National
Bisexuals: The neglected stepchild of the LGBTQ rights movement?
Activists say disparaging views from gays and straights are lessening, but bias continues
Bisexual rights advocates point out that a recent Gallup Poll using scientifically proven polling techniques shows that 58.2 percent of people in the U.S. who make up the LGBTQ community identify as bisexual.
And for many years, bi activists say, earlier polling data have shown that people who self-identify as bi have comprised close to 50 percent of the overall LGBTQ population.
Yet in spite of this, a half dozen prominent bisexual rights activists interviewed by the Washington Blade who have been involved in the LGBTQ movement for 20 years or longer say bisexuals for the most part have been neglected and treated in a disparaging way in the early years of the post-Stonewall LGBTQ rights movement.
Things began to improve in the past 15 years or so, but misconceptions and biased views of bisexuals among lesbians and gays as well as in the heterosexual world continue to this day, according to bisexual rights advocates.
These advocates point to the one major stigma they have had to endure for years—the belief that they cannot make up their minds or they are hiding the fact that they are gay men or lesbian women.
“For the record, I state that bisexuality is not a counterfeit behavior or a phase,” said longtime bisexual rights advocate Cliff Arnesen in a statement to the Blade. “It is a true sexual orientation of physical and emotional attraction to both genders,” he said. “I believe some of the apprehension to a person’s bisexual orientation lies within the mindset of people who oppose the concept of bisexual people having ‘heterosexual privilege,’” Arnesen says in his statement.
Arnesen, 74, a resident of Canton, Mass., is a U.S. Army veteran and has also been an advocate for military veterans, both LGBTQ and straight. He says one of the highlights of his many years of activism took place May 3, 1989, when he became the first known openly bisexual veteran in U.S. history to testify before a committee of the U.S. Congress on behalf of LGBTQ and heterosexual veterans.
Among the issues he discussed in his testimony, Arnesen says, were HIV/AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder, homelessness, gays in the military, and the then Uniformed Code of Military Justice sodomy law impacting LGBTQ people in the military.
He also told the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs in his 1989 testimony about efforts by him and other LGBT veterans to advocate for the upgrade of less-than-honorable discharges of people in the military based on their sexual orientation.
“Bisexual people have always made enormous contributions of benefit to the larger gay community,” Arneson told the Blade. “Yet historically we are marginalized by many in both the gay community and society,” he said.
“To counter that marginalization, we bisexual people must use the ‘key of visibility’ to enlighten and educate the masses as regards to their preconceived misconceptions of bisexuality.”
Arnesen is among at least five other elder U.S. bisexual rights advocates who told the Blade they are seeing positive changes in recent years for bisexuals, including among the national LGBTQ organizations that, according to these activists, ignored the ‘bi’ in the movement for far too long.
Among them are longtime D.C. residents Loraine Hutchins, who co-founded the organizations BiNet USA and the Alliance of Multicultural Bisexuals, and A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin, who in 1978 helped launch the National Coalition of Black Gays, the nation’s first advocacy organization for African-American lesbians and gay men.
Jones-Hennin is also credited with helping to organize one year later the first national March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979. During the same weekend of the march, he helped to convene what observers call an historic National Third World (People of Color) LGBTQ Conference at D.C.’s Howard University.
Hutchins, co-editor of the acclaimed 1991 book, “Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out,” holds a doctorate in cultural studies and has taught sexuality and gender and women’s studies at Montgomery College and Towson University in Maryland.
Hutchins is now retired and lives in a retirement community in Montgomery County, Md. She told the Blade she has seen some positive changes in recent years within the overall LGBTQ rights movement and LGBTQ rights organizations toward bisexuals. She notes that the National LGBTQ Task Force’s current executive director, Kierra Johnson, identifies as bisexual.
The Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights advocacy organization, “have gotten much stronger on understanding bi advocacy or bi education,” Hutchins said.
But despite this, she said, she doesn’t see sufficient advances regarding the needs of bisexual people being fully taken up at the federal policy-making level, including in the administration of President Joe Biden, even though she sees the Biden administration as being better than previous administrations on bisexual issues.
BiPlus Organizing U.S., a national coalition of bisexual rights organizations, reports on its website that bisexual advocates held “three important convenings with the White House” during the Obama administration in 2013, 2015, and 2016. It says a small group of bi activists met with White House officials and officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2022 under the Biden administration during Bisexual Awareness Week.
