On World AIDS Day, the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy urged President Barack Obama to invite HIV-positive community leaders to a White House summit on the formation of a national AIDS strategy. The request was laid out in a letter to the president endorsed by 119 organizations and 155 individuals.

“For the president of the United States to publicly meet with a diversity of HIV-positive leaders would send a powerful message to the nation,” the coalition said in its letter. “Those charged with developing the national HIV/AIDS strategy must hear directly from you, Mr. President, that the task of writing the nation’s first, unifying and integrative HIV/AIDS plan demands an outcomes-oriented approach that defies the typical institutional biases that too often stifle greater inter-agency and inter-departmental federal collaboration.”

In a recent POZ.com survey, 85 percent of respondents said Obama and his administration were not doing enough to combat HIV-related stigma. Another 78 percent said the HIV community itself is not doing enough to address stigma.

Click here to read the letter and its list of endorsers.