On April 12th I joined hundreds of women (and a few men) in Myrtle Beach, S.C. We were there to attend PWN-USA's 3rd Speak Up Summit. Speak Up is a summit by us and for us, the "us" are women living with HIV. It was going to be a special time for me being a new member of The Well Project's Community Advisory Board. It was also the 10th anniversary of PWN-USA and a celebration was planned. Yes, the turn up was going to be real. I was so ready to connect with old sister-friends and looking forward to making new sister-friends. You can imagine my excitement at being with a group of fierce women.
I arrived in Myrtle Beach fairly early, made it to the hotel and checked into my room. I decided to rest before going over to the conference center. Once I arrived at the conference center, I was happy to see a large group of Women of Trans experience. To me, that signified we were doing a good job of being inclusive. We weren't just talking about it, but we were also being about it. There were hugs all around and a genuine feeling of sisterhood.
It was not until Friday at lunch that I was made aware that some of the Cisgender women were having issues with the Transgender women being there. My first thought was, 'why would anyone complain about a woman being at a summit for women?'
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