Fiona Dawson, one of the co-founders of BiPlus Organizing U.S., said the meeting between bi advocates and the Biden administration officials took place at the Department of Health and Human Services offices rather than at the White House.
Dawson, who is from the United Kingdom and now works as a filmmaker based in Austin said the meeting was productive but she and other bi activists would like the Biden White House to hold an official White House reception for the bi community like the reception it holds for the full LGBTQ community.
“We want more bi organizations to contact us,” Dawson said in describing the work of BiPlus Organizing U.S. “I estimate that there are at least 20 bi organizations nationwide,” she said, with most of the groups being locally based. “I see change coming,” she added, saying the younger generation of LGBTQ people, including bisexuals, are becoming more supportive of bi rights.
Many bisexuals now identify as ‘bi-plus’
Jones-Hennin, who attended the first White House meeting with bisexual rights advocates during the Obama administration, said the lack of information about bisexuality in the media and from gay rights groups going back to the 1970s played a role in his own coming out process as a bisexual man.
“I started as straight and then as a gay man,” Jones-Hennin recalls. “I at first did not buy into the idea of being bi,” he said. “Bisexuals have been erased and to a certain degree that’s still happening. We need more visibility of bi,” he said.
Jones-Hennin said he and his husband, who spend part of each year in their homes in Mexico and in D.C., now proudly identify as bi plus.
His reference to the term bi-plus or bi+ is part of the definition of bisexuality that bi rights advocates have been using to be inclusive of those who identify as pansexual as well as those who are both transgender and bisexual.
“Bi+ people may use many terms to describe their own sexual identities, including queer, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual, and heteroflexible,” according to T.J. Jourian, Ph.D., and author of a January 2022 article on bisexuality for the publication Best Colleges.
In his article, Jourian quotes Massachusetts-based longtime bisexual rights advocate and author Robyn Ochs as providing her own interpretation of being bi.
“I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree,” Ochs says in a statement.
Bisexuals more likely to have mental health problems: study
Hutchins, meanwhile, points to a report released on June 13 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that shows that adults who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual are more likely to have mental health problems than their straight counterparts. But the study also shows that people who identify as bisexual have a higher rate of mental health problems, including suicidal ideation, than gays and lesbians.
LaNail Plummer, a mental health therapist and licensed professional counselor who serves as CEO and clinical director of the D.C.-based Onyx Therapy Group, said she has seen from her therapy and counseling practice that the mental health issues faced by bisexual people are often the result of discrimination and negative treatment they receive from both the heterosexual community and from gays and lesbians.
Plummer, who herself identifies as bisexual, told the Blade in a phone interview that bisexuals often go through a coming out process that’s more complicated and involves less peer support than the coming out process for gay men and lesbians.
“There’s a lot of people who are bisexual in a world that seems to be centered around polarity,” Plummer said. “It is complicated for bisexual folks because bisexual folks can and will likely date people of the opposite sex at different times,” she said, requiring to some degree that they must “come out” in a same-sex relationship and later in an opposite-sex relationship.
Bisexual people face additional “stressors,” Plummer said, when they are in a relationship with a partner of the same sex because that partner sometimes manifests fear that their bi partner will leave them for someone of the opposite sex.
“I have a person I know who identifies as bisexual and she has a wife,” Plummer told the Blade. “And every time the person that I know goes out, the wife, who identifies as lesbian, gives her a really hard time, by asking are you going to be with a man today? What happens if a man comes up and talks to you? How are you going to respond to them?”
That type of dynamic, according to Plummer, often prompts bisexual people to go back into the closet and withhold their identity as bi to someone they are dating or in a relationship with who may be of the same sex or the opposite sex.
Plummer and bisexual rights advocates say this type of stress placed on bi people is usually based on misconceptions and bias against bisexuality that bi advocates say they hope will continue to decline with improved education and understanding of bisexuals.
Elder activists hopeful that bias is declining
Ochs told the Blade in an interview that she has been an activist in support of LGBTQ and bisexual equality for more than 40 years, with a focus on issues of concern to bisexuals.
“And I would say the first 30 of those years I felt we were beating our heads against a stone wall,” she said in describing efforts to advance bisexual rights. “It was so frustrating. I saw little progress. I felt like we were having the same conversations over and over and over,” she said.
