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Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
WorldPride attendees to march through Washington in defiance of Trump
Workers place barricades at the Dupont Circle park, ahead of weekend WorldPride events in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura Barricades are placed at the Dupont Circle park, ahead of weekend WorldPride events in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura The Dupont Circle Fountain stands behind barricades at the Dupont Circle park, ahead of weekend WorldPride events in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura A barricade stands at the Dupont Circle park, ahead of weekend WorldPride events in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura Workers place barricades at the Dupont Circle park, ahead of weekend WorldPride events in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura WASHINGTON - LGBTQ+ people from around the world will march through the streets of Washington on Saturday in a joyful celebration meant to show defiance to President Donald Trump's rollback of queer rights. The parade route will come within one block of the White House grounds in one of the final main events of the weeks-long WorldPride celebration. On Sunday a more political event, dubbed a rally and march, will convene at the Lincoln Memorial, a revered space in the U.S. civil rights movement as the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. Events will play out in the U.S. capital in the wake of the Trump administration's measures to curtail LGBTQ+ rights. The Republican president has issued executive orders limiting transgender rights, banning transgender people from serving in the armed forces, and rescinding anti-discrimination policies for LGBTQ+ people as part of a campaign to repeal diversity, equity and inclusion programs. While proponents of DEI consider it necessary to correct historic inequities, the White House has described it as a form of discrimination based on race or gender, and said its transgender policy protects women by keeping transgender women out of shared spaces. Moreover, the White House said it has appointed a number of openly gay people to cabinet posts or judgeships, and noted that the Trump administration took steps to decriminalize homosexuality globally, and that its 2019 initiative "Ending the HIV Epidemic" aimed to cut HIV infections by 90% by 2030. "The President is honored to serve all Americans," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement. Event organizers said they were unaware of any counterprotests or anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrations planned for Saturday or Sunday. The National Park Service, however, has decided to fence off Dupont Circle, a popular public space, until Sunday night at the request of the U.S. Park Police, which said closure was necessary to "secure the park, deter potential violence, reduce the risk of destructive acts and decrease the need for extensive law enforcement presences." Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride events, said it was "frustrated and disappointed" at the closure. "This beloved landmark is central to the community that WorldPride intends to celebrate and honor. It's much more than a park, for generations it's been a gathering place for DC's LGBTQ+ community, hosting First Amendment assemblies and memorial services for those we lost to the AIDS epidemic and following tragic events like the Pulse nightclub shooting," the alliance said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Rachel Levine fought HIV & STIs at HHS. Now that Trump's undoing that progress, she's speaking out
Dr. Rachel Levine made history in 2021 as the highest-ranking out transgender federal official ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate. But her legacy goes far beyond that milestone. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. A pediatrician by training, Levine had already built a reputation for science-based public service as Pennsylvania's physician general and later as the state's secretary of health under Gov. Tom Wolf. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she became a steady, fact-driven voice amid political chaos. But her four-year tenure as assistant secretary for health under President Joe Biden was defined not just by her visibility — but by her mission to advance health equity for the most marginalized. Related: RFK Jr. lies to senators about claiming that pesticides make kids transgender in HHS confirmation hearing 'There's no shortage of news,' Levine told The Advocate in an interview shortly after the hundredth day of President Donald Trump's second term. 'And no shortage of work to be done.' That work is being dismantled with alarming speed. Since returning to power, the Trump administration has rolled back many of the inclusive, data-driven policies Levine championed, replacing them with erasure, distortion, and overt discrimination. Levine described her work at the Department of Health and Human Services, now helmed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who once suggested poppers caused AIDS, as operating across three lanes: overseeing 10 core offices, leading the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and coordinating efforts across siloed agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and National Institutes of Health. Her team called it the 'connective tissue' of the department. 