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 why 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 in the civil disobedience 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 World Wide
Documentary film he worked on, called, A Closer Walk, 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 Tim Bailey’s body in a casket to the White House. Keith Cylar was with
me. The police pushed us, swarming around us, trying to make us to drop the
body. They had us surrounded, jostling the casket, slamming it up and down on
our shoulders, trying to topple the casket. When we are finally forced to put
it back in the van, I called Bob Hattay, in the White House, and arranged forthe
police to back off. Clinton did not want us there. When I got home, there were
bruises all over my body. They let us hold a brief funeral session in the
Capital parking lot in front of the van and escort us in the van out of town to
Maryland.
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 the Treatment
Access Group in 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.
Two tablespoons 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 including Eric are given future
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 of 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.
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