“We continued to be ignored in all sorts of media, both mainstream media and LGBTQ media,” she recounted. “It would have been inconceivable up to about a decade ago for an out bisexual person to have ever been appointed as head of any national LGBTQ organization,” she said.
“So, that’s the background. The good part is that’s no longer true,” Ochs said. “There is much more cultural representation now with musicians, politicians and public figures coming out as bisexual and pansexual.”
She pointed to the two prominent national LGBTQ organizations that currently have top leaders who identify as bi+. The two are Kiera Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, and Erin Uritus, CEO of the national LGBTQ group Out & Equal.
Another longtime bi advocate currently based in San Francisco, Lani Ka’ahumanu, is widely recognized as a leader in national social justice movements, including Native American, feminist, anti-war, and LGBTQ and bisexual rights movements. She is also an acclaimed author and poet whose writings appear in 20 books, including the book she co-edited with Loraine Hutchins, “Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out.”
Her online biography says Ka’ahumanu, like other bi activists, evolved from a suburban housewife in a heterosexual marriage with children in the 1960s and an amicable divorce with her husband before she came out as a lesbian.
“I was a lesbian for four years in the ‘70s,” she told the Blade in a phone interview. “And then I fell in love with a bisexual man and came out in 1980 as bi,” she said, adding that she continued, sometimes despite fellow activists who were skeptical about bisexuality, in her involvement in the feminist and LGBTQ rights movements.
She became the first known out bisexual to serve on the board of directors of a national LGBTQ rights organization in 2000, when she was appointed to the board of the National LGBTQ Task Force, where she served until 2007.
Ka’ahumanu agrees with other bi rights advocates that things have improved in recent years for the bisexual community in the political and social landscape. But she said she was startled earlier this year when expressions of bias toward bisexuals surfaced, of all places, at the National LGBTQ Task Force’s annual Creating Change Conference held in San Francisco last February.
In her role as an elder and mentor to young bi activists, she said, she attended one of the conference’s bisexual workshops. “And hearing what some people said, it was the same stories from the ‘80s and 90s,” she recounted. “You know, you need to make up your mind. People were still being trashed for being bisexual within the lesbian and gay community,” said Ka’ahumanu.
“And that part kind of threw me,” she recounted. “I said, are we still in this place of being invisible?” she asked. “A lot of people still can’t step outside of that either or thing.”
Ka’ahumanu made it clear that most of the other sessions of the Creating Change Conference, which marked the beginning of the Task Force’s 50th anniversary, appeared supportive of the LGBTQ organization’s progressive and supportive views and policies on LGBTQ issues.
Shoshana Goldberg, Public Education and Research Director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ political advocacy organization, said that like the LGBTQ community as a whole, recent developments have been “mixed” for bisexuals in the U.S.
“Bisexuals, particularly bisexual women of color, consistently earn less than the average American worker, and even less than their LGBTQ+ peers,” Goldberg said in a statement. “Many of the health disparities seen between LGBTQ+ and cis/het folks are magnified for bisexual people, and bisexuals continue to face biphobia from both straight and queer communities, and bi-erasure from all sectors of daily life,” Goldberg stated.
HRC official Rebecca Hershey, who works on diversity and inclusion issues, said HRC has been addressing issues of concern to the bisexual community through, among other things, its LGBTQ Coming Out Guides, which offer information to “dispel myths and address stereotypes about bisexuality.”
HRC also supports the annual Bisexual Health Awareness Month and in 2019 released its Bi+ youth report, which analyzed a survey HRC conducted of close to 9,000 teens to “help shed light” on the experiences of bi+ youth nationwide.
Bi rights advocates say the national LGBTQ organization GLAAD, which focuses on improving fairness in media and entertainment industry portrayals of LGBTQ people, has also acted as a strong advocate for bisexuals. In the 11th edition of its Media Reference Guide, GLAAD includes a detailed write-up on how the news and entertainment media should report on or portray bisexual people.
“By being more cognizant of the realities facing bisexual people and the community’s many diversities, and by fairly and accurately reporting on people who are bisexual, the media can help eliminate some of the misconceptions and damaging stereotypes bisexual people face on a daily basis,” GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide states.
