News
House GOP bill slashes funds for CDC AIDS unit
Measure would end needle exchange, restore ‘abstinence only’ programs
The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee released a draft fiscal year 2012 budget bill on Sept. 19 that calls for cutting nearly $33 million in funds from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s office that pays for HIV prevention programs throughout the country, including in D.C.
The draft bill, introduced by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), also includes a provision that would ban federal funding for needle exchange programs aimed at curtailing the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users. Rehberg is chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, which oversees funding for AIDS programs.
In a development likely to rile gay rights and AIDS activists, the bill would restore federal funds for controversial “abstinence only until marriage” HIV prevention programs that gained support under the administration of President George W. Bush. The Obama administration eliminated the abstinence-only funding.
An appropriations subcommittee in the Democratic-controlled Senate approved a separate budget bill that doesn’t include needle exchange and abstinence-only provisions included in the GOP House bill.
The bill approved by the Senate subcommittee calls for no funding increases in most AIDS-related programs. The Obama administration’s proposed budget calls for slightly higher funding levels for most HIV/AIDS programs.
House and Senate leaders are expected to clash over a compromise funding bill dealing with HIV/AIDS programs along with other health, labor and education programs that are folded into the fiscal year 2012 appropriations measure.
Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-Conn.), the ranking Democratic member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies, issued a statement criticizing her GOP counterparts for backing Rehberg’s bill without bringing the bill to a vote in either the subcommittee or the full appropriations committee.
“I am very concerned by reports that the chairman has no plans to convene a meeting of our subcommittee to consider and mark up this legislation,” Delauro said.
She said the Rehberg bill calls for cuts in a wide range of health, labor and education programs that go beyond the spending cap that the House and Senate agreed to as part of the highly contentious debate over the bill earlier this year raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
The Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress eliminated federal funding for abstinence only HIV prevention programs, saying evidence-based studies showed that they were ineffective in curtailing the spread of HIV.
Obama and the Democratic Congress also lifted a longstanding congressional ban on federal funds for needle exchange programs. Administration officials pointed to studies showing that providing clean syringes to intravenous drug abusers reduced their HIV infection rate. Officials said the studies also showed that clean needle exchanges did not result in more people becoming IV drug users.
With Republicans winning control of the House in the 2010 election, advocates of abstinence only HIV prevention programs vowed to push for restoring federal funding for the programs. Some of the same advocates also pushed for restoring the congressional ban on needle exchange programs.
The House GOP appropriations measure also calls for no increase in funding for any of the programs under the Ryan White AIDS CARE Act, including the financially struggling AIDS Drug Assistance Program, or ADAP.
With more than 8,500 people in nine states on waiting lists for life-saving AIDS drugs funded under ADAP, AIDS advocacy groups have declared the program in crisis, saying people with HIV could die if more federal funds aren’t allocated to the program.
“While we realize we are living in very difficult fiscal times, this bill is not just about making difficult funding decisions, but about resurrecting many controversial policies that will never pass the Congress nor be signed by the president,” said Michael Ruppal, executive director of the AIDS Institute, a national AIDS advocacy group.
President Obama’s budget proposes a $63.9 million increase in the overall Ryan White budget. The Senate appropriation subcommittee approved a $15 million increase for the Ryan White program.
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony
The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
Congress
House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ now heads to the Senate
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted 215-214 for passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reconciliation package, which includes provisions that would prohibit the use of federal funds to support gender-affirming care.
But for an 11th hour revision of the bill late Wednesday night by conservative lawmakers, Medicaid and CHIP would have been restricted only from covering treatments and interventions administered to patients younger than 18.
The legislation would also drop requirements that some health insurers must cover gender-affirming care as an “essential health benefit” and force states that currently mandate such coverage to find it independently. Plans could still offer coverage for transgender care but without the EHB classification patients will likely pay higher out of pocket costs.
To offset the cost of extending tax cuts from 2017 that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans, the reconciliation bill contains significant cuts to spending for federal programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Human Rights Campaign criticized House Republicans in a press release and statement by the group’s president, Kelley Robinson:
“People in this country want policies and solutions that make life better and expand access to the American Dream. Instead, anti-equality lawmakers voted to give handouts to billionaires built on the backs of hardworking people — with devastating consequences for the LGBTQ+ community.
“If the cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP or resources like Planned Parenthood clinics weren’t devastating enough, House Republicans added a last minute provision that expands its attacks on access to best practice health care to transgender adults.
“This cruel addition shows their priorities have never been about lowering costs or expanding health care access–but in targeting people simply for who they are. These lawmakers have abandoned their constituents, and as they head back to their districts, know this: they will hear from us.”
Senate Republicans are expected to pass the bill with the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to bypass the filibuster and clear the spending package with a simple majority vote.
Changes are expected as the bill will be reviewed and amended by committees, particularly the Finance Committee, and then brought to the floor for debate — though modifications are expected to focus on Medicaid reductions and debate over state and local tax deductions.
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Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban
PHOTOS: D.C. Trans Pride
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