12/01/2025
Today is still World AIDS Day—whether the government acknowledges it or not.
The Trump regime’s refusal to mark the day is hardly surprising. It’s the latest move in a derelict and deadly agenda that has dismantled decades of HIV advocacy and public health infrastructure.
They gutted PEPFAR. They hollowed out the CDC. They slashed public health budgets and undermined the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative. And they continue to demonize trans people, LGBTQ+ communities, Black and brown people, women, and immigrants—communities that built and sustained the HIV response from the beginning.
Their choices communicate something unmistakable: more HIV transmissions and more preventable deaths are acceptable to them. This regime's acknowledgment of World AIDS Day would have been disingenuous at best.
People living with HIV and HIV advocates have never relied on empty gestures. We survive and thrive because our communities take care of each other.
We’re doubling down on grassroots power, community care, legal advocacy, and harm reduction. We will continue to name what’s happening, push back on criminalization and erasure, and show up for one another—no matter who is in office.
On this World AIDS Day, we acknowledge the truth that has always sustained us:
-- Our communities are powerful.
-- Our resistance is generational.
-- And no hostile administration can erase the brilliance, strength, or survival of people living with HIV.