Arnesen, the elder bisexual rights advocate who his bi colleagues refer to as an icon in the bi movement, sums up his sentiment as a bisexual advocate in his statement to the Blade.
“As a Bisexual human being, I am mindful that I stand upon the shoulders of the innumerable and courageous GLBT+ pioneers and advocates for ‘equality’ who came before me,” he wrote. “Fate just happened to put me in the right place, at the right time to advocate for ‘equality’ on behalf of my bisexual brothers and sisters; and our country’s GLBT and Heterosexual veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces,” he states.
“Today, the love of my life of 33 years is a heterosexual woman named Claudia, whom I love with all my heart and soul,” he says. “As a bisexual person I have been doubly blessed to know the love of both men and women during my life’s journey, and I cherish those memories within my heart.”
Additional information about bisexual rights issues and the state of the bi movement can be accessed through BiPlus Organizing US and its member organizations:
• BiPlus Organizing US
• Bisexual Resource Center, biresource.org
• Bisexual Organizing Project
• Los Angeles Bi+ Task Force, labitaskforce.org
• Bi Women Quarterly, BiWomenQuarterly.com
The White House
SPJ calls for take down of Trump’s ‘media offenders’ website
White House launched online database on Monday
The Society for Professional Journalists has called out the White House for creating a website that targets individual journalists and news outlets that publish unfavorable coverage of the Trump-Vance administration.
In a letter to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday, the SPJ — the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, which works to protect the free practice of journalism with high ethical standards — asked the White House to take down its website singling out journalists for negative coverage of the administration.
“Journalists have a constitutionally protected and societally encouraged duty to hold power to account. They are not political opponents to be tracked, cataloged or punished,” the letter signed by SPJ National President Chris Vaccaro and SPJ Ethics Committee Chair Dan Axelrod.
“By publishing reporters’ names, outlets and specific stories, the White House is naming and shaming members of the press in a highly charged political and social environment. SPJ regards this as a form of online harassment that exposes journalists to potential threats and even violence.”
The website currently lists 23 outlets as “Media Offenders of the Week,” singling out national organizations like CBS News, the Boston Globe, and the Independent. The website says these particular organizations “misrepresents and exaggerates President Trump.”
The letter goes on to explain that there are more civil ways to disagree with published stories without singling out people for doing the only constitutionally protected job in the country.
“There are well-established ways of resolving disagreements over the fairness or accuracy of stories. The White House web page attacking so-called ‘media offenders’ ignores these principles and instead denigrates and attacks reporters.”
It also highlights how Trump often attacks women journalists in particular, noting that two weeks ago he told White House correspondent Catherine Lucey from Bloomberg News to be “quiet piggy” after she asked questions related to Trump’s relationship with sex offender Jeffery Epstein on Air Force One.
“Journalists, particularly women, already face an enormous amount of online harassment, and this can convert into physical violence. As you know, women journalists have also been publicly insulted by the president in recent weeks.”
The letter also explains that attacks like this on the legitimate press can cause tensions between journalists who attempt to hold those in power responsible and the public who consumes the rhetoric.
“This page, which categorizes reporting as ‘lies,’ ‘left-wing lunacy,’ and ‘malpractice,’ has a chilling effect on coverage. It undermines the healthy democratic relationship in which journalists hold power to account.”
The letter also draws a connection to how the Russian authoritarian dictatorship references media it dislikes, saying, “The president’s new ‘media offenders’ list mirrors a 2017 initiative by the Kremlin that labeled independent journalism as ‘fake news.’ The United States should not follow that example.”
“SPJ believes civility must be restored between the media and the Administration. Removing this page would be a vital first step toward lowering the temperature and reinforcing America’s commitment to free expression.”
The SPJ’s code of ethics, widely regarded as the ethical standard for good journalism, has four main pillars: Seek Truth and Report It, Minimize Harm, Act Independently, and Be Accountable and Transparent. The code was adopted in 1926 from the American Society of Newspaper Editors and has been revised multiple times since then, including in 1984, 1987, 1996, and most recently in 2014.
NLGJA, the The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists is the journalist-led association that works within the news media to advance fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ+ communities and issues, provided a statement to the Blade on the website and supports the SPJ’s public call for removing the website to restore faith in journalistic freedom in the U.S.
