In This Issue
Today is National HIV Testing Day. It is also the end of the Black AIDS Institute's #30daysofHIV campaign, a remarkable national collaboration between activists, people living with HIV, health departments, and community-based organizations.
Organizations all over the country produced awareness, HIV testing, linkage-to-care, and advocacy and mobilization events targeting Black communities and posted them on the campaign's community calendar.
Individuals selected and took actions from the Facebook daily action campaign. And 30 remarkable gay/bi/same-gender-loving and trans men shared their stories and their lives on Instagram.
But you know something? At the Black AIDS Institute, every day is National HIV Testing Day and HIV/AIDS work is not a 30-day effort; it demands our attention 365 days a year. Despite recent advances, these are urgent times and every day that urgency becomes more and more acute.
Last week, the U.S. Senate released a proposed health care bill that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will strip away health coverage for 22 million people, 15 million of whom would lose their coverage next year. Mitch McConnell and his cabal of senators seem to think that stripping away health insurance from 22 million Americans instead of the 23 million who would lose insurance under the proposal put forth by the House of Representatives is somehow a "kinder and gentler" alternative. The good news is 5 senators have vowed to oppose the bill. The bad news is some are opposed to the new bill because it doesn't screw poor people, people living with pre-existing conditions, including HIV and AIDS, and old people, enough. I am so angry I can barely breathe.
This Senate version of Trumpcare, conceived in a backroom in the dark of night by a few old, rich, White men, is like the worst case of domestic violence ever—where he beats the crap out of you, and tries to convince you he had no choice, you deserved it, and it is what you really need and want.
Passing Trumpcare—whether the Senate version or the House version, or quite frankly anything in between—will make it impossible to end the AIDS epidemic. It undermines the entire notion of a healthy America, at every turn. It eviscerates any heath protection we might have or might hope to have, including cannibalizing Medicaid; potentially eliminating essential benefits like HIV testing, coverage for PrEP, prescription drugs, maternity care, mental health care, and we can go on and on; reducing financial support to help poor people pay for premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses; and defunding Planned Parenthood, including their cancer programs, maternity programs, and HIV/AIDS programs. Trumpcare claims to lower the cost of premiums for some people: If you are a young, healthy, straight, White, rich, male, this bill is for you. If you are one the rest of us, the United States Senate just said, "drop dead". And they are willing to do whatever's in their power to expedite that process. Be afraid, be very afraid.
There are a lot of things I don't know, but there's one thing that I do know: When 13 rich white men go in a backroom to cut a deal without any input, they're not looking out for your or my interest. Do not wait! Call your Senators today to tell them what this means to you. You can find out who your Senator is and how to contact them by clicking here.
In this issue, we run a piece from our friends at Kaiser Health News about the devastating effect the Senate Trumpcare proposal would have upon people with pre-existing conditions, including HIV and AIDS.
The Black AIDS Institute will be at the Essence Festival in New Orleans this weekend, providing free HIV testing, HIV-prevention education and raffles for prizes in conjunction with our partners the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Louisiana Office of Public Health. We report on what's happening at the Festival and where you can find us.
Social-justice activist and breakout star of the television show Empire, Jussie Smollett, has put his money where his mouth is, leveraging his own $20,000 gift to the Black AIDS Institute into a matching-gift campaign that totaled $40,000. We report on Jussie's activism with the Institute, including chairing this September's Heroes in the Struggle Awards Gala, which will focus on the "sheroes" of the AIDS movement, including Taraji P. Henson, who will be among our women honorees.
We also wrap up the Institute's #30DaysOfHIV social-media campaign and share another The Life personal narrative from its Instagram campaign.
Yours in the struggle,
Phill