'Personally, I was hoping for the beating heart of the department, but we got connective tissue,' she said. Related: Trump picks anti-trans, anti-vaccine Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services Her offices tackled urgent national health crises: syphilis, HIV, blood safety, nutrition, environmental justice, and long COVID. Under her leadership, the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV Policy became a cornerstone of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, which was started under the first Trump administration and significantly expanded under Biden. 'When I graduated from medical school in 1983, I never imagined I'd become the syphilis czar,'' she said. 'Or czarina, if I may say.' During her tenure, Levine often spoke of the importance of screening for syphilis as part of routine sexual health. Last year, she attended a screening clinic in downtown Washington, D.C., that drew many people who signed up for testing. Related: Biden health officials urge syphilis, hepatitis C & HIV tests on National HIV Testing Day But many of the staff who built that infrastructure are now gone. 'They've been criticized, castigated, and DOGE'd,' Levine said, referring to the wave of forced departures under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. On April 1, HHS announced 10,000 layoffs, with another 10,000 workers already forced out via early retirement. The FDA's drug safety division lost more than 800 staffers. Many were locked out of their offices without warning. HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine's visit to Watkins School, speaking with fifth-grade students during National Nutrition Month in March Images/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images Levine also served as the nation's blood safety officer, steered national policy on smoking cessation, and built new offices focused on climate and health. She emphasized that health equity wasn't an afterthought — it was the foundation. 'It wasn't something we worked on only on Friday afternoons,' she said. 'It was baked into everything we did.' That included expanding SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) data collection, substantiating gender-affirming care, and elevating LGBTQ+ health at a federal level. 'One of the aspects of health equity, which I leaned into, was LGBTQIA+ health equity,' Levine said. Related: RFK Jr. to shut down HHS Office of Infectious Diseases & HIV Policy That entire framework is now under RFK Jr., the administration has dismissed non-partisan presidential advisors on HIV, defunded health equity programs and opposed care for transgender people. Scout, executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, called the rollback 'catastrophic.' 'A generation's worth of LGBTQI+ health research has been canceled,' they told The Advocate. 'Federal websites have been scrubbed. The data is disappearing.' Scout credited Levine with fostering policy changes that never would have been possible under the current administration — from cancer screening guidelines tailored for LGBTQ+ populations to the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity on communicable disease forms. 'She created the environment where we could fix things — and she acted on it,' he said. Now, Scout warned, the gains are vanishing. 'We're rapidly moving back to the 1960s, when the tobacco industry was effectively setting public health policy. The projects are gone. The researchers are gone. Even the transgenic mice study that could've told us how hormones interact with cancer was mocked.' During this year's address to a joint session of Congress, Trump claimed that the NIH was spending money studying transgender mice. Those do not exist. Transgenic mice are genetically modified to mimic human hormones. The Trump administration's first executive order declared that the federal government would no longer recognize transgender people. Sex would be defined as binary and immutable. HHS websites were rewritten accordingly. Many now open with disclaimers denouncing 'gender ideology.' Related: RFK Jr. attacks gender-affirming care for minors while admitting he has brain worms. Really. 'When a trans person sees that,' said Dr. Carlton Thomas, a gastroenterologist and popular health influencer on social media known for his content on sexual health, particularly for men who have sex with men and LGBTQ+ issues, who worked closely with Levine on sexual health initiatives. Levine started critical progress in queer health equity, including national guidelines on DoxyPEP and anal cancer screening protocols, he said. 'She was incredibly powerful for our community,' Thomas said. 'I don't think many people know what she did for us behind the scenes to correct those disparities. And now it's all being taken away.' Thomas said Levine brought a level of competence and compassion rarely seen at the highest levels of government. 'This is a Harvard-educated woman who is incredibly brilliant and the kind of person you want in this role,' he said. 'She understood what our community needed and set everything in motion. And now, with everything being rolled back, it's really frustrating.' He described the current administration's changes to HHS websites as dangerous and disheartening. 'You can't rely on them anymore for accurate information,' he said. 