“We stand with SPJ in urging the Trump administration to remove its website targeting so-called “media offenders.” While NLGJA believes that media organizations should be held to the highest standards of accuracy and ethical reporting, this website does nothing to support a healthy press environment,” National Board President Ken Miguel told the Blade via email. “Instead, it undermines public trust in the free press, enables the harassment and targeting of journalists, and hinders their ability to cover the news fairly and accurately. Journalists must be able to do their work without fear of government retaliation.”
The White House has not responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on the letter.
National
Lawmakers warn of HIV crisis as federal support collapses
NMAC hosted Capitol Hill event on Wednesday
NMAC, formerly known as the National Minority AIDS Council, a nonprofit organization that works for health equity and racial justice to end the HIV epidemic, held its 6th annual Hill Champions reception on Wednesday in the Rayburn House Office Building to honor federal legislators who have worked to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and around the world.
Currently there are an estimated 40.8 million people worldwide living with HIV, with about 1.2 million people in the U.S. with the disease. While there is no cure, there are highly effective treatments that can control the virus and allow people to live long, healthy lives called antiretroviral therapy that can reduce the amount of virus in the body to an undetectable level, which also prevents the spread of HIV to others.
This year, NMAC’s reception featured a slew of current policymakers who use their national platforms to push for expanding HIV funding in Congress. This year’s honorees were three congresswomen who are active voices for HIV/AIDS on the House floor: U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), and Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.).
The awards presented to the representatives are named after three congressional icons who have dedicated their lives to ensuring the voices of the most marginalized are heard, seen, and helped.
Crockett received the John Lewis Good Trouble Award, Jacobs received the Barbara Lee Courage in HIV/Advocacy Award, and Ramirez received the Elijah Cummings Award for Minority Health Equity.
NMAC CEO Harold J. Phillips, the former director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy under President Joe Biden, was one of the first to speak at the event. He congratulated the honorees, highlighted work accomplished this past year in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and outlined what lies ahead as the current president continues to slash funding for public health initiatives worldwide.
“Tonight, we gather to celebrate what’s possible when courage meets commitment, when leaders refuse to let politics stand in the way of saving lives, we’re in a critical moment. Political uncertainty threatens the very programs that have transformed HIV into a manageable condition, but a crisis creates an opportunity for collective action,” Phillips said. “For more than 40 years, the HIV movement has thrived because of bipartisan leadership, leaders who understood that public health transcends party lines. Now more than ever, we need advocates on the hill.”
He continued, spotlighting actions taken by the honorees for the HIV movement during a time when some of the highest officials in government refuse to acknowledge it.
“What unites these champions is their understanding that HIV advocacy is not political — it is moral. They show us what it looks like when leaders treat public health as a responsibility, not a bargaining chip.”
Jacobs and Ramirez attended in person, while Crockett, who was unable to be there, sent a video.
In her speech after receiving the Barbara Lee Courage in HIV/Advocacy Award, Jacobs emphasized that the policies and initiatives put forward through the HIV Caucus and public health organizations in the U.S. have global impact — particularly regarding PEPFAR. Jacobs has been a consistent champion for people living with HIV, military service rights, and protecting the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“PEPFAR has saved over 25 million lives, but cuts are already causing catastrophic setbacks,” Rep. Jacobs said, explaining that even with progress made due to PEPFAR funding, places like Malawi reaching the 95-95-95 goal (95 percent of all people with HIV knew their status, 95 percent of those diagnosed were on lifesaving antiretrovirals, and 95 percent of those on medication were unable to transmit HIV) will continue to suffer. “In Malawi, where services for LGBTQ people, sex workers, young women, and other marginalized groups have been eliminated, it’s no longer a question of if transmission rates will rise — but when. We cannot leave communities behind or allow preventable deaths because of political decisions made in Washington.”
“I know that people of color, immigrants and trans people, have all been let down by our mainstream approach to HIV prevention and everything, I see seven barriers they face in accessing health care, the stigma surrounding disease and the lack of awareness from people in power,” the San Diego congresswoman said. “I want to say to those in that community, I will not let you fall through the cracks. I will not let you become another statistic, and I will keep working to make sure your voice is heard and that you can live a full and healthy life.”
Crockett, who addressed the crowd via video, emphasized her award’s namesake, explaining that the “good trouble” she gets into on the House floor and in committees can be deemed too much even by those in her own party, but that she remains committed to making HIV treatment accessible to all, regardless of background.
