What does Denver’s Democratic National Convention hold for people living with HIV?
From August 25–28, Denver will host what could become the most contentious political assembly in recent memory: the 44th Democratic National Convention (DNC). The event comes exactly 25 years after the city gathering that declared the Denver Principles—the manifesto for the empowerment of people living with HIV. Activists hope the 2008 DNC will avoid the empty rhetoric of the 2004 Democratic and Republican meetings—where people living with HIV and discussions about care and advocacy were nowhere to be found.
According to Natalie Wyeth, DNC press secretary, organizers want input from Democrats on topics they think the 2008 convention should address—such as, say, the empowerment of people living with HIV. “For every convention there’s a platform committee tasked with collecting issues that should be addressed and adopted as part of our party’s official platform,” Wyeth told POZ. The DNC will conduct hearings across the nation to learn about those issues. (Visit demconvention.com/standing-committees and click on “Platform Committee.”) For an HIV refresher course, the Denver-bound DNC team can check out POZ’s list of local experts.
