PRESS ADVISORY
For Release: May 14, 2025
Contact: Asia Russell, Health GAP, asia@healthgap.org | 267-475-2645
Simbiat Akiolu, Housing Works s.akiolu@housingworks.org | 917-297-3294
AIDS Activists Disrupt HHS Secretary Kennedy During Senate Hearings,
Denouncing Deadly Budget Cuts, Cancellation of Vital Research, Mass Firings of 10,000 Staff, and Elimination of Essential HHS Divisions and Offices
(Washington, DC) AIDS activists today protested HHS Secretary Kennedy’s evisceration of the HIV response during his testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. They interrupted Kennedy’s testimony, holding signs and chanting “RFK Kills People With AIDS.”
“Kennedy and Trump are massacring America’s global and domestic HIV responses. People will die as a result of their senseless decisions. Congress has a duty to intervene now and reject Kennedy’s deadly budget proposal, and work urgently to reinstate what he is demolishing,” said Asia Russell of Health GAP. Kennedy has carried fired 10,000 staff, halted cutting edge scientific research (already underway as well as planned), and made massive cuts to life saving global and domestic programs, such as elimination of the Maternal and Child Health Branch at the CDC’s Global Division of HIV and Tuberculosis, which had overseen PEPFAR funded programs supporting 500,000 babies with HIV and 600,000 pregnant HIV positive people across low-income countries. At least $759 million worth of federal grants for HIV research have been cancelled so far. Eight activists were arrested.
Analyses show that domestic and global programs prioritizing health needs of LGBTQI+, Black and Brown people, women, and other groups disproportionately affected by HIV have been singled out for cuts or elimination. A review by The New York Times of all terminated research awards shows half were focused on LGBTQI+ health. “On top of the decimation of existing HIV programs and research, in FY26 Kennedy wants even more cuts,” said Eric Sawyer of Housing Works. “This isn’t a budget proposal, this is a bloodbath. He will allow new outbreaks to spread, while stealing services from people.”
“Together with Rubio’s devastation of PEPFAR, Kennedy’s plan imperils millions of people with HIV worldwide,” said Kendall Martinez-Wright of the Treatment Action Group.
Today’s protest was preceded by arrests of 25 activists in Congress May 13 during a markup in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, protesting deadly cuts to Medicaid, which provides healthcare for approximately 40% of people with HIV in the U.S.
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