Washington Blade named official media partner of XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012)

Washington, D.C. — The Washington Blade, the nation’s leading LGBT news source, announced today that it has been named an official media partner of the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) convening at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in D.C. July 22-27.

In addition to the partnership, the Blade will curate a unique and powerful exhibit of the newspaper’s photos chronicling the AIDS epidemic in Washington. The exhibit will be on display in the Global Village, a space that is free and open to the public, for the duration of the conference. Blade staff will also take part in a panel discussion during a training for international media, and the Blade will also staff a booth in the conference media center. Further details about the Blade’s involvement and extensive coverage plans for the conference will be announced soon.

“We see our partnership with The Blade as critical, especially given the continued burden of the HIV epidemic among LGBT communities” said Dr. Diane Havlir, U.S. Co-Chair of AIDS 2012. “This collaboration will help ensure that within the large landscape of conference media coverage, the news and story from AIDS 2012 will be reported from the perspectives of LGBT people.”

“The Blade has covered the AIDS epidemic since its earliest days, chronicling the disease and supporting the local community in the process,” said Washington Blade publisher Lynne Brown. “We are proud to support the efforts of the International AIDS Conference and to bring unparalleled coverage of this important event to our readers both locally and internationally.”

The XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) is the premier meeting for those working in the field of HIV/AIDS, as well as policymakers, people living with HIV/AIDS and others committed to ending the epidemic. The conference is expected to draw more than 20,000 attendees and 2,000 U.S. and international journalists. This marks the first time the conference has been held in the United States since 1990, due to an HIV travel ban that was lifted in 2009.

The Washington Blade was founded in 1969 and is known as the “newspaper of record” for the LGBT community both locally and nationally. Visit washingtonblade.com for more information.

To learn more about the International AIDS Conference, visit aids2012.org. For information about the Blade, please contact publisher Lynne Brown, lbrown@washblade.com or 202-486-0625, or marketing director Stephen Rutgers, srutgers@washblade.com.