“To receive an award named after John Lewis is an honor all on its own. It means being bold, speaking up when others are scared to and standing firm when the truth makes people uncomfortable. And y’all know me — I don’t mind stirring a little trouble, especially when I am stirring trouble that is good trouble — but I never do it alone. I do it with the strength of the communities I represent. I do it with the stories of the folks who feel unheard. I do it for the people who depend on someone in those halls of Congress to fight for them. So this award isn’t just mine. It belongs to every advocate pushing for access to health care, every person navigating their own health journey, every organizer who refuses to give up.”
She continued, without directly calling out the White House, making allusions to pushing back against the recent emergence of budget cuts.
“I promise to keep fighting for funding, for research, for resources ,and for every community that needs a champion, because getting into good trouble isn’t just a phrase, it’s a calling, a calling we all share in this room,” Crockett said. “Thank you again for this honor, and thank you for your leadership, your fight and your refusal to back down. Now, let’s keep getting into that good trouble.”
Ramirez, who represents a part of Chicago, was previously in the Illinois House of Representatives, where she co-sponsored legislation to allow minors to access HIV and STI testing, prevention, and treatment without parental consent. She was also a chief co-sponsor in securing $10 million in state funding for this initiative in Illinois, and was the House chief co-sponsor for the “disrupting disparities for LGBTQ+ older adults and older adults living with HIV” initiative.
“I am clear more than ever that a commitment to ending the HIV and AIDS epidemic must continue to be our priority, and we must demonstrate that priority not through words, my friends, but through action — fighting for and protecting our neighbors, living with HIV or AIDS, including our LGBTQI plus neighbors,” Ramirez said. “It means showing up, telling our stories, celebrating each other and fighting side by side for that collective liberation, which only makes me more grateful for the people in this room.”
She also used the platform to criticize how some of Trump-Vance administration’s cuts to healthcare coverage funding were directed at underserved communities within the U.S. — namely undocumented immigrants like her parents.
“I want you to know that as members of Congress, we cannot go through day to day as business as usual, today is the time to demand that our siblings living with HIV and AIDS, no matter their sexual orientation, no matter their gender expression, no matter their zip code, their background or their citizenship status, that they get everything that they deserve, every Damn thing, so that they can live a healthy and thriving life.”
While the event was intended to celebrate the accomplishments of legislators, advocates, and supporters of the fight against HIV/AIDS, the tone of the night was noticeably more charged following the Trump-Vance administration’s refusal to acknowledge World AIDS Day — and the reported directive instructing federal employees not to comment about it on any channels, including social media and traditional media.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made a surprise appearance, celebrating the three legislators while emphasizing the critical importance of supporting HIV/AIDS research now that the White House has refused to acknowledge it.
“It’s really important this year, because this is the first time in a very long time that we have had World AIDS Day when the president of the United States has said, we can’t really talk about it and we certainly should not observe it for two days. On Sunday and Monday in San Francisco, we did exactly that. We talked about it, and we observed it, and here we are talking about it here, because, as Congressman Crockett said, and we all know, we’re here to fight for funding. We’re fighting for research, prevention, and all of that, but we’re also here to fight against discrimination and stigma anybody wants to attach to this, and that starts with you in the White House,” Pelosi said. “We have a fight on our hands, because this isn’t over.. [to] make sure that any discussion of HIV ends up in the dust bin of history, an ancient malady when our children, grandchildren all grow up. ‘What was that?’ It was something that doesn’t exist anymore because of the goodness of others, because of the National Minority AIDS Council.”
Maxine Waters slams Trump
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) also made an appearance and delivered an unfiltered, passionate speech praising NMAC’s efforts and calling out Trump for ending funding for HIV/AIDS worldwide while simultaneously accepting donations to rebuild the White House as he sees fit.
“I want to tell you when they asked, how was I doing when I came in, really, I was thinking about the president of the United States and what’s going on now, it’s so troubling. And I find myself not sleeping as well as I normally sleep. I find myself trying to believe that what I see is happening is absolutely happening,” Waters said. “Many of our people with HIV and AIDS are homeless, and they’re not being taken care of, and they’re going to die with the cuts that are being made. Unfortunately, we just got to say it.”
