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San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
AIDS/LifeCycle's final ride: Thousands hit road in Bay Area, ending 3 decades of fundraising
With a tinge of melancholy, more than 2,400 bicyclists gathered Sunday morning to kick off the last AIDS/LifeCycle, bringing to a close more than three decades of fundraising through the annual event for HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support services. Cyclists will travel 545 miles over seven days from the Cow Palace in Daly City to Santa Monica. 'We want to make HIV-AIDS a thing of the past,' said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Sunday before setting off for the first leg of the ride to Santa Cruz. 'I'm excited to suit up.' Each day, riders bike anywhere from 43 to 112 miles. Each cyclist raised at least $3,500 from friends, family and the community to support HIV and AIDS programs and services overseen by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. 'I can't think of a better way to honor those that we have lost and also to join the fight against HIV and AIDS,' said Brian Stewart, 32, a political strategist from Los Angeles readying for his inaugural ride. 'I'm really, really excited.' At least 800 volunteers known as 'roadies' turned out to help direct riders, provide medical services to the injured, serve meals and drive cyclists' gear from stop to stop. After the COVID shutdown in 2020, participation in the ride declined and the cost of fundraising rose, prompting organizers to end the annual event, which began in 1994. Over the years, the ride raised a total of more than $300 year, the ride raised $17.2 million, the highest total after 2022. 'Now more than ever, these funds are critical so we can respond to the needs of our communities, particularly when funding for HIV, DEI and transgender communities are under attack,' said Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, who has participated as a cyclist and organizer in the ride for 17 years. 'It's bittersweet that it's the last ride,' said Laura Chung, 39, a nurse at Kaiser Hospital embarking on her second ride. 'But they'll create something new.' Next year, a three-day cycling event will take riders from San Francisco to Sonoma and back. Then in 2027, the Big Gay 10K footrace will take place in San Francisco.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Feds' abrupt cutoff of HIV prevention funds threatens decades of progress, S.F. providers say
Leaders in HIV care in San Francisco and across the country say their critical efforts to stop new infections are under attack by a Trump administration that already has cut several key federal programs and now appears to be withholding money meant to go specifically toward prevention. The bulk of HIV prevention work is supported by federal money, including grants issued through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the CDC's HIV programs have been gutted this year, and millions in grant money that should have been in the hands of state and local health care providers by now has yet to arrive. In parts of California, including Los Angeles, some prevention programs already have been impacted because the money hasn't come through. Los Angeles County sent notices to dozens of organizations it works with that their contracts would be terminated if federal funds weren't available by June 1. San Francisco may be less immediately impacted because it does not rely on outside contractors for services, and local leaders have promised to backfill any missing federal money. The Los Angeles and San Francisco grants are for about $19 million and $7 million, respectively, and the state gets a separate allotment. But the situation is grim, said experts in HIV care, who worry that any efforts to dismantle public health and services for vulnerable communities will have disastrous effects, and could undo decades of work to slow down and eventually end the AIDS epidemic. 'We have an incredible, effective, world-class HIV prevention and care system, and we can't afford to go back because of what's happening at the federal level,' said Jonathan Frochtzwajg, director of health justice policy for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. 'This level of uncertainty and instability is unprecedented,' Frochtzwajg said. 'In the past, funding levels may increase or decrease and we would always be in the fight. But with this administration, it's the wholesale elimination of funding streams and programs.' In San Francisco, the federal funding supports HIV prevention efforts along with programs to end other sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis C, which are often concurrent infections. Losing that money would jeopardize the city's work toward ending the epidemic, said the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and 'significantly weaken' efforts to provide testing, offer uncomplicated access to care for those who test positive, monitor case rates and provide education and outreach. The public health department said Friday that it had not yet received the grant money, which was supposed to arrive by Sunday. HIV care leaders said they were caught off guard by President Donald Trump's attacks on their work since he took office in January. In his previous administration, the president had been supportive of efforts to end the epidemic, and had not touched federal funding. Now, those leaders say, they fear their programs have been swept up in larger plans to scale back federal government and in particular get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The CDC has especially come under attack in the second Trump administration, and several programs aimed at HIV — including the CDC's HIV research arm — have been scaled back or killed entirely. Trump also has divested from or severely curtailed involvement in programs to support HIV care internationally. HIV care requires intense public health work to control spread of disease, and efforts often are focused on vulnerable communities including people of color and transgender people, who are at much higher risk of infection than other groups. 'That's what they seem to be objecting to: 'Oh, you work with transgender people? You work with gay people? You work with Black people? '' said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute in Washington. 'We don't have the luxury of not thinking about those things,' Schmid said. 'In fact, if you want to utilize tax dollars, that's where the (HIV) cases are. That's what I call being efficient.' Ending the epidemic must include widespread, easy access to testing and prevention tools like PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), say HIV experts. And those who are infected must be treated in order to keep them from passing the infection to others. Indeed, the nation's prevention programs have had a profound effect on slowing down the epidemic, which at its peak in the late 1980s and early '90s was seeing 130,000 new infections a year; that's down to about 30,000 now. In San Francisco, cases dropped from about 2,000 a year during the worst times to about 145 last year. 'Accessible HIV testing, accessible PrEP, accessible care for people living with HIV — all of that is what is driving down our new diagnoses,' said Frochtzwajg. 'We'll see that trend reverse if you take away those services.' Schmid said the timing of the federal cuts was especially frustrating because new prevention tools that will soon become available — including PrEP that may require only one injection a year to be effective — require stable foundations to get the care to people who need it. 'It's really sad, because we have such great hope on the horizon,' Schmid said. 