New York to Washington DC to Save PEPFAR, for interconnection, not isolation #savePEPFAR! #actup #housingworks
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people,” quipped HL Menecken. We are seeing the fruition of this quote every day, day after day of the new administration, saved from jail time by the American people, who elected them to power, instead of sending them away, as many of us hoped.
Feb 3, I got messages from friends about a quarter million people hitting the street to say never again, to fight the Alternative für Deutschland and fascism in Berlin. Across the globe people are fighting immigrant deportations, hitting the streets in New York, fighting cops and deportations in L. A. Many of the protests are directly against the new administration.
Many fear the worst. I certainly do.
"Hello everyone, from the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy," Navalny joked towards the end of his life, detained in a Siberian prison, spending increasing days in solitary, feeling the brunt of Trump's hero, Vladimir Putin’s vengeance, before his demise a year ago. We read his wrenching prison memoir in book group, inspiring a searing conversation, reflecting on his hopes, dreading that those sorts of detentions were in store for the rest of us as well, for those who oppose the administration. There is a sense that Trump wants to be more like Putin, doing more harm that Bibi is doing.
I thought about it all last weekend, biking from Brooklyn to the West Village to Judson for service, on Black History Month, up to W. 76th street to say goodbye to a friend's mom, one of the beloved immigrants who came from Eastern Europe in 1944, to teach and play music and help New York sing. Her kids and grandkids mourned and told stories and said goodbye. What contribution, what a New York story.
Back to Brooklyn I rode via Murry Hill past my first New York apt, torn down on the corner of 28th and lexington. Across the street, Curry N a Hurry remains, still the best. With curry in hand, I cross the Bridge again to Henry Street to talk about Navalny, why he went back, books he loved, Tolstoy, activism and martyrdom, freedom and conscience, truth vs totalitarian censorship, in his prison memoir. On Jan 17, 2022, he wrote, “The hero of my favorite books, Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy, says, ‘The only suitable place for an honest man in Russia, is in prison.’”
But he didn’t believe it. He still believed it was wrong, that he could prevail. Courageous or foolhardy, no one was really sure. He offers useful lessons in today's struggling democracies, witness to astounding harms and courage and humor.
All week, we’d wondered what to do, what's the best response, react or push forward.
My friend Charles King, of Housing Works, posted a note about one of the programs the administration was freezing:
“I know many of you saw the letter I posted last Friday. Today, I posted a follow-up letter, posted below (please feel free to join us in Washington, DC, on Thursday, February 6th):
Dear Housing Works Clients and Staff,
Last week, I wrote to you about the initial actions of the Trump Administration and the need to calibrate our responses but to still be ready to take action as necessary. In that same email, I announced a direct action on February 6th, in Washington, DC, to protest the suspension of funding for PEPFAR, the primary fund that the US uses to support HIV prevention and treatment in low-income countries around the globe.
On the day I released my email, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo ordering PEPFAR staff to suspend all activities. On Monday, the intention became more explicit as grantees around the world were told to fire any staff paid with PEPFAR dollars and to stop distribution of HIV treatment medications and any HIV prevention medications that had been purchased with PEPFAR funding. This means that tens of thousands of people living with HIV are being denied treatment right now, and thousands more are being denied PEP and PrEP. Imagine people like you and me, walking into their clinics today to get their ARV’s, seeing the medications sitting on the shelves and being told that they could not have them.
For thousands of people living with HIV, this is a life-or-death situation. Even three months without access to treatment could be fatal, in addition, driving thousands of new infections. So, your participation in the February 6th action could literally save lives. Our planned action, which we are organizing with Health Gap and Treatment Action Group, among other partners, is a speak-out, followed by a sit-in at the main entrance to the State Department.
I hope you will sign up to join me there. If you would like to be a part of this action, you can sign up here:....
If you have never participated in civil disobedience before, no need to worry. ….
Even as we have been focusing on the suspension of international funding for HIV, last night, a new order came from the White House, suspending domestic funding for most housing, health, and human service activities. While Social Security and Medicare are not stopped, the federal government has stopped funding any federal contracts. Federal reimbursement of states for Medicaid expenditures has already been halted. We are unclear about the impact on 340(b) reimbursements, but we anticipate that payments will be suspended on at least some of our $26 million in federally funded contracts.
Good news on this front is that a variety of states and public interest groups are already initiating litigation, including asking for temporary restraining orders to stop this order from being put into effect. (And we certainly intend to sue if necessary to force payment on our contracts.) Meanwhile, many of our colleague organizations are now galvanized and ready to be more militant than they have been in the past. So, we can assume that we will be a part of coalition efforts to end at least some of the cruel policies coming out of the Trump Administration.
