We have to stop playing it safe. We have never been safe. Some of us have been more privileged in our movement than others to identify progress as proximity to safety, but we are a society that repeats history no matter the harm and we have to stop being complicit in that. For people living with HIV, we can look back and find so many similarities in our struggle made more difficult by the lack of support from elected officials. It hasn’t stopped. Our job is not to solely focus on what the government can do for us. They aren’t going to save us. We have to save ourselves.

We must be willing to make sacrifices and peel back the layers of our ego to examine what has kept us rooted in this work. We should ask ourselves what more we can do differently, with a clear intention toward the future we envision and for the people we care about — people who may not share our geographical, racial, or gender identity. Accountability to one another is essential.

Our specific work at Sero Project is through our mission to remain committed to people living with HIV who have experienced criminalization, the threat of criminalization, discrimination, or violence because of their HIV status, and to the networks, coalitions, and stakeholders that make moves and throw down in their various states to change laws.

We are in this with you. Every staff person at Sero is a part of a network or coalition in their home state. Every staff member at Sero is a person living with HIV. We are charged by our history, our ancestors, and our integrity to stay rooted in our dedication to end the criminalization of people living with HIV. The people have always been and will always be our why. Because we are the people. To clarify our commitments as we face the Trump Administration, we want to maintain and align our principles by declaring the following:

  • We are clear that chaos can and will ensue, but chaos is not where we operate from. 

  • We are clear that we will not get through this with criticisms of one another guise as advocacy that offers no accountability or solutions. 

  • We are clear about where our limitations exist as individuals and as an organization.  We do not perpetuate to have all the answers but are immensely committed to working together to find viable responses and solutions together. 

  • We are clear that we don’t concede to slashes to healthcare, denial of recognition to bodily autonomy, removal of environmental crisis resources, and racial or gender equality. We fight. 

  • We are clear that we are fueled by analysis of proven facts and reputable experts, not manufactured truths founded on folly. 

  • We are clear that we are not going to end the HIV epidemic if we don’t hold true to ending the syndemics intertwined within. 

  • We are clear that no human being is illegal. 

  • We are clear that gender identity and gender expression cannot and should not be policed, controlled, or decided by the government. 

  • We are clear that our racial equity and justice lens must extend beyond our comfort zone. 

  • We are clear that we are working together on this, working to provide opportunities for learning along with you on how to proceed in response to specific needs in our communities.

  • We are clear that as one of the founding anchor networks of the US PLHIV Caucus, we will continue to Demand Better for the quality of life for all people living with HIV. 

  • We are clear about the power that resides in each of you. Your gifts, talents, expertise, time, and energy is power. That power is cultivated by taking care of yourselves. Scrolling on social media, leaving your television on at night — especially to rolling news headlines manufactured to make you stressed, keep your mind and body in fight, flight, or freeze mode, never making room for rest. Staying informed does not have to come at the cost of your health, especially now. If you have PTO use it. If you have ten minutes in your day to step outside and stretch your eyes to the sky, do it. If you need a good laugh, try to say “bubbles” in an angry voice. We are in a state of “by any means necessary” but we are clear that it will not be at the detriment of our community. 

As we grapple with being uncomfortable with our perceptions of our realities, Sero has offerings such as healing protections, resources, and spaces to help strategize acts of resistance. 

  • New programmatic format for HIV Is Not a Crime Training Academy and Intersectional Identity Institutes Register today and join us May 31–June 3 in Raleigh, NC at NC State University!

  • Upcoming renewal of Community Conversations, a support and strategy space we host for state coalition members to meet with one another

  • Quarterly HIV Lawyers Decriminalization Network meetings

  • Launching SPJI+ to support PLHIV leaders that have already completed a cohort to sharpen skills and learn strategizing to support their coalition efforts 

  • Increasing our storytelling opportunities through existing programs to uplift the dignity, expertise, and inherent value of our human existence. 

  • Podcast: “Feeling for Liberation in Our Lifetime” by The Embodiment Institute (1 hour)

  • If you have resources, quotes, or affirmations that you want uplifted please share them with us or to our listserv! 

  • And more to come! 

In solidarity, compassion, and care,  

Tami Haught and Kamaria Laffrey

Co-Executive Directors, The Sero Project