Africa Action Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michael Stulman Office: (202) 546-7961, Cell (202) 469-9542
michael.stulman@africaaction.org
AIDS Activists Rally at White House Today
WHO: One thousand people living with HIV, and allies, from across the United States. The Inauguration is organized by ACT UP Philadelphia, Africa Action, African Services Committee, American Medical Student Association, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), Health GAP, Housing Works, NYC AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), Proyecto Sol Filadelphia, Student Global AIDS Campaign and VOCAL-NY Users Union. A list of over 70 endorsing organizations can be found at www.100daystofightaids.org/endorsements.
WHAT: Activists will host an “inauguration ceremony” outside the White House to inaugurate Barack Obama as the president who, during his first 100 days, will prioritize policies to end the AIDS epidemic in the US and worldwide. The AIDS activists will carry the torch for those lost in the 27-year fight to end the disease, and will look to an Obama administration to fulfill its campaign promise to develop and implement a comprehensive, transparent and attainable National AIDS Strategy, including reforms to HIV prevention, treatment, care, housing and global AIDS policies. After the “Inauguration Ceremony,” advocates will march to the transition team offices and present a list of policies for President-elect Obama to adopt and advance during his first 100 days.
WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, Nov. 20th at 1pm, McPherson Square (15th and Eye NW) with March to the White House and Transition Team HQ, Washington, DC
WHY: After twenty-seven years of the HIV epidemic, no president has made fighting AIDS at home and abroad a real priority for his administration. President-elect Obama has made historically bold commitments to reform and expand US policies geared towards fighting AIDS. His campaign pledged to develop a National AIDS Strategy that includes guaranteed treatment and care for all people with HIV in the US. The campaign pledge goes on to detail a commitment to housing as an integral part of HIV services, an end to the federal ban on funding for syringe exchange, and a call to redirect abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education funding into honest and accurate programs like comprehensive HIV prevention programs. Internationally, Obama has promised to build on President Bush’s global AIDS plan by removing the ideological strings the Bush administration attached to prevention funding. Specifically, Obama has committed to end the Prostitution Loyalty Oath and support an evidence-based approach to HIV prevention that doesn’t overly emphasize abstinence and fidelity at the expense of condoms. He has also pledged to increase funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, a multilateral program which fights the three killer diseases in over 170 countries and which is facing a major funding shortfall.
“President-elect Obama has made bold promises around fighting AIDS, but we also know he will face challenges, including a financial crisis. We are holding an inauguration ceremony because we share his vision of hope and change, and to show our support for implementation, in his first 100 days, of the visionary commitments President-elect Obama has made to fight AIDS in the US and around the world,” said ACT UP Philadelphia member Waheedah Shabazz-el.
Obama’s AIDS Plan, released during the campaign, can be found at www.barackobama.com/pdf/AIDSFactSheet.pdf.
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