Aired on February 18, 2025
Sound file of the program is available below. Press play to stream or green down arrow to download mp3 file.
No to Anti-Trans Censorship/Rewriting History
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Sylvia Rivera: "The Revolution is Finally Here!"
- Rise and Resist
- Gender Liberation Movement
- Resisting Project 2025/Stop the Coup - Substack here
- ACT UP / NY
You can't take the T out of Stonewall
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Stop the Assault on Global AIDS Survival Programs
On January 24, the Trump Administration put a 90-day freeze on almost all programs run by USAID, the U.S. foreign aid agency that oversees PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief launched in 2003 by George W. Bush after intense pressure from worldwide AIDS activists. Then, nearly all USAID staff was laid off or furloughed. After widespread protests, on Feb. 1 Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a waiver supposedly allowing a limited number of HIV treatments and testing to continue.
“This is cruel—and will be devastating to the AIDS response if not immediately reversed,” said Asia Russell, Executive Director of Health GAP (Global Access Project). Russell added: “For PEPFAR, the U.S. global AIDS program, a freeze will snatch life saving services and medicines from the hands of hundreds of millions of adults, teenagers and babies with HIV and at greatest risk of acquisition of HIV.” PEPFAR currently provides HIV treatment to 20.6 million people, HIV testing to 83.8 million people, and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for 2.5 million people.
Last week, the Democracy Now program reported, "The United Nations AIDS agency warned on Friday that more than 6 million people could die from HIV and AIDS over the next four years if PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is not reauthorized."
On Feb. 13, Reuters reported, "Hundreds of millions of dollars of life-saving medical supplies are stranded in warehouses and on ships around the world due to President Donald Trump's move to freeze foreign aid...That order and other Trump administration efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development have broken a complex global supply chain for U.S.-funded medical aid."
The fightback against these attacks has been strong. On Feb. 6, a large group of AIDS activists -- organized by Health GAP, Housing Works, ACT UP/NY, and the Treatment Action Group -- blocked the entrance to the State Department but were not arrested after several hours. The next day, a Trump-appointed judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle USAID and lay off thousands of workers. On Feb. 13, 5 AIDS activists were arrested after disrupting a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on USAID funding. One of those five, Eric Sawyer, will be our guest on Out-FM.
Also joining us from South Africa will be Sibongile Tshabalala, a mother and an HIV activist living with the virus since 2000, who is the National Chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign or TAC. She began her tenure at TAC in 2009 as a local branch member. Sibongile has written, “The reckless freezing of US foreign aid is nothing short of a death sentence for thousands of people in South Africa. Critical healthcare infrastructure is being dismantled, clinics forced to close, frontline workers without support, all while lives hang in the balance. We are watching decades of progress on HIV being decimated.”
According to a Feb. 10th press release from the CHANGE coalition formed in South Africa to respond to this crisis – that stands for Community Health HIV Advocates Navigating Global Emergencies: “The US government's funding freeze is wreaking havoc across vital healthcare services in South Africa, creating an unprecedented crisis for people living with and affected by HIV and TB. A newly released compendium of frontline testimony by civil society exposes the deadly impact of halted support, with clinics shutting down, life-saving treatments interrupted, and vulnerable communities abandoned. The crisis threatening the world’s largest HIV treatment programme stems from unlawful Executive Orders issued by US President Donald Trump. As of January 20, health services began shutting down including HIV testing, treatment and prevention, sexual and reproductive health services, gender-affirming care for trans and gender-diverse people, mental health, and harm reduction across South Africa. An additional Executive Order threatens to halt ALL US aid to South Africa.”
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