'We have the science, and we're losing the infrastructure.' Lance Toma, chief executive of San Francisco Community Health Center, said he was concerned about the fate of organizations that reach the most vulnerable communities because they tend to be smaller and less resourced. At an event at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on May 21, Toma and others painted a dire outlook for HIV care, even as they said they intended to fight for resources. 'We're really headed toward a potential future where we will see the dismantling of organizations that we hold dear,' Toma said. 'Everything we've worked so hard at, the efforts we've made to make competent trans programs, or gay men of color programs — that's where I get scared. These are the folks we've worked so hard for, and these are the folks being targeted.' The Commonwealth Club event called up two panels, one focused on young activists and the other on the current climate. Several participants said they must now look to past activism — in particular, the efforts of ACT UP, a grassroots organization fighting for people with HIV and AIDS — as they pick up the battle all over again. 'We all lived through it, when it was so grim that we didn't really see any light at the end of the tunnel,' said Cecilia Chung, senior advisor with the Transgender Law Center in Oakland who is transgender and HIV positive herself. 'We persevered, we fought and we pushed through. And that's phenomenal.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Skeptical California federal judge grills Trump DOJ over anti-trans & anti-DEI orders
A federal judge in California expressed sharp skepticism Thursday as the Trump administration defended executive orders that LGBTQ+ advocates say censor speech and threaten life-saving services. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. In San Francisco A.I.D.S. Foundation v. Trump, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar heard arguments from Lambda Legal and the Department of Justice over three executive orders targeting so-called 'gender ideology' and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The plaintiffs, a coalition of nine LGBTQ+ and HIV-focused nonprofits, are asking a judge to issue an injunction to halt enforcement. 'To me, that sounds incredibly vague,' Tigar told DOJ attorney Pardis Gheibi, according to Courthouse News Service, after she declined to clearly define what counts as 'gender ideology.' Under questioning, Gheibi admitted that asking a client their pronouns or providing all-gender restrooms could violate the orders if federally funded. The lawsuit stems from a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump during his first week back in office this January. Among them was Executive Order 14168, titled 'Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism,' which mandates that the federal government recognize only two sexes—male and female—and prohibits federal grantees from affirming transgender identities. Two additional orders dismantled DEI grant programs and barred federally funded entities from applying 'equity-based' hiring, education, and health care practices. LGBTQ+ organizations immediately warned that the moves were designed to erase trans people from public life. Related: San Francisco AIDS Foundation and other LGBTQ+ groups bring new lawsuit against anti-trans executive orders Lambda Legal's Camilla Taylor argued the orders violate the First Amendment by chilling protected speech and the Fifth Amendment by targeting transgender people. 'Even if what plaintiffs are doing is promoting unlawful DEI activities, that is protected First Amendment activity—unless it rises to incitement,' she said, according to the Bay Area Reporter. San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Dr. Tyler TerMeer told The Advocate earlier this year that the orders had created panic among clients, with some fearing the loss of housing, HRT, or HIV medications. 'For us, the only option was to fight,' he said. Tigar did not rule from the bench. 'Nothing I say indicates how I will rule,' he said, per Courthouse News. A written decision is expected in the coming weeks.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
LGBTQ rights groups file lawsuits challenging Trump's executive orders
Several LGBTQ rights organizations sued the Trump administration on Thursday, alleging that the president's executive orders aimed at dismantling diversity and equity programs are unconstitutional and will cripple critical programs used by Americans. The lawsuit, filed by civil rights groups the Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal on behalf of several nonprofits, is one of dozens filed against the new administration one month into office. All of the plaintiffs receive federal funding to support their work. They challenge three executive orders signed by President Donald Trump that call for an end to government funding tied to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and what the administration calls "gender ideology." "The government is attempting to erase a very specific group of people. Transgender and non-binary folks in our country are being singled out as individuals who are being told that they don't exist," Tyler TerMeer, one of the plaintiffs and CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told ABC News in an interview Thursday. "So this moment is us going to the courts and saying, 'We won't be silenced.'" In the complaint, the nonprofits claim that the executive orders are a violation of their Fifth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution that "[n]o person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." MORE: 'Unadulterated animus': Judge blasts DOJ about transgender military restrictions Among the plaintiffs is the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which helps communities affected by HIV. The group expected to receive more than $641,000 in federal funds this budget year, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit lists as defendants the Departments of Justice, Labor, Housing and Health, along with several administration officials. "The executive orders, in essence, require our organizations or non-governmental entities to certify that they don't engage in DEI work or engage in what they call radical gender ideology in any of their work," Jose Abrigo, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, told ABC News in an interview Thursday. "So, this case particularly is really important ... it prevents the government from forcing their viewpoint on essentially private nonprofits who are serving the community for good." MORE: Trump signs executive order to restrict transgender care access for people under 19 The GLBT Historical Society, another plaintiff in the suit, operates a museum of LGBTQ+ history and culture in San Francisco -- the first of its kind in the U.S. The organization receives at least $130,000 in federal funding and would not be able to advance public knowledge without it, it alleged in the suit. The Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal also filed a lawsuit on Wednesday on behalf of the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, alleging that the administration is violating the organizations' rights to free speech and due process and is engaging in intentional discrimination by issuing and enforcing the orders, according to Lambda Legal. The White House did not immediately return ABC News' request for a statement and the DOJ declined to comment on either suit. ABC News Contributors Sabina Ghebremedhin, Anne Flaherty, Molly Nagle and Alex Mallin contributed to this report. LGBTQ rights groups file lawsuits challenging Trump's executive orders originally appeared on
