Former PACHA member runs for office in Washington State (13340)

Judith Billings, a former member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS and current board treasurer for the National Association of People With AIDS, has announced her candidacy to become Washington State's superintendent of public instruction. If elected, Billings would be the nation's first openly HIV-positive person to be chosen by voters for a statewide office, according to campaign officials. Billings previously served in the post from 1989 to 1997, during which time she announced that she is HIV-positive. Throughout her previous tenure as school superintendent she pushed for comprehensive sex and HIV education in Washington's schools to help the state's youth avoid HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Billings also is an outspoken critic of President Bush's push for abstinence-until-marriage sex education in the nation's schools, saying the programs entirely ignore gay and lesbian youth who cannot legally marry. She also is an opponent of the proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.

"One of the things I find very destructive at this point is [the Bush administration's] attitude toward gay and lesbian people and their relationships, which--whether it's intended or not--brings with it almost an approval to stigmatize and discriminate," Billings recently told The Advocate's sister publication HIV Plus. "With this administration there is an attempt to discriminate, to not give equal rights to people who in many cases that political ideology still believes is the major factor in the spread of HIV and AIDS."

Billings currently serves as chairwoman of Washington's Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, is a board member of the National AIDS Fund, and is the immediate past chairwoman of Seattle's Lifelong AIDS Alliance. She served on PACHA under President Clinton.

"As an HIV-positive role model, Judi Billings is a tireless proponent for people living with HIV/AIDS, both here and around the world," says Terje Anderson, NAPWA's executive director. "She's also a leading advocate for science-based, comprehensive health education to provide the information young people need to make good choices to avoid HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections."

For more information about Billings's candidacy, visit her campaign's Web site at www.friendsforjudith.com.