PFLAG Oakland East Bay

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🇺🇸 DiAna DiAna Bookman is a hairdresser and HIV/AIDS activist from Columbia, South Carolina, who dedicated her life to saving lives by educating as many people as she could through community outreach.

Troubled about the lack of s*x education and HIV prevention within African-American communities, she began distributing condoms free of charge from her salon. When she noticed that the women were reluctant to carry these condoms home with them, she "decided to wrap the condoms up in gift wrap as a means of destigmatizing the process."

DiAna's efforts soon began to be recognized outside of her network of clients. She gave presentations to church groups, in local elementary schools, and engaged high school students to become community leaders. Her activism was instrumental in the development of beauty locations as sites of HIV outreach and education across the United States.

DiAna founded the South Carolina AIDS Education Network (SCAEN) with Dr. Bambi Gaddis in 1987. Working out of DiAna's hair salon, the two women organized film screenings on the topic of HIV/AIDS, safer-s*x presentations, "Tupperware"-style s*x toy parties, and free condom distribution.

SCAEN has been praised for its "creative strategies and nonjudgmental concern" in its grassroots campaign against the spread of HIV. The group estimates that it has provided one-to-one information on HIV to over 9,000 people in South Carolina.

In addition to face-to-face activism, DiAna, Bambi, and other volunteers for SCAEN created informational videos, music, pamphlets, and colouring books to distribute statewide, accessible to children and adults with low or little reading ability.

DiAna is featured in the 1989 documentary film Diana's Hair Ego.

🤔 What exactly is mutual aid? It’s a term often used in advocacy spaces, but many people may not be clear on its definition, even if they have already unknowingly participated in mutual aid projects!

Leveraging PFLAG’s nearly 55 years of experience and the expertise of the grassroots organizers involved in our network of more than 360 chapters, at our upcoming PFLAG Academy Online virtual learning session, “Mutual Aid: Rethinking Volunteerism to Meet Community Needs” participants will:

• Consider the ways that mutual aid differs from charity work and other kinds of community service.
• Review strategies and best practices for individuals to get started with mutual aid work.
• Discuss a few of the ways you, in your capacity as a member of your community, can connect with others to develop a mutual aid project or network.
• Identify tools that will help you learn more about mutual aid, evaluate your ongoing work, and adjust as needed.
• Access resources that can help people like you establish a mutual aid network.

Join the conversation on May 28 at 8:30pm ET by registering today at pflag.org/onlineacademy

See you there!