Black LGBTQ+ leader hits out at Trump’s cuts to HIV funding

Black LGBTQ+ leader Kelly Robinson used the opportunity in her State of the Union address to condemn Donald Trump’s HIV funding cuts.

Robinson, the first Black queer executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, attended the State of the People address as a guest of California Congressman Robert Garcia, the first gay immigrant member of Congress.

“This is our country too.”

Mr Robinson said in his speech: “I’m here for all the transgender people who have been kicked out of the military, and for all the people with HIV who have been denied PrEP medication.

“We’re here tonight for our communities because we have to remind our country, lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, queer people, that we’re always here and we’re not going anywhere. This is our country too.”

Robinson highlighted President Trump’s cuts to HIV funding. $258 million reduction The Department of Health and Human Services has provided funding to researchers working on developing an HIV vaccine. The cuts would also eliminate federal funding for HIV prevention programs, putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk and potentially causing a spike in infection rates.

Last November, experts warned that sudden cuts in funding to international HIV prevention programs over the past year could result in more than 3.3 million new HIV infections over the next five years.

Mr Robinson added of the devastating cuts: “It’s just not normal that they would cut billions of dollars from HIV prevention and put it into building more ICE detention facilities.

“We need health care. We need food. We don’t need mass incarceration. And it’s certainly not normal for this government to kill American citizens.”

Funding cuts will disproportionately impact Black Americans. Demographics most at risk Despite being infected with HIV, access to care is abysmal.

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