‘Die-In’ Protest at HHS Condemns Attacks on LGBTQ Health
Among programs slated for elimination are ones disproportionately impacting LBGTQ people, including HIV prevention and treatment initiatives.
Protesters held a “die-in” on the steps of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last Thursday to protest proposed funding cuts that could threaten programs for the LGBTQ community.Β
Outside the building, more than 100 participants sank slowly to the ground as Matthew Rose, a senior public policy advocate for the Human Rights Campaign, read aloud a list of possible detrimental outcomes that would result from funding cuts.
“Every person here represents countless other stories,” Rose said. “Countless lives. Countless possibilities. And as the federal government cuts funding — from research to housing, from mental health to Medicaid — we’re not just watching systems disappear, we’re watching lives disappear.
“But LGBTQ+ people will always be here. We are still here. In defiance. In community. In truth.”
Organizers specifically chose to stage a “die-in” — harkening back to protests organized by HIV/AIDS activists in the 1980s — to represent those who could die because of funding cuts.
“It’s a glaring visual,” John Gruber, director of national campaigns at the HRC, told The Hill. “It sends a message when you put your body on the ground like that, that you’re not willing to compromise.”
The protest comes as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seeking to radically reorganize the department and consolidate several of its services while also achieving the Trump administration’s larger goals of reducing government spending.
LGBTQ health advocates worry that among the programs slated to be cut are ones that disproportionately impact LGBTQ people and men who have sex with men, especially those geared toward treating and preventing HIV.
LGBTQ leaders are wary of Kennedy, who has previously questioned scientific evidence linking HIV to AIDS, embracing a conspiracy theory that the virus is not the sole cause of the disease.
He has suggested that HIV is a “free rider” that co-infects high-risk populations who already suffer immune suppression due to environmental exposures — namely, recreational drug use, including “poppers” (amyl nitrate), among gay men.
Actions taken by HHS or its various divisions — presumably with Kennedy’s approval — have alarmed health advocates. Earlier this month, HHS began laying off thousands of workers, including personnel at the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention and the Global Health Center Division of Global HIV and TB.
Meanwhile, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, five branches of its division of HIV prevention were eliminated entirely, resulting in massive layoffs, including those of dozens of scientists working at a lab that specializes in research on sexually transmitted infections.
Separately, a proposed HHS budget recently leaked to The Washington PostΒ proposes cutting funding for LGBTQ-specific support services for youth who reach out to the 988 national suicide prevention hotline.Β
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