Five HIV/AIDS activists arrested outside Susan Collins’s D.C. office

Peppermint and actor Javier Muñoz visited the Capitol on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to oppose cuts to HIV/AIDS funding.

Munoz, who starred in “Hamilton,” and Peppermint, Broadway star of Netflix’s “Survival of the Sixth” and “Head Over Heels,” met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.) and other members of New York’s congressional delegation. Muñoz and Peppermint also joined Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and HIV/AIDS activists at a rally in the House Triangle.

“We are here to conserve HIV funding because HIV funding is at stake,” Ms. Peppermint told the Washington Blade in an interview before heading to the Capitol with Ms. Muñoz. “As a result of this large bill, our Legislature is making significant budget cuts that are impacting many communities across the board, but especially in the health care sector.”

“We’re here to find out why, and we’re here to talk to our legislators and remind them that the people who will be greatly affected by this are also their constituents,” she added.

Muñoz noted that this issue is personal to him. He has been living with HIV since 2002.

“I live with HIV…You have loved ones, so for us there is a personal stake in this fight,” Muñoz said.

The Save HIV Funding Campaign, which organized the rally, noted that the House Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 spending bill would “eviscerate” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV prevention programs, cut $525 million from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, defund the Initiative to End the HIV Epidemic in the United States, and “deprive more than 1.2 million Americans living with HIV of services.” HIV. “

Last month’s New York Times reported The Office of Management and Budget, directed by Russell Vought, has “appropriated” only $2.9 billion of the $6 billion Congress set aside for PEPFAR in fiscal year 2025 (next fiscal year, PEPFAR will use funds appropriated in fiscal year 2024).

In July, the Trump-Vance administration withdrew a proposal to cut $400 million from PEPFAR’s budget after bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Senate. Mr. Vaught said on August 29th, “Pocket Recession” It would cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid that Congress had already approved.

HIV/AIDS activists rallied in front of the Eisenhower Executive Building on Tuesday to demand that the Trump-Vance administration fully fund PEPFAR. Housing Works CEO Charles King and five others then sat at the intersection of 17th and H Streets in Northwest, blocking traffic for about 20 minutes.

“This has been a bipartisan battle for the last 35 years,” Muñoz said in response to a question from the Blade about talks with Democrats and Republicans. “We need everyone at the table, and this is perhaps more urgent than ever because these cuts are so extreme.”

“AIDS and HIV, education and prevention are extremely important, regardless of who is involved,” Peppermint added.

She reiterated that the fight against HIV/AIDS “has been bipartisan and that has been a key factor in getting us to this point in terms of slightly lower infection rates, increased education and increased access.” Muñoz said if lawmakers cut funding, people with HIV/AIDS would die, especially those from communities particularly vulnerable to the disease.

“We’re talking about trans women of color. We’re talking about Latino and Black gay men. And we’re talking about Black women,” Muñoz told the Blade. “So I can’t say there aren’t parts of this that aren’t racist and homophobic.”