National
AIDS 2012: Sebelius unveils public-private collaborations to fight disease
HHS to work with MAC AIDS Fund, Walgreens, others


Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced four HIV/AIDS private-public initiatives Sunday. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced four new public-private initiatives on Sunday night aimed at removing barriers that cause some living with HIV/AIDS within the United States to fall out of care.
Sebelius announced the projects — including a new $4.5 million multi-year project with the MAC AIDS Fund called the Care for Life Initiative — during remarks she delivered as the final speaker on the opening night of the 19th International AIDS Conference, which is being held in the United States for the first time since 1990. An estimated 25,000 are in attendance for the week-long conference in D.C.
“Perhaps the most important principle in our national strategy is one we’ve been reminded of over and over again in our response to HIV/AIDS: none of us can do this alone,” Sebelius said. “That’s why we’re making a new effort to reach to community-based organizations, businesses, foundations, NGOs, faith organizations and more.”
The Care for Life Initiative is a collaboration of the MAC AIDS fund, which was established in 1994 to support people who are living with HIV/AIDS across the world, and has three arms that aim to keep people with HIV/AIDS within care, according to a statement from the organization:
- A $4 million partnership with AIDS United over the next three years to create an innovation fund on the both the national and regional levels to improve retention in care and treatment adherence. Geographic focuses will be determined based on need and capacity of the local providers to address that need. It will also involve an open call for proposals.
- Working with the Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, for a pilot launch of UCARE4LIFE, an evidence-based program that will employ mobile texting to improve care retention and medication adherence. With a focus on Southern states, the two-year project consists of developing a message library for delivering phone text notifications to HIV-positive individuals — in English and Spanish — regarding medical appointment reminders and taking medications.
- MAC AIDS Fund will work with HHS and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to convene a meeting of international leaders in fall 2012 on leveraging global lessons on HIV care. This forum is expected to explore lessons from PEPFAR that can be applied to the United States for best practices on treatment and retention.
According to the MAC AIDS Fund, under the current system, one in two people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States falls out of care.
Nancy Mahon, global executive director of the MAC AIDS Funds, said the Care for Life Initiative is important because it uses new technologies and ideas in its outreach to people with HIV/AIDS.
“We cannot end the epidemic without breakthrough approaches that support and empower those living with HIV/AIDS to stay connected to the care and life-saving treatment they deserve,” Mahon said.
Besides the Care for Life Initiative, Sebelius also hit on the other three initiatives during her remarks. With the pharmaceutical retailer Walgreens, she announced a three-year partnership with the Centers for Disease Control to explore ways in which pharmacies can help patients stay on their medications. According to a news statement, Walgreens is supplying nearly $1 million in in-kind services for this initiative.
With Medscape, a leading provider of online continuing education for U.S. clinicians, Sebelius unveiled partnership training programs with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid to help clinicians better understand and address HIV patients’ needs. According to a news statement, three new training modules have already been created for physicians, nurses and other medical professionals.
Finally, Sebelius announced that HHS is partnering with the eight largest AIDS drug companies — Abbot Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and ViiV — to create a single application form for AIDS medications offered through their patient assistance programs.
“I want to thank all of these partners for stepping up,” Sebelius said. “And we will continue to seek out new public-private collaborations that will help us beat this disease.”
In addition to announcing the new public-private partnerships, Sebelius also revealed that the Food & Drug Administration would announce this week that more than 150 antiretroviral drugs are now available through PEPFAR.
The secretary also enumerated earlier initiatives of the Obama administration, including last week’s decision to distribute nearly $80 million to the states “to allow them to fully clear” wait lists for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, which provide HIV/AIDS drugs to low-income people. An estimated 2,000 people nationwide had been awaiting drugs through programs.
According to a statement from HHS, around $69 million will be sent to 25 states and territories and, based on estimates provided by the states, will eliminate any waiting lists. The remaining $10 million — a portion of which was allocated by the Affordable Care Act — will be distributed to community-based health clinics nationwide to expand access for 14,000 new HIV/AIDS patients for medical and support services.
Other initiatives against HIV/AIDS under the Obama administration that Sebelius touted were recent FDA approval of an at-home HIV test and using Truvada to prevent HIV infection. Sebelius also credited the Bush administration, calling PEPFAR, which was established under the previous administration, one of “the great health success stories of the 21st century.”
“Our task now is to make it even stronger,” Sebelius said.
“Under President Obama, we’re on pace to achieve an ambitious goal of reaching an additional two million people around the world with life-saving treatment by the end of 2013. At the same time, we’re putting a renewed focus on the key ‘combination prevention’ interventions that have proven most effective in combating HIV.”
The secretary’s mention of PEPFAR received among the most applause of anything discussed that evening before an audience that included many HIV/AIDS advocates from overseas. Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request cuts the program by half a billion dollars, but the White House has said PEPFAR is an example of a program that is doing more with less because of the reduced cost of drugs.
Sebelius wasn’t the only public official representing the United States on the stage during the opening night of the conference. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a renowned LGBT and HIV/AIDS advocate, also spoke on stage to call for an end to the epidemic, observing it has had a particularly devastating impact on black Americans.
“Although AIDS has made the transition from a death sentence to a chronic disease, new infections unfortunately continue at alarming rates,” Lee said. “HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects no group of people in our country more than African Americans. Of the 1.4 million people in the United States living with HIV, nearly half are black men and women, even though blacks make up 14 percent of the population.”
Last week, Lee announced that had introduced into the U.S. House legislation called the “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Act.” The bill has 26 co-sponsors who are all Democrats and aims to establish a policy and financing framework to eliminate AIDS domestically and abroad.
The bill aims to fight HIV/AIDS by providing additional funds for programs such as the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs; addressing policy barriers to accessing prevention and care, such as encouraging condom use in prisons; and calling for a more advanced strategy overseas to end the global AIDS epidemic.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray also took to the stage to welcome international attendees to D.C. and talk about how HIV/AIDS has impacted the city.
“HIV/AIDS has crossed all racial, ethnic, religious and socio-economic borders,” Gray said. “It is a disease that knows no boundaries.”
According to Gray, an estimated 20,000 people in D.C. have been infected with HIV/AIDS, and 10,000 residents have died as a result of the disease.
Other speakers on Sunday were Annah Sango, a Zimbabwe advocate living with HIV who seeks visibility for female patients, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who said he was the first World Bank president to the address the international conference, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Mark Dybul, global AIDS coordinator for President George W. Bush who touted that administration’s achievements in the global AIDS fight.
The co-chairs of the conference, Elly Katabira, a Ugandan activist and president of the International AIDS Society, and Diane Havlir, chief of HIV/AIDS Division at the University of California, San Francisco, welcomed attendees to the conference. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon prepared a video message for attendees.
Also on Sunday, the White House unveiled a video message from Obama welcoming the international attendees to the conference. The video message was prepared in lieu of a live appearance by Obama at the conference.
In the video, Obama talks about HIV/AIDS advocates’ commitment to fighting the disease and a voice-over talks about discovery of the disease in the 1980s as well as activism and scientific advances to thwart it.
Watch the video below:
Federal Government
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD

