I only went to one planning session for the Housing Works trip to DC to save the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief. I just heard about the plan. We were supposed to meet everyone at Union Square Square 145 E 14th 5 AM. (I arrived at 5: 18 AM). So we could get to DC by 10 AM. Once in DC, we planned to drop six banners inside the Cannon Rotunda, a government office building, where activists were calling on the admin to implement the PEPFAR programs. The program has had bipartisan support, the money is there, allocated. Both Republican and Democrats in the House and Senate are there for PEPFAR. Yet, the administration is sitting on it. We must make sure funds are being spent, with data transparency, funding transparency. This is what we were going to DC. We’d walk into the Rotunda around 11 AM, in groups of five, everyone wearing all black. In the building, everyone whose participating will take out the banner from the bags, unfurl them, while chanting. Unlike the Metro Police who seemed to be ignoring the demos outside, the Capital police will be quick to stop our antics upstairs, banners flying from top corners.
I was late, rushing to the train, even after Eric gave me a wake up call at 4 AM. We’d been here together the previous January and all through the spring and summer, in and out of jail, fighting the PEPFAR cuts and the Big Beautiful Bill Out there, gutting services. On the road with Eric, Asia and the Housing Works crew.
Darnell and Asia and Regginald and the rest of the Housing Works crew were there to greet me.
“We’re still on time,” says Darnell.
With cuts to the ADAP program, aids drugs cut from the formulary, we were on our way to DC, to get the drugs back into bodies.
On the bus, Eric laughs, everyone was here a half hour early, but you, he says. We talk about Cafe Lafitte, a Gay Bar in New Orleans, the oldest gay bar in the United States and all these trips to DC, his recent busts, the last few times were in DC, the oral history project we’ve been working on. He tells me about a film he worked on, called, A Closer Walk with Thee, about global AIDS, stories of “infections overwhelm the public health system and orphans face their own deaths, central Europe, where drug users spread the disease via shared needles, India, where husbands infect wives, and to the U.S., where grass-roots efforts in places like Kansas City confront cultural stereotypes.”
“Leave it with a little hope,” he says, describing our current moment, as PEPFAR looks like its funding is restored. Still 21 states are cutting the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, he says. They are either actively implementing or considering cost-containment measures for their AIDS Drug Assistance Programs.
“I give you permission to tell my story,” says Asia, walking up to talk with Eric and I. She’s been getting arrested with Charles and Eric as long as anyone. “I was a Black Panther. It all comes together with HIV and how we were treated,” she says, recalling last summer’s bust.
Eric and I talk about the old political funerals and an old article about TB in the New York hospitals from 1992. Sawyer shows me the article, in which apparently he’s included. I don’t even remember that, says Eric. He’s been at this a long time. In the article on political funerals, the journalist asked me if I’d like one if I died of this. Impale me on the fence of city hall, he told the reporter, who quoted him verbatim in an article in the post. “That was the time I was hurt at a protest, carrying Mark Fisher’s body in a casket to the White House. Keith Cylar was with me. The police pushed us, swarming around us, trying to get us to drop the body. They had us surrounded, jostling the casket, pushing it up and down. When we finally put it back in the car, I called Bob Hattay, in the White House, and arranged for something. Clinton did not want us there. When I got home, there were bruises all over my body.
Death and sex, our conversation soon turns to a guy Eric used to see at the Twilo, a nightclub in operation from 1995 to 2001 in New York City, on 27th Street. He ran into the guy through the years, the two of them continuing to share moments and intimacies.
Arriving in DC, we meet at a church, hearing updates about the program.
“How many of you are planning to take an arrest,” asks Charles, starting the pre-demo meeting. “We’re going to explain what's going on with an expert on PEPFAR, but first I’d like everyone to introduce themselves,” says Charles.
“The fight it affects everyone,” says one Housing Works member.
“I’m Eric Sawyer,” says Eric, introducing himself. “I helped start ACT UP,” he says to great applause.
“I’m Reginald. I’m red.”
“I’m Cassidey, I'm red.”
“I’m Asia, of Healthgap. I’m banned from the property,” says Asia Russell.
“I’m Meaghan with Housing Works.”
“I’m Kendall with Treatment DC.”
“We’re got a great crew,” says Charles. “A great action planned. A year ago we did a similar action on the Rotunda, and got lots of media, holding banners, dropping them over the balcony. Some of us arrested by the Capital Police, we are usually treated respectfully,” says Charles, noting that a year ago, a few members of the group faced higher than usual charges. Beware, he warns us. “Last year we were disrupting a hearing. And Asia and a staff member were dragged out, arraigned, prosecuted, and given a stay away order; the other changed with resisting and assaulting an officer. He couldn’t remember which arm was assaulted. We are generally given a post and forfeit. You give em $50.00, you get your charges dropped. This is your last post and forfeit, they tell us every time. Yet, we rarely get anything more than that. Maybe today we will? Beware if you do something obnoxious they will put you through the system,” Charles counsels. I recall the guys running away from the cops in their electric wheel chairs last summer, in a madcap demo that felt like the Benny Hill show. Try to be cooperative, Charles advises.