'Now I direct people to archived versions of CDC recommendations so that they can get science instead of ideology.' Related: In a week, RFK Jr. fat-shames the West Virginia governor, fires 10k HHS workers, and enrages Wall Street Thomas said much of his work today involves correcting misinformation on social media — addressing issues like site-specific sexually transmitted infection screening and the erasure of queer health needs in national data. 'Simple but critical things are being lost,' he said. 'And when a trans person goes to a website now and sees a disclaimer that says their identity is not real, it does emotional damage.' The backlash, he added, is also profoundly personal. 'I saw firsthand the hate she receives just for existing,' Thomas said. 'She put herself out there in a way most of us couldn't. And now we owe it to her — and each other — to show up for every part of our community because they come for trans people first. Who will be there for us if we're not there for them?' Levine said the disclaimers send a chilling message. 'Basically, they're saying that we don't exist,' she said. 'And it does challenge the scientific veracity of information coming out of HHS.' She blasted a recently released 400-page report from HHS that discredited gender-affirming care and promoted 'exploratory therapy.' 'It was politically and ideologically motivated,' she said. 'And it was not a well-written or good report.' One of the most concerning rollbacks of the Trump administration is efforts at HIV prevention. Levine's understanding of HIV isn't academic — it's personal. She started her pediatric residency in 1983 in New York City, witnessing the devastation of AIDS firsthand. 'We saw babies, children, teens, and their parents all dying,' she recalled. She called medications for pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, the understanding that U=U (undetectable equals untransmittable), and antiretroviral treatments 'medical miracles,' but warned they remain out of reach for too many. 'We have to get those medical miracles to the people who need them most,' she said. Despite a 10-fold increase in PrEP use between 2012 and 2021, a study published in Lancet Regional Health – Americas found stark inequities in access. In 2021, the PrEP-to-need ratio was lowest for Black people, despite their higher HIV risk. White residents in the South had higher access to PrEP than Black residents in the Northeast. Female uptake lagged far behind male uptake nationwide. And while overall numbers improved, the U.S. South still had the lowest rates of equitable PrEP use. 'All of those prevention efforts—and the research for a vaccine and a cure—are now at risk,' Levine said. She said the current wave of anti-trans policy is no accident. 'This is a result of a specific strategy by conservative think tanks in Washington that started in 2021 to impact our community,' she explained. 'They pivoted from marriage equality to attacking trans athletes, then trans and nonbinary youth, and now all trans and nonbinary people.' She added, 'If they have the opportunity to go for the rest of the Rainbow family, they'll do it.' Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, president of the American Medical Association; Admiral Rachel L. Levine, the 17th assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Charlotte Clymer, writer, transgender activist, and military veteran, speak onstage during Learning With Love: The 2023 PFLAG National PFLAG National Dr. Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said Levine brought deep expertise and moral clarity to her role. 'The AAP greatly appreciates Dr. Rachel Levine's dedication to children and adolescents, Kressly said in a statement to The Advocate. As the assistant secretary for health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Biden administration, she has driven key initiatives to improve the health and well-being of young people. Under her leadership, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health advanced the needs of adolescents, including working to protect their access to reproductive health care, and to ensure gender diverse and transgender youth could access evidence-based health care,. "Dr. Levine has been a long-standing champion for comprehensive, evidence-based health care for all children, adolescents, and young adults. Having a pediatrician in this role was especially meaningful. Dr. Levine's expertise helped shape policies to advance child and adolescent health, whether by promoting teen mental health and social media use, elevating public health expertise during the COVID-19 pandemic, or her achievements throughout her impressive career in academic medicine. She is a shining example of what it means to be a pediatrician advocate for EVERY child. We are grateful for her dedicated public service and are fortunate to have her as a long-standing member of AAP.' Despite the backlash, Levine isn't retreating — she's recharging. She's writing a memoir, giving public talks, and urging people not to succumb to despair. 'I am a positive and optimistic person because I choose to be,' she said. 'That fuels my work — and it fuels everyone's work.' She said public support has kept her grounded. 'People thank me for my service. They share their fears. And I try to meet them with hope.' Levine has a clear message to those feeling overwhelmed: 'We are stronger together. Our LGBTQIA+ community is stronger together — and that includes our allies. They are trying to pit us against each other. We cannot let that happen.' And she's confident the backlash won't last forever. 'The wheel will turn. I don't know when, but it will. Justice will win out. But we have to work for it.'
