D.C.'s Women to Face Sex in This City (7/13/07)

Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is sounding the call for D.C. women to attend “Sex in the City, a Women’s Town Hall Meeting on HIV/AIDS, STDs, Relationships, and Today’s Woman,” Monday, July 16, from 6:30 – 8:30 PM in the Pavilion of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (13^th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW). Jeannie Jones, 93.9 WKYS FM radio personality, will lead a frank discussion not only about why D.C.’s HIV/AIDS rate is so high and about sexually transmitted diseases. The Women’s Town Hall Meeting will seek to bring out of the shadows issues that stand in the way of stronger, trusting relationships today: homophobia, superstition, denial about sexually transmitted diseases, deceit in relationships, multiple partners and unsafe sex, suspicions about “the down-low,” the decline in marriage and its effects on children, and similar issues talked about in whispers but seldom in public discussion. Jones will spark conversation from the audience, but Norton is telling women, “The only featured guests will be you. There is no ‘program,’ no experts, just women talking to women about taking their lives and their futures into their own hands.” Because the HIV/AIDS epidemic has different and sometimes unique effects by sex and age, the town meetings involve the three population groups most seriously implicated – men, women, and teens, ending with an all-city HIV/AIDS town hall meeting to eliminate the epidemic. This is the third in a series of community meetings Norton is holding to emphasize safe sex, testing, and knowing your status to bring down the city’s AIDS rate, the highest in the country. She held a standing room only town hall meeting for men last month entitled “A Frank Discussion For Men-About Men-Between Men on Sex, STDs, Responsibility and Community,” and earlier had a town hall meeting for clergy.

Norton said that because one-third of AIDS cases here are from intravenous drug use, much of the blame for the District’s high rate belongs to Congress, which had placed a rider on D.C. appropriations that has kept the city from spending its own local funds on needle exchange programs for 10 years, even though these programs have brought down AIDS rates in cities across the country. However, last month Norton got the House to remove the rider, and the Senate Appropriations Committee has followed suit with its D.C. budget bill now ready for the Senate floor. Beyond the needle exchange ban, however, Norton said, “Residents must be willing to take personal responsibility for the elimination of a virus which is chiefly transmitted sexually. She said she is especially grateful for those who have taken HIV tests at her previous town meetings and other events, including several ministers of prominent African American churches who were tested on National HIV/AIDS Testing Day last month. Norton also was tested in June and earlier with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. (See www.norton.house.gov.) She is providing free testing at all Norton events. On Tuesday Unity Health Care offered free tests to people who attended the Norton job fair.