“When PEPFAR is under attack, what do we do, act up fight back!!!”
“The ferocity of your action was so compelling last year, that it changed history. It's that compelling,” says Asia Russell, taking us through the last year of the PEPFAR program, when they cut UNAIDS. We heard about the cuts when we got out of jail. “We’re never giving up. We’ve won powerful things. With $4.6 billion a year, we saved 26 million lives across the globe,” says Asia. “We fought to protect the program. They obstructed the program. Now funding is released. But the money is sitting idle, unspent. We’re here to push back. The CDC, which also runs on PEPFAR money, is running out of these funds. We’re transforming history fighting for this program,” says Asia.
“With PEPFAR, two other things are happening," says Charles, pointing out that the US is sitting on lifesaving supplies. Only pregnant and breastfeeding women get access to prevention technology. There’s country by country negotiations for PEPFAR. A spoon of Plumpy'Nut keeps a kid alive for a day. “Where's Plumpy'Nut?” reports NPR. “A lifesaving food for malnourished kids is caught up in U.S. cuts.” The US is sitting on warehouses of it. 700,000 kids have starved. TB is the second cause of death. “Well before the bombs started in Iran,” says King. “The US has been literally killing, starving people, encouraging disease.” (To say nothing of US measles outbreak because of RFK, who opposes vaccines)
Asia pointed to evidence Trump and Vought are blocking spending of more than $977 million in lifesaving HIV funding. The continuity of CDC’s FY26 PEPFAR programs are under threat. Still, congress is kept in the dark as the PEPFAR data blackout continues. One year into the Trump Administration, more than $977 million in appropriated PEPFAR funding for HIV prevention and treatment was unspent by the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025—triple the amount unspent at the end of FY 2024. Activists predict this backlog will worsen rapidly in FY 2026 unless Congress immediately reasserts its Constitutionally-mandated oversight authority. In addition, the funding for Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) PEPFAR programs will run out in just three weeks, by April 1 2026—because only 45% of their FY26 funding has been transferred from the State Department. Unless funding is transferred immediately, CDC’s global HIV programs across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Caribbean will grind to a halt.
“PEPFAR has saved more than 26 million lives and changed the trajectory of an epidemic. However, the Trump administration’s decision, over the objection of Republicans in Congress, to freeze PEPFAR funding has caused decades of progress to come undone and has been a death sentence for people with HIV relying on life-saving treatment. The U.S. must immediately restore PEPFAR funding and regain our standing in the global fight against HIV,” said Charles King, CEO of Housing Works.
The Republican-controlled Congress has fully funded the global AIDS program, signaling bipartisan support for PEPFAR. However, Trump and Vought’s attacks on foreign assistance are obstructing PEPFAR from spending funds and saving lives. Activists anticipate the White House is planning its own shadow control over these funds, escaping the scrutiny of Congressional oversight. Vought was recently caught having taken $15 million in funding that had been allocated for foreign aid, to fund his private security detail.
“Trump and Vought are responsible for stealing lifesaving prevention and treatment from countless people with HIV worldwide,” said Asia Russell, Executive Director of Health GAP. “Congress must wake up, wrest back its authority, and immediately expend PEPFAR’s funding.” In addition, the Department of State has instituted a PEPFAR data blackout, refusing to share PEPFAR’s program results—a level of secrecy that is unprecedented for a program that had been radically transparent regarding where money was being spent and its funding impact. And exploitative bilateral deals, for example with Zambia, are using HIV funding as a bargaining chip to secure U.S. access to Zambia’s vast mineral wealth.
“This administration’s cuts to PEPFAR and its elimination of USAID are nothing less than savage. We demand that Congress take back its Constitutionally-mandated power of the purse and assure that US funds are fully expended on these life-saving programs,” said Kendall Martinez-Wright, TAG’s Government Relations and Policy Associate. “The price of this impoundment will be millions of preventable deaths and unnecessary new infections. We demand that Congress hold oversight hearings, interrogate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and OMB Director Russell Vought under oath, and start exercising its Constitutional powers.”
In the U.S., cuts to HIV programs and research in the U.S. are also growing, in what activists called a campaign of cruelty, with HIV treatment programs across 20 states planning to force people off their life-saving HIV treatment and onto waiting lists. Activists are demanding Trump, Vought, Rubio, and Congress fulfill their full obligation of appropriated PEPFAR funds and rejection of growing political interference in global and domestic HIV programs
"AIDS cuts kill, fund PEPFAR now!!!" we chanted in the Rotunda, after making our way through metal detectors, unfolding banners from the balcony, calling for the congress to spend the money that has been allocated. “AIDS Funding Cuts Kill.” The police pull down our massive banners. “TRUMP AND VOUGHT KILL PEOPLE WITH AIDS WORLDWIDE,” “OVER 200,000 DEATHS SINCE JANUARY 2025,” and “HANDS OFF PEPFAR.”
