It’s not very often that Field Organizers from Georgia Equality get to travel to Washington, DC to educate our members of Congress on issues that are important to LGBT Georgians, but that is exactly what Georgia Equality’s Field Organizer Wes Sanders did earlier this week. Here’s a little bit about his trip:

Delegates from 27 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico traveled to DC this week to take part in AIDS United’s 2014 AIDS Watch. The program is AIDS United’s annual fly-in that brings constituents to the Capitol to meet with the offices of their members of Congress and Senators and discuss with them the issues currently facing people living with HIV and AIDS in their home states.

All in all, over 300 delegates took part in 222 visits on Capitol Hill. Six of those delegated were from Georgia and we met with the offices of 14 out of 16 members of Georgia’s Congressional Delegation. The only two we were unable to meet with were Senator Johnny Isakson and Representative Stanford Bishop.

AIDS United had a wide platform of issues to discuss with congressional offices. They included: The Ryan White Program, The Affordable Care Act, HIV Criminalization, Comprehensive Sex Education, Housing, Syringe Exchange Programs, and the Federal AIDS Budget. You can read more about the issues that were highlighted here: http://aidsunited.org/policy-advocacy/aidswatch-2014/aidswatch-fact-sheets/

Georgia Equality was so pleased to be able to participate and send one of our staff members to DC to speak on behalf of LGBT Georgians, people living with HIV and AIDS in Georgia, and their allies on these issues and how important they are in their lives. Stay tuned for more updates as these issues play out in Congress. Georgia Equality will keep you up to date with emails and on our Georgia HIV Advocacy Facebook page, which you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaHivAdvocacyNetwork