Editor’s Note
On March 18, the Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration will announce plans to shutter the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) HIV Prevention division. According to reports by the Advocate, the move would effectively “halt all federally funded [HIV] prevention efforts.” Nearly half of all 1.2 million Americans living with HIV depend on federal assistance to access life-saving antiviral medications.
On the evening of Feb. 27, longtime HIV/AIDS activist Gil Kudrin stood before a packed audience at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Cleveland.
Beneath the harsh lights of the sanctuary, Kudrin issued a desperate call to action around federal cuts to HIV/AIDS funding:
“There are thousands of people in this county, in this city, who rely on the Ryan White CARE Act for their very survival,” Kudrin said. “They are not coming for your pronouns. They are coming for your life.”
More than 350 people attended the city’s inaugural State of the LGBTQ+ Community meeting – organized in response to the Trump administration’s recent rollback of civil rights for LGBTQ+ Americans – including out gay Cleveland city councilmember Kerry McCormack, who touted the city’s progress around LGBTQ+ civil rights over the last two decades.
Kudrin – a veteran of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) movement and a survivor of the AIDS epidemic – offered a counterpoint:
“These people do not want to erase us. They want us dead.”
What is the Ryan White CARE Act?
Kudrin contracted HIV in the early 1980s, years before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of zidovudine (AZT), the first antiviral medication to treat the virus, in early 1987.
“When I was diagnosed with HIV, I had 230 T-cells. I was told I had probably 18 months, at most, to live,” Kudrin said. “I’m going to be 67 next month.”
“Don’t clap for me!” he said – interrupting a bout of thunderous applause. “Do something!”
“I have been fighting for access to medication for my HIV infection since AZT came out,” he said. “I have lost well over 100 friends to HIV and AIDS. The Ryan White CARE Act didn’t pass until 1990,” Kudrin added. “By that time, over 2,000 people in the greater Cleveland area – mostly the City of Cleveland – had died of AIDS.”
Named after Indiana teenager Ryan White – who contracted HIV in 1984 after receiving an untested blood transfusion while being treated for hemophilia – the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency (CARE) Act is the primary source of federal funding used to treat and prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
In 2022, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program had a budget of more than $2.5 billion.
Today, roughly 500,000 Americans living with HIV depend on federal funding via the Ryan White CARE Act to access the antiviral medications they need to survive, including Kudrin.
Reviving ACT UP
Kudrin called on younger LGBTQ+ people to revive ACT UP, the political action group responsible for demanding government action around HIV/AIDS via protest, political and economic pressure and strategic acts of civil disobedience.
“I cannot run ACT UP anymore. I’m not a young man,” he said. “I can be there to advise. I will be there as a spokesperson, temporarily.”
“I need you now to fight as desperately for my life as I fought for other people’s lives, because [if] they take my meds away, I have 45 days left of Biktarvy” – a prescription drug used to treat the virus that can cost more than $4,000 per 30-day supply.
“When you take my meds away, I will die” Kudrin told the audience. “I will die within a year, at most, two. And I have a lot to live for.”
‘This is not a joke. This is a call to action.’
“Many people who are newly infected in our area are diagnosed with full-blown AIDS,” Kudrin said, “You take them off the meds, they will die.”
“They don’t have long. They will start dying within months of having their meds cut off,” Kudrin said. “We know from clinical trials at University Hospitals, right here in Cleveland, that when you take somebody off their meds, their viral loads skyrocket within six to eight weeks and their T-cells drop.”
Kudrin estimated a 90-day interruption in Ryan White CARE Act funding could cause up to 109,000 deaths over the following year.
He also expressed deep concern around resistance to antiviral medications as a result of scarcity and rationing.
“What do people do when they can’t get all of their meds?” Kudrin said. “They take them every other day. They take them every third day – just hoping to hang onto life. That is a recipe for developing resistance to these meds.”
“The State of the LGBT Community is: They are coming to kill us,” Kudrin told a silent audience. “This is not a joke. This is a call to action. These people want us dead. If you do not act up now, you will never have another chance.” 🔥
Ignite Action
- To learn more about Gil Kudrin’s life and work, click here.
- To learn more about receiving financial assistance for HIV treatment via the Ohio HIV Drug Assistance Program (OHDAP), click here.
- If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are an transgender adult in need of immediate help, contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
- To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state senator, click here.
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