Beyond Do No Harm Network Storytelling Project Highlights HIV Criminalization Through Voices of CHLP’s Jada Hicks and Tennessee Advocate Lashanda Salinas
A new storytelling media project by the Beyond Do No Harm Network spotlights the human impact of HIV criminalization through the voices of CHLP Senior Positive Justice Project (PJP) Attorney Jada Hicks and Tennessee advocate Lashanda Salinas.
When Healing Becomes Resistance: Interrupting HIV Criminalization is a 16-page zine that traces Lashanda’s experience of being criminalized because of her HIV status in Tennessee and the profound disruption it caused in her life. Interwoven with her story is a narrative from Jada Hicks, who provides critical context on Tennessee’s HIV criminalization laws and the ongoing efforts to overturn them. The zine also highlights collaborative advocacy, including work with the Tennessee HIV Modernization Coalition to advance reform and strengthen community organizing.
Through a vivid graphic storytelling format, the zine connects deeply personal experiences to broader systems of stigma and punishment. It is available as a zine illustrated by artist Kruttika Susarla alongside an audio version and transcript.
This piece is part of Stories from Health Care Workers Interrupting Criminalization, a larger series centering firsthand accounts from people working to challenge criminalization, brought to life by movement artists. The project positions storytelling as a tool for awareness, collective healing, and social change.
The Beyond Do No Harm Network is a U.S.-based coalition of providers, public health workers, and advocates across justice movements to address how health systems and researchers contribute to criminalization. By elevating lived experience, their Storytelling Media Project underscores the power of narrative to challenge stigma and support community-led paths toward healing and justice.