Finally, we have received instructions from the City spelling out New York City policy for its contractors not to cooperate with ICE in its efforts to identify and round up immigrants for deportation. As you know, all our facilities are private property. We do not permit law enforcement officers to enter our properties without a warrant or subpoena unless we have called them for a genuine emergency.
In my last letter, I opened and closed with references to Martin Luther King and his efforts to transform the world in which he lived, an effort cut short by his assassination. Dr. King never saw his effort as a solo role. Rather, he believed his calling was a calling to our entire nation to rise above our brutal history so that we could walk into a new way of being. Over and over again, he called for us to speak for the weak, to speak for the voiceless. Over and over again, he shared his disdain for apathy. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. King is: “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there "is" such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”
Yes, indeed, this is a time for vigorous and positive action! I hope you will join me in Washington, DC, on February 6th, and that you will join me in our many social justice actions in the days ahead.
Love,
Charles”
In an interview Tim Murphy asked Cleve Jones about the program:
“Are the PEPFAR meds that the administration froze being disbursed again, to your knowledge?” asked Murphy.
And, of course, PEPFAR is not the only casualty. The administration has been shooting out daily, executive orders, of dubious legal standing, banning trans athletes, diversity programs, attacks on queer people, education, etc. Elon Musk wants to put the US Treasury into Bitcoin. What could possibly go wrong? I guess they have control of Congress, the judiciary, the military and the treasury. Grim times. Still laws passed by congress, The Americans wit Disabilities Act of 1990, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, remain law.
On Monday night, activists swarmed to NYU’s Langone, where they banned gender affirmative care, cravenly caving to the executive order from Washington. I think about Frankie, from Member of the Wedding by Carson Mccullers, and those who are different, those who do not fit in. I think about the outsiders rendered invisible. I think about the assault and how to endure it. Glad people are looking out for each other.
On Wednesday, people in states across the country hit the street, to sound the alarm about what many call a coup.
“Freaking out,” says one old friend.
Protests across the country, action, reaction. No one knows where it's going. But it doesn't feel like anyone is sitting this one out. Andrew, Christine, Emily and company were at the Magician to share details about their days, bringing word from the streets over a beer.
Housing Works, dropped a letter about the upcoming action on Thursday,
“Hi there, We are excited that you’ll be joining us this Thursday, February 6th for our Rally and Civil Disobedience in support of full PEPFAR reauthorization in Washington, DC. The PEPFAR program is crucial for maintaining and ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic globally, and our mobilization will highlight the importance of this program by showing state department officials our commitment to its full reauthorization.”
By 8 PM, I rode back home to get some sleep, setting my alarm for 3 am, to catch the 5 AM bus from Union Square. Didn’t sleep much. It was snowing as I left in the AM, taking in the crisp air, grabbing a coffee at a deli on the way to the subway.
Andrew’s climate clock was clicking at Union Square when I arrived, the Housing Works bus across the street on the South Corner of the Park.
Inside, I read Ann Christine’s note from the field:
“On my way to DC. State Dept. protest of PEPFAR and shutdown of already Congressionally-allocated global aid payments. Light snow on the ground in NY. I have that Crosby Stills & Nash song stuck in my head… “Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming… we’re finally on our way….” Except it’s Musk, Trump and Project 2025 — the Christian nationalists in and outside his Cabinet. I heard the Congressional Dems stayed up all night filibustering the nominee votes. Meanwhile, DOGE bros have accessed VA, health payment system, and moved in yesterday to hack Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),. which oversees $1.5 trillion in federal health spending — and sensitive health payment systems at HHS, and CDC… ….while also targeting Labor Department records — to install Musk’s AI and Peter Thiel’s Palantir surveillance programs. Treasury Secy Bessent keeps lying about their having read-only access… Treasury insiders say some DOGE reps have rewrite privileges, inserting their own code….On a positive note, ICE shut down its tipline as 90% of calls are about Musk…
Resist resist resist! Stop The Coup 2025”
I text Kate, who arrives by 445 AM, followed by Molly, of ACT UP, the busload of us on the road to fight for PEPFAR, as we’ve done so many times before. "We've fought for global HIV treatment access for years," says Kate. "We can't let them take it away. PEPFAR provides treatment for half the HIV positive people in the world. Without access to that people will die."
Says Molly from ACTUP, "The virus is progressing in 20 million peoples' bodies, spreading, mutating, reducing the efficacy of the medications, or worse, making them obsolete."
“I just wanted to be a part of the solution,” says Klevin, another rider on the bus.
