03/01/2026
As March brings in Women’s History Month, we honor every remarkable woman driving progress in the world– but especially women living with HIV, and those who stood alongside us in the fight against HIV. From researchers and policymakers to pharmacists, community health workers, organizers, caregivers and advocates, women have shaped policy, advanced equity, and strengthened communities at every stage of the epidemic. Below are just a few extraordinary women whose courage, vision, and commitment profoundly changed HIV advocacy, care, and justice.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (1946–2025)
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy was an American author, transgender rights activist, and longtime community organizer whose work spanned multiple social justice movements. She served as the first executive director of the Transgender Gender-Variant Intersex Justice Project and collaborated with numerous HIV/AIDS organizations, including City of Refuge and the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center. Beginning with food bank work and direct services for trans women, her advocacy expanded into home health care during the height of the U.S. AIDS epidemic, centering the needs of the most marginalized.
Charon Asetoyer (1951–2025)
Charon Asetoyer was a Native American health advocate and the founder and CEO of the Native American Community Board and the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center, both based on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Her leadership extended to national policy and advocacy spaces, where she served on advisory committees for the Center for Constitutional Rights (Women and People of Color AIDS Project) and the Center for Women’s Policy Studies (Women and AIDS Project). Asetoyer’s work centered Indigenous women’s health, reproductive justice, and HIV/AIDS advocacy at both community and national levels.
Hydeia Broadbent (1984–2024)
Hydeia Broadbent was a nationally recognized HIV/AIDS activist who was born with HIV and became a powerful public voice against stigma at a young age. She gained widespread attention through major media appearances, including on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she spoke candidly about living with HIV. Throughout her life, Broadbent continued her advocacy through public speaking, nonprofit engagement, and health education efforts focused on HIV prevention, testing, and compassionate care for people living with HIV.
Helen Rodríguez-Trías (1929–2001)
Dr. Helen Rodríguez-Trías was a physician and public health leader whose work significantly shaped HIV care and women’s health in the United States. She served as medical director of the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute, where she prioritized HIV care for women, and later became co-director of the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health in the 1990s. Rodríguez-Trías played a critical role in establishing national HIV standards of care, particularly for poor, marginalized, and women patients. She later led the New York Women in AIDS Task Force.
Learn more about NMAC's women's program, GLOW: https://www.nmac.org/programs/treatment/glow/
