Friend,

We’re writing to you today to share with you the reasons why we support Georgia Equality, and why we hope you’ll join us.

As a married, same-sex couple who lives in Georgia, we’ve long supported the tireless work of Georgia Equality. From their work to protect LGBT Georgians from discrimination, including their work to prevent passage of any sort of discriminatory “religious freedom” bill, GE stays busy advocating for our community on all sorts of issues.

One of the issues nearest to our hearts is the fight to end the spread of HIV in Atlanta, in Georgia, and around the country. We invest our time personally and professionally in this fight, and work closely with members of the staff at Georgia Equality in many aspects of the work. As a matter of fact, Georgia Equality was one of the first state equality groups to work specifically on HIV advocacy because of its impact on gay men and trans women, particularly in communities of color.

In 2014, Georgia Equality sponsored an HIV Policy Breakfast that brought members of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners face to face with the terrible truths of the HIV epidemic in Atlanta, directly resulting in the formation of the Fulton County Task Force on HIV/AIDS, in which GE staff have been intimately involved. Likewise, GE is actively involved in the Metro Atlanta Ryan White Planning Council, the Georgia Coalition to End HIV Criminalization, and other bodies that are working to find structural interventions to stop the spread of HIV in our community. Georgia Equality is consistently seen as one of the major voices of HIV advocacy in our state, and we’re so grateful they are doing this work.

This last year alone, Georgia Equality played a major role in the establishment of a Study Committee at the state legislature looking specifically into HIV criminalization, something that had never happened before. GE coordinates advocates and other concerned Georgians to contact members of the United States Congress to protect the Affordable Care Act, one of the major ways many people living with HIV and able to see a doctor, sending over 2,500 messages to DC just since January.

We have a lot of work ahead of us in the fight against HIV in Georgia, and this is work that we’ll continue to do with the help of Georgia Equality. Please donate to GE in support of this work today. We can’t do it without them. And they can’t do it without you.

We hope you’ll join us in supporting Georgia Equality,

-Melanie and Amy