Molly, Kate and I talk about ACT UP and life in NYC, the heroes we’ve met doing this, a few of the casualties, who came unraveled along the way, acting up, going dancing, finding some fun along the way. Molly told us about their working at C’Mon Everybody, a gay bar on Franklin Street in Brooklyn, providing condoms, helping people let off a little steam. “An hour on the dancefloor is four times as valuable as an SSRI,” they told us, showing me a copy of the book they were reading, “Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983 by Tim Lawrence. “I just want to balance it,” they said, referring to actions that are reactions vs actions that are building something, creating something for the community, meeting people, sharing harm reduction supplies, taking condoms to gay bars all over NYC. People need to meet, to talk, to break isolation, to get supplies. We chat about retail politics, the need for regular, in person meetings, that break isolation, and help people connect. Gradually, the conversation turns to the fate of immigrants and trans folks in this political climate. “This is worse than the Lavender Scare” says Molly, referring to the 1940’s and 1950’s when, unable to find communists, the federal government fired queer people at will.
“They are just breaking shit to break shit,” says Kate, referring to the new administration. People are getting fired every day, parks rangers, healthworkers, civil servants, leaving a mess for the privatizers
By ten AM, we arrived in Washington, gathering at the State Department, along with members of the Treatment Access Group, Healthgap, and others from ACT UP. These are folks I’ve seen at demos and actions for years now, zapping Tipper Gore at Gramercy Park a quarter century ago, fighting for global treatment access, meeting my New York tribe, many who were around when the PEPFAR Program was first initiated, over two decades ago. At first, I didn’t really trust that it worked. But over time, the program demonstrated its efficacy.
Speaking in front of the State Department, others echoed his sentiment.
Matt Kavanaugh, who now teaches law, discussed the constitution. Congress allocates funds. It's not up to the president to block those funds. This is a mess, he declared.
Charles King recalled the early years of the pandemic, the summer of 1989, before treatment advances, when he attended some fifty funerals. The conversations with activists he knows in Uganda, who cannot access their medications, remind him of that. They now face the sword of damocles hanging over their heads just as people with AIDS did in the 1980’s and 1990’s before treatment. ‘Get a waiver,’ says Rubio’s State Department. But they’ve fired everyone who knows how to file a waiver.’ It's a Kafkaesque mess, collateral damage that takes lives.
The police block us from getting any closer to the state department doors, where we planned to sit in, he tells us. We move back to Constitution Avenue.
Half of one group with a banner sat on the street at 23rd. Attempting to join them on the cross street at Constitution, cars lined up ahead of us, my group with Charles King and Kate met interference from the police on bikes, pulling those of us attempting to sit away to the sidewalk. I try again. They stop me. They stop Charles. “I love what you are saying,” says one cob, “but I’m not letting you sit in the street,” he tells us, blocking us from joining the other activists in the street. Every time we try to push back, the police push us away. We’ve been here before. And the cops start to wait us out. I assume they don’t want arrests or more publicity for our actions.
"Trump, Rubio, end the blockade. You're killing people with aids," we chant, AIDS activists blocking 23rd and Constitution Ave, outside the State Department as they stall funding for global AIDS, putting 20 million lives at risk. They won't arrest us. We keep on chanting. "PEPFAR saves lives. Rubio lies, people die!"
"Unfreeze!" "PEPFAR!!!" "Fight, fight, fight! Healthcare is a right!"
It's raining and cold, half the group sitting in the street surrounded by the police, the rest of us chanting, the police about us.
During that time, Housing Works posts a note to their community,
“In an urgent plea for life-saving efforts around the world, more than 80 members of the Housing Works community are on the steps of the State Department in Washington, D.C. right now to protest the freeze of PEPFAR funds and demand a full restoration. PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) saves millions of lives by providing essential HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and care globally. It has been particularly effective in reducing new infections among vulnerable populations. Protecting the $7.5 Billion PEPFAR funding is crucial to sustain progress and avoid setbacks that could reverse decades of achievements.”
Finally, after an hour, we arrange to walk away.
“Never have I tried so hard to get arrested,” says King, laughing, thanking everyone for coming. And for Charles, a man arrested literally hundreds of times, this is saying something. He stopped counting arrests after the first three years of ACT UP in 1990, when he had already amassed weekly arrests, dozens and dozens of them, week after week, year after year, big actions, Stop the Church and small. Since then, I have been arrested with him once or twice most every year, sometimes in Albany or Washington, sometimes in NYC, since 1998.
The trip to DC takes place in three stages, 4 to 10 AM, chatting and nodding off on the way to DC, 10-2 ACTing up in DC, and then 2 PM to whenever we can get home, fighting fatigue and traffic.