A 409-page report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenges the ethics of medical interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, the treatments that are often collectively called gender-affirming care, instead advocating for psychotherapy alone.
The document comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the federal government from supporting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
While the report does not constitute clinical guidance, its findings nevertheless conflict with not just the recommendations of LGBTQ advocacy groups but also those issued by organizations with relevant expertise in science and medicine.
The American Medical Association, for instance, notes that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy along with — in some but not all cases — puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
“The suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”
GLAAD further notes that the “government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.”
Janelle Perez, executive director of LPAC, said, “For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
“This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – it isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.
“The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”
“Today’s report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda. The claims in today’s report would rip health care away from kids and take decision-making out of the hands of parents,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people into hating themselves for being unable to change something they can’t change.”
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology and genetics,” Minter said. “No amount or talk or pressure will change that.”
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown released a statement: “Trans people are who we are. We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.
“This report misrepresents the science that has led all mainstream American medical and mental health professionals to declare healthcare for transgender youth to be best practice and instead follows a script predetermined not by experts but by Sec. Kennedy and anti-equality politicians.”
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Federal Courts
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.

Lambda Legal on April 25 filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary people who are challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s passport policy.
The lawsuit, which Lambda Legal filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, alleges the policy that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers “has caused and is causing grave and immediate harm to transgender people like plaintiffs, in violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection.”
Two of the seven plaintiffs — Jill Tran and Peter Poe — live in Maryland. The State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the federal government are defendants.
“The discriminatory passport policy exposes transgender U.S. citizens to harassment, abuse, and discrimination, in some cases endangering them abroad or preventing them from traveling, by forcing them to use identification documents that share private information against their wishes,” said Lambda Legal in a press release.
Zander Schlacter, a New York-based textile artist and designer, is the lead plaintiff.
The lawsuit notes he legally changed his name and gender in New York.
Schlacter less than a week before President Donald Trump’s inauguration “sent an expedited application to update his legal name on his passport, using form DS-5504.”
Trump once he took office signed an executive order that banned the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers. The lawsuit notes Schlacter received his new passport in February.
“The passport has his correct legal name, but now has an incorrect sex marker of ‘F’ or ‘female,'” notes the lawsuit. “Mr. Schlacter also received a letter from the State Department notifying him that ‘the date of birth, place of birth, name, or sex was corrected on your passport application,’ with ‘sex’ circled in red. The stated reason was ‘to correct your information to show your biological sex at birth.'”
“I, like many transgender people, experience fear of harassment or violence when moving through public spaces, especially where a photo ID is required,” said Schlacter in the press release that announced the lawsuit. “My safety is further at risk because of my inaccurate passport. I am unwilling to subject myself and my family to the threat of harassment and discrimination at the hands of border officials or anyone who views my passport.”
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
Lambda Legal represented Zzyym.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.
Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January. Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
A federal judge in Boston earlier this month issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven trans and nonbinary people.
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