Reuters
09-04-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Trump administration plans to remove all members of HIV advisory council
April 9 - The Trump administration plans to remove all the members of a presidential advisory council on HIV/AIDS and provided no timeline for replacing them as the government overhauls its prevention and treatment efforts for the disease. The 30-year-old Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) had more than 30 members before U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration in January, according to an archived version of its web page. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed the agency was ending the volunteer service of the council's members, saying this was common practice for a new administration. He did not specify a timeline. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that all of the council's members were to be removed. Because PACHA's existence is required by statute, Nixon said it will 'continue to provide advice, information, and recommendations' to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He did not say who would perform those tasks or when new members may be appointed. HHS last week implemented Kennedy's layoffs of 10,000 federal health employees, part of massive cuts to the federal government under Trump. The layoffs affected many agencies involved in efforts to end HIV, a virus estimated to affect about 1.2 million people in the U.S. Among them were job cuts to HHS' Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS where several employees including PACHA Executive Director Caroline Talev were terminated, according to LinkedIn posts. Talev declined to comment. In addition, five branches in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV prevention division were eliminated and about 150 employees cut, according to a third source familiar with the situation. Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute and a former PACHA co-chair, said HIV policy in the U.S. is in 'crisis mode' after the layoffs. 'We just don't know what is happening with HIV in this country anymore,' he said. Kennedy has said he was creating a new Administration for a Healthy America that will include an HIV/AIDS division. A more streamlined operation 'will be better positioned to end this epidemic, which is a priority for this Administration,' Nixon said. During his first term, Trump initiated the Ending the HIV Epidemic program, which reported it helped bring down new U.S. HIV infections 12% from 2018 to 2022. PACHA helped shape the program, Schmid said.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump administration weighs deep cuts to CDC's HIV prevention program
Donald Trump's administration is reportedly mulling cuts to a public health program that accounts for nearly all federal spending on HIV prevention efforts, reaching thousands of people a year. With no other programs to replace them, cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV Prevention Division could jeopardize progress in addressing the nation's HIV epidemic and potentially cost lives, according to public health experts and LGBT+ advocacy groups. More than $1 billion was appropriated for HIV prevention efforts this year, and the agency spent roughly $1.3 billion on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections within the previous fiscal year. About three-quarters of that spending supports state and local health departments and nonprofit groups working to prevent HIV in their communities. In 2022, more than 22 million HIV tests were performed by 60 CDC-funded state and local health departments and community organizations, which connected roughly 8,000 people newly diagnosed with HIV to healthcare they may have otherwise not received. CDC support is 'extremely significant in terms of funding efforts' for HIV prevention, according to Lindsey Dawson, associate director of HIV policy and director of LGBTQ health policy with nonprofit health research and news organization KFF. 'The role of the CDC prevention funding is to provide states, local jurisdictions and community-based orgs with funding to do surveillance [and] HIV testing to help shore up prevention … including linking people to care,' she told The Independent. Threats to that funding follow declining numbers of new infections in the United States, which saw a 12 percent drop between 2018 and 2022. Those declines were even more dramatic in jurisdictions that received additional federal funding. Eliminating those funds will 'jeopardize' continued success and potentially lead to an increase in new infections, Dawson told The Independent. During his first term in office, Trump announced an initiative that sought to end the nation's HIV epidemic by 'focusing resources in the 57 jurisdictions where they're needed most.' The president's target date for 'Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S.' was set for 2030. Eliminating funding to combat the epidemic would make that virtually impossible. 'The success of the 'Ending the HIV Epidemic' initiative is in peril,' according to Colleen Kelley, chair of the HIV Medicine Association's board of directors. 'Not only will we not end the HIV epidemic with the current administration's policies, we could reverse these gains and go back to the dark days of the '80s when people died from HIV every day,' she said in a statement. LGBT+ advocacy groups fear those impacts would be particularly acute among LGBT+ Americans. 'An effort to defund HIV prevention by this administration would set us back decades, cost innocent people their lives and cost taxpayers millions,' according to Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT+ civil rights group. 'This is not just a policy debate — it is a direct assault on the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States and countless others who are vulnerable to HIV,' she said. 'The LGBTQ+ community still carries the scars of the government negligence and mass death of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We should be doubling down on our investment to end the HIV epidemic once and for all, not regressing to the days of funeral services and a virus running rampant.' A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services — now under the direction of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr — stressed to The Independent that a final decision on the CDC's HIV prevention efforts has not been made, and a timeline for a decision is unclear. 'HHS is following the Administration's guidance and taking a careful look at all divisions to see where there is overlap that could be streamlined to support the President's broader efforts to restructure the federal government,' deputy press secretary Emily G. Hilliard told The Independent. 'This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard,' she said. 'No final decision on streamlining CDC's HIV Prevention Division has been made.' If HHS does cut the program, that work would be continued elsewhere within the agency, according to a statement from an HHS official speaking on background about the administration's plans. But it's unclear where the agency could continue that work, and other agencies and programs focused on HIV are statutorily obligated to administer other forms of medical care, not prevention efforts, according to KFF. If that funding is wholly eliminated, the burden for prevention efforts would fall on state and local governments and cash-strapped community groups facing their own budget constraints against a shrinking pool of federal grant opportunities, forcing public health officials across the U.S. to make difficult decisions.