She continued, calling out Trump’s lack of focus on domestic issues like HIV/AIDS that directly impact American citizens, instead prioritizing issues unrelated to the public’s welfare.
“The fact that the president of the United States is killing people in international waters in Venezuela, not knowing whether or not they’re drug dealers or not, not caring, and I think about two people, two men hanging on the side of the boat who had escaped the bomb that hit, and they said, kill him, and they shot him down and killed it’s hard to live with this. It’s hard to understand how all of this is happening. And so Trump refused to commemorate World AIDS Day, and his State Department instructed employees and grantees to refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public facing messaging let’s just be an honorary Why would he be focused on us celebrating or working with World AIDS Day and helping people to understand that HIV and AIDS is still a big problem in this country, and we have to spend money. We have to do what it takes in order to provide the medicine and the health care that they need. Why would he just be against that? He’s already cutting the funds. But just go even further and say and don’t even promote World AIDS Day. It’s bothersome. Trump halted funds for PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which was created under the leadership of former Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the co-founder of the Congressional HIV AIDS Caucus.”
“There’s a very rich man that paid attention to what was going on with HIV and AIDS, and that was Bill Gates. And I’d like to quote him and what he said. ‘We’re already seeing the tragic impact of reductions in aid, and we know the number of date deaths will continue to rise.’ Here in the United States, where Nancy and I just talked about the creation of Minority AIDS Initiative to address AIDS disparities, and where the initiative has grown from 156 million when we first started in 1999 to more than 400 million per year. Today, Donald Trump is waging an all out war on people living with HIV. Trump’s budget proposal completely eliminated HIV prevention funding at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and he slashed the funds from Ryan White AIDS care and HIV research. We cannot allow, we cannot allow these devastating cuts to be implemented, and so we’re doing everything that we possibly can to fight Donald Trump on all of these issues. I want you to know that this attack on many of our friends who happened to come from other countries is just outrageous, and what he said about Somalia today just cannot be understood or accepted. And so for all of the nice people in the room, get mad, get angry. Do a little cursing. Tell people what you think about it, because if you’re too nice, nobody believes you. You got to kick a little butt. You got to make sure that they understand we’re in this fight and we’re not going to go away. I know he’s the president of the United States, but he shouldn’t be. He’s the president of the United States with a cabinet that knows nothing and cares nothing about anybody. I dare anybody to talk about minorities and want to know whether or not we’re qualified. Hell, they have the most unqualified people that you’ve ever witnessed in your life, anytime, anyplace, anywhere. We want to get rid of all of them dealing with this public policy, doing everything that we can, educating people. Don’t forget, you got to get them to vote.”
She spoke for 17 minutes, touching on many current events but repeatedly returning to the point that the president is supposed to represent the people — not his own interests.
“I came here to talk about AIDS, but I wasn’t going to let you go without talking about some other stuff too. And I’m going to leave you with saying, not only are we concerned and we’re upset about the kind of cuts that are made, whether we’re talking about health care, we’re talking about AIDS in particular, whether we’re talking about Section Eight, whether we’re talking about food stamps, this crazy man is destroying the White House — bulldozes the East Wing. Why would he do that? And why would he spend over $300 million to do that while he’s cutting all of these programs? Well, he’ll say it’s being donated. Well, get it donated to AIDS. You know what I’m saying. Why are you getting it donated? And then, last of all, which pisses me off, you. Definitely, and I just think it’s crazy and outrageous. He wants to take the John F. Kennedy Center and name it after Melania. What the hell?”
In a moment when federal silence grows louder, the advocates in that room offered a counterpoint — a reminder that community, courage, and persistence still drive the fight to end HIV.
Maine
Maine governor opens LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s D.C. conference
Janet Mills successfully challenged White House’s anti-trans athlete executive order
Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Thursday opened the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s annual International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in D.C.
Mills noted her February confrontation with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office over his executive order that bans transgender athletes from participating in school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
Maine sued the Trump-Vance administration after it withheld federal funds to the state’s Department of Education. A federal judge ordered the White House to unfreeze the money.
“I speak as someone who, yeah, stood up to the president of the United States, to his face, when Donald Trump demanded that Maine violate our own laws to discriminate against transgender youth,” said Mills. “I told him I’d see him court. And guess what? We did see him in court and we won.”
Mills in October announced she is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
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