Saying goodbye, I get a ride with Eric and Tim. And we make our way home, talking about the fate of the program and the infrastructure around emergency AIDS care and treatment, now crumbling. Old friends from years and years of these trips, Tim and I acted up during Trump’s inauguration, Eric, every time I’m in DC. On we chat, stories about the years of putting together AIDS services programs and fighting for them over the years, the days when Keith Cylar used to be around, to help plan, make sense of things, coming to these demos, and then out for drinks afterwards.
Dozing off, I found myself thinking about my mom and what she said about her garden.
"I remember running into this flower in the backyard at Grandad's in Columbus," Mom told me, showing me a picture of a flower in a magazine the week prior. "You can call it a donk," she told me after a long leisurely lunch. "I had a wonderful childhood." Her short term memory is fading. Long term, she’s right there, in Columbus, with Carson all those years ago.
My mind trails Matt, who’d joined me in dream the morning before. Matt, our gardener / reporter friend, who stumbled and fell almost a dozen years ago on the nile. And then suddenly gone. I think about his fearlessness and the crowd outside the hospital Monday, and their fearlessness, plus their fear. I think about so many of the spirits, out and about amongst us, who were with us, fighting, laughing, now gone. And present in my dream.
We chat about books and stories. Emma, G’s Living My Life, reminds us, we’ve been here before, her story ever challenging orthodoxies, pushing history forward. One of the readers from our group, compared her writing to the Golden Notebook, storylines of politics and sex, distilled between the personal and political sexual notebooks, ever interconnecting throughout the story of her life. An abiding principle of freedom, propelled her life, meeting suitors she happily organized with and pushed away.
As Almeda Sperry wrote Emma Goldman, 1912:
I told the guys about my dream about Matt.
Tim told a story about his grandmother, lost in a hospital, lost in a dream.
Eric recalled his parents, and the ups and downs of growing up, their ever connecting and separating.
And eventually, the conversation turned to the AIDS heroes and casualties, friends from my high school that Tim knew in college, sex activism with Michael Warner, harm reduction days with Gabe Torres, losing his mind, the casualties and drugs, seeming to consume him, Randolfe Wicker, still telling stories about the Mattachine, on and on.
Back in New York, we drive past a crumbling city college, back down across the West Side Highway, dropping Eric off and making our way to the Battery Tunnel to Brooklyn.
The conversation meanders to old paperbacks, comparing notes between Tim’s favorite novels, Dancer from the Dance, Swimming Pool Library, Buddha of Suburbia, the Secret History, Remains of the Day, and Another Country, stories of queer lives, and mine, Giovanni’s Room, Unbearable Lightness, Crime and Punishment, Aunt Julia the Scriptwriter, Labyrinths, A Hundred Years of Solitude.
Home to sleep and recover from a very long day. Waking to the news, the NY Times was reporting on what it calls, “a constitutional crisis,” German Lopez writes: “In the United States, Congress, the president and the courts are supposed to keep an eye on one another — to stop any one branch of government from becoming too powerful. President Trump is showing us what happens when those checks and balances break down. The president can’t shut down agencies that Congress has funded, yet that’s what Trump did, with Elon Musk’s help, to the U.S. Agency for International Development…. “The president is openly violating the law and Constitution on a daily basis,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. In doing so, Trump has called the bluff of our constitutional system: It works best when each branch does its job with alacrity. Trump’s opponents are filing lawsuits, but courts are slow and deliberative. They can’t keep up with the changes the White House has already implemented ... .Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina conceded that what the administration is doing “runs afoul of the Constitution in the strictest sense.” But, he said, “nobody should bellyache about that.” As a result, most of Trump’s actions stand unchecked…
The framers wanted to avoid crowning another king.”
As I write this, reports are coming in that the freeze has been halted. “Judge blocks Trump plan to put thousands of USAID staff on leave,” but much damage is already done. Drug resistance increased, programs crumbled. “Abandoned in the Middle of Clinical Trials, Because of a Trump Order,” writes the NY Times, “The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.”
“Foreign Aid Freeze Throws Global Programs Into Chaos,” says the Times.
And, of course, behind it, dubious sympathies.
We are going back to a dark place.
Many of us have spend literally decades advocating for these programs, fighting the stigmas that kept drugs from bodies abroad, the racism that resource poor areas could not handle the task of HIV treatments, the ups and downs of the struggle for access at home and abroad, seeing the world as an interconnected place, where sickness and harm in one place impacts us everywhere. We want a stable place. It's painful to watch harm expand, to see the anguish.
Still laughter and a little stoicism accompanies us. The shock and awe only goes so far, then they have to pass budgets and laws. And we have to pick a few smart places to push back.
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