Security grabbed our banner fast. We went downstairs, dying on the floor in the Rotunda. As soon as it starts, the police put plastic handcuts on too tight, 13 of us are arrested.
“AIDS cuts kill, fund PEPFAR now!!!" screams Asia.
“No more,” says a cop. “You’ve got cuffs on. The demonstration is over. You want more charges?”
Police search us and take us to the police vans, where two guys are led onto one side, women on the other. Inside the van, Reginald of Voices of Community Activists and Leaders, was not very comfortable:
“I had to bend down to get in, while handcuffed behind my back. It was extremely uncomfortable. The handcuffs cut off the circulation in my wrists. Most of our time was spent handcuffed behind our backs. I thought about the hundreds of children that were brutally packed into buses. The police were polite. I also thought about Christ's suffering on the cross. What I experienced was not as brutal or long. 15 of us got arrested at about noon.”
Reginald was quiet. That was not the case with Charles King, of Housing Works.
Sitting in a clerical collar, Charles King and I talked about his Sunday lessons, this weekend at Riverside Church on Peter, who betrayed Jesus three times and Christ still made him the leader of the Christian church. If you ever think you really fucked something up, think of Christ's forgiveness of Peter. Failure is not final.
As he often does in these circumstances, he recalled his favorite arrest and arrest officer, Hernandez from ACTUP’s infamous Stop the Church Action on December 10, 1989 when ACT UP disrupted the services at St Patrick’s Cathedral. We went to trial. I defended myself, he told us. We all put a chain on us locking us to the pews, as we prayed, vocally. At trial, they had one aging deacon who testified we were running up and down the aisle screaming and cursing about Cardinal John O'Connor. What were we saying? I asked the Deacon, over and over again. What were we saying? Can you repeat that? I didn’t care if I went to jail. It could not be more funny. Officer Hernandez comes up and says the same thing. Later during recess, he asked me what I was doing this weekend. I said I’m not going out with you. The one that guy away, almost four decades ago. I've been getting arrested with Charles a few times a year since 1998. Almost every time we get arrested he mentions this wondering about old Officer Hernandez, his all time favorite arresting officer,
Other arrests have been less fun for King. He recalls hearing fireworks from his apartment on 12th Street in the East Village. He runs out to see what is going on, a little weary as he’s been warned there is a death threat on his head. Squatters are running to and from, followed by cops on an eventual 4th of July, in the late 1980s, the years when riots were aplenty in the East Village. Police run inside, pulling me, throwing my head against the wall inside. Looking at my head bleeding, the police insist, I guess we need to arrest you. We won $75,000. $50 of it to me to make payroll, the other $25 to Ron Kuby.
The squatters are fun to get arrested with, I reply. King wasn’t having fun that time.
My arrest fantasy is we get pulled into the police van, in our handcuffs, only to find its not really a police van at all, its a party bus in NOLA, filled with fake cops, giving us lap dances as we’re handcuffed, playing disco music, taking us to Kermit’s Mother N’Law’s Place in New Orleans.
Finally, we are taken to the “prisoner holding center” where we usually pay our fines. Sitting inside all afternoon, till one after another we get out, some faster than others. Some of us have been arrested here three, four, five or even seven times here in the last year. Those with the higher number of arrests are given court dates and held.
The rest of us are let go, making it home to NYC later in the evening. I find myself thinking about Keith and all those old demos, the old busts, all those years ago. A few of us talk about those old days, the spirit of Housing Works through the years.
The last few are eventually let out of jail, with court trials later in March.
A bit of the beloved community today, an I thou day, I write Charles, referring to the beloved community Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a society based on justice, equality, and love. “The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community” said King. I was also thinking of "I and Thou (1923) by Martin Buber, the foundational work of philosophy that explores human relationships through two fundamental modes: the I-Thou (a direct, mutual, and whole relationship) and the I-It (an objectifying, utilitarian, and detached relationship). Buber argues that meaningful human existence is found in the I-Thou encounter, which can occur with other people, nature, or God (the Eternal Thou).
When we got home, Eric wrote, “Yesterday I joined activist from Housing Works, HealthGAP, Treatment Access Group and former staff of PEPFAR, and USAID in demonstrating again at the Rotunda of the Cannon Building of the House of Representatives for the Administration to stop the games and spend the funding appropriated by bi-partisan support of PEPFAR which in response to our prior protests had restored a lot of funding for the program. The Administration continues to block the funding from providing life saving drugs and treatments for millions of people around the world in every step or the funding and operational steps of the program.”
Activists demand:
Immediately release already-appropriated, unobligated PEPFAR funds, demand activists.
Break the blackout on PEPFAR data, so Congress and people with HIV know how funding is being spent and can program based on data
Activists are calling for full obligation of appropriated PEPFAR funds and rejection of growing political interference in global and domestic HIV programs.
