CNP applauds the passage of SB 164—the bill that modernizes Georgia’s decades-old statute criminalizing people living with HIV. The updated legislation introduced by State Senator Chuck Hufsteler (R-52) received bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp on May 9, 2022.

Before the passage of SB 164, a person living with HIV (PLHIV) could face a felony and up to 10 years in prison for not disclosing their HIV status prior to any sexual activity. The degree of risk of HIV transmission was not a factor in the statute—including circumstances where there was no HIV transmission, nor even any risk of HIV transmission.

June 27, 2019 – Atlanta, GA – On this National HIV Testing Day, the Counter Narrative Project (CNP) is calling for radical community conversations around the social isolation, loneliness, and despair, in the lives of black gay men. These forces are also fueled by the deep erosion of our historical, physical, cultural, and geographic communities, our most sacred spaces, in the face of nationwide gentrification and black displacement. Fueled by the continuing disappearance of physical spaces for us, by us, we turn to virtual substitutions, which are more often than not, insufficient.

February 20, 2019 – Atlanta, GA – Black people represent only 13% of the population but 50% of people living with HIV. The epicenter of that epidemic continues to be the Southern region of the United States and has been for some time. In response to the endurance of the epidemic and the anemic response to that epidemic as it relates to black Americans, particularly in the South, on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a group of activists and organizations are demanding change. The Counter Narrative Project, a national black gay men’s advocacy organization located in Atlanta, joined over 50 signees on a five-point statement of principled stances demanding the following: …