Women’s Inclusion
Women’s Inclusion into the Definition of AIDS
In 1993, after much activism—jump-started by black women living with HIV, in jail—the U.S. Center for Disease Control updated the definition of AIDS to include illnesses experienced by people who do drugs, people of color, women, and people who are all three. Before then, many people with HIV were unable to get an AIDS diagnosis, robbing them of treatment and resources. Women with HIV were struggling with housing, malnutrition, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, and having their children taken away.
Katrina Haslip was a foundational activist in the definition’s change. As a jailhouse lawyer at Bedford Hills, she organized with others (on the inside and out), including lawyer Terry McGovern. Together, they launched a class action lawsuit against the Social Security Administration, which was inappropriately using the faulty CDC definition to deny resources to people living with HIV without an AIDS diagnosis.
Watch: Katrina Haslip on Video
Unknown. Chants. "1. WOMEN DIE, THEY DO NOTHING," c.early 1990s. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
The Women's Caucus of ACT UP/LA. Flyer. "Week of Outrage (Phone Zap)," 1990. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
ACT UP/LA. Flyer. “Week of Outrage (safe sex vending and the dance of death),” 1990. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
California Coalition for Women Prisoners. Newsletter. "The Fire Inside," Issue Number 45, Fall 2011. www.womenprisoners.org Accessed February 2021.
Catherine (Saalfield) Gund and Debra Levine. "Katrina Haslip, the vibrantly inspiring AIDS activist leader." Still from video, I'm You, You're Me: Women Surviving Prison, Living with AIDS, 1992. Used with permission from artists.
The Women's Caucus of ACT UP/LA . Stickers. "If you get a lot of yeast infections," c.1990. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
ACT UP/LA. Flyer. "ACT UP LA DEMANDS for Women," c.early 1990s. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
ACT UP. Flyer. "AIDS Guerrilla Teach-In," c.early 1990s. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
ACT UP. Flyer. "Positively Lesbian...," 1993. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
The ACT UP Women's Caucus, ACT UP/SF. Graphic. " WOMEN BREAK THROUGH...," c.early 1990s. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
Safer Sex Sirens, OUT!/DC. Pamphlet. “Woman-to Woman,” c.early 1990s. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
ACT UP Network. Flyer. "WOMEN DON'T HAVE AIDS THEY JUST DIE FROM IT," 1990. Judy Sisneros ACT UP/Los Angeles Records, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.