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Trump administration weighs deep cuts to CDC's HIV prevention program
Donald Trump 's administration is reportedly mulling cuts to a public health program that accounts for nearly all federal spending on HIV prevention efforts, reaching thousands of people a year. With no other programs to replace them, cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 's HIV Prevention Division could jeopardize progress in addressing the nation's HIV epidemic and potentially cost lives, according to public health experts and LGBT+ advocacy groups. More than $1 billion was appropriated for HIV prevention efforts this year, and the agency spent roughly $1.3 billion on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections within the previous fiscal year. About three-quarters of that spending supports state and local health departments and nonprofit groups working to prevent HIV in their communities. In 2022, more than 22 million HIV tests were performed by 60 CDC-funded state and local health departments and community organizations, which connected roughly 8,000 people newly diagnosed with HIV to healthcare they may have otherwise not received. CDC support is 'extremely significant in terms of funding efforts' for HIV prevention, according to Lindsey Dawson, associate director of HIV policy and director of LGBTQ health policy with nonprofit health research and news organization KFF. 'The role of the CDC prevention funding is to provide states, local jurisdictions and community-based orgs with funding to do surveillance [and] HIV testing to help shore up prevention … including linking people to care,' she told The Independent. Threats to that funding follow declining numbers of new infections in the United States, which saw a 12 percent drop between 2018 and 2022. Those declines were even more dramatic in jurisdictions that received additional federal funding. Eliminating those funds will 'jeopardize' continued success and potentially lead to an increase in new infections, Dawson told The Independent. During his first term in office, Trump announced an initiative that sought to end the nation's HIV epidemic by 'focusing resources in the 57 jurisdictions where they're needed most.' The president's target date for 'Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S.' was set for 2030. Eliminating funding to combat the epidemic would make that virtually impossible. 'The success of the 'Ending the HIV Epidemic' initiative is in peril,' according to Colleen Kelley, chair of the HIV Medicine Association's board of directors. 'Not only will we not end the HIV epidemic with the current administration's policies, we could reverse these gains and go back to the dark days of the '80s when people died from HIV every day,' she said in a statement. LGBT+ advocacy groups fear those impacts would be particularly acute among LGBT+ Americans. 'An effort to defund HIV prevention by this administration would set us back decades, cost innocent people their lives and cost taxpayers millions,' according to Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT+ civil rights group. 'This is not just a policy debate — it is a direct assault on the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States and countless others who are vulnerable to HIV,' she said. 'The LGBTQ+ community still carries the scars of the government negligence and mass death of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We should be doubling down on our investment to end the HIV epidemic once and for all, not regressing to the days of funeral services and a virus running rampant.' A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services — now under the direction of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr — stressed to The Independent that a final decision on the CDC's HIV prevention efforts has not been made, and a timeline for a decision is unclear. 'HHS is following the Administration's guidance and taking a careful look at all divisions to see where there is overlap that could be streamlined to support the President's broader efforts to restructure the federal government,' deputy press secretary Emily G. Hilliard told The Independent. 'This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard,' she said. 'No final decision on streamlining CDC's HIV Prevention Division has been made.' If HHS does cut the program, that work would be continued elsewhere within the agency, according to a statement from an HHS official speaking on background about the administration's plans. But it's unclear where the agency could continue that work, and other agencies and programs focused on HIV are statutorily obligated to administer other forms of medical care, not prevention efforts, according to KFF. If that funding is wholly eliminated, the burden for prevention efforts would fall on state and local governments and cash-strapped community groups facing their own budget constraints against a shrinking pool of federal grant opportunities, forcing public health officials across the U.S. to make difficult decisions.
