State of the Union

I recently started a new relationship and we decided together that it was a good idea to get tested for HIV. Neither of us are/were at major risk of infection but with HIV rates on the rise we thought it was important for us to "close our windows" and lock in our status for each other. (neg by the way) What we both found was that just trying to get tested wasn't as easy as it used to be.

I went to an LGBT Center --one of which I actually used to work--and I discovered one location completely closed and the other down to a limited 5 appointments a day. This is down from offering open testing in two locations. After being turned away and coming back in the following day the staff couldn't have been more wonderful, on the ball and professional.

My friend had the exact same experience. The center (at one time one of the most utilized in Los Angeles) he went to had a limited 7 appointments a week and was turned away. When he finally located a place he found many other people/couples/gay/straight having the same experience.

I know this administration has been slashing funding to LGBT Centers, health clinics and HIV outreach programs like mad but after a little research its astonishing and embarrassing how this administration has dealt with this epidemic. And yes folks, it is still an epidemic. We haven't seen this level of denial and ignorance since the Reagan era.

Over 240,000 people in the United States have become newly infected with HIV since Bush took office.That's more people then are in my home town. Think about that. In the days of "billions and trillions" 240,000 may not phase you like it should--but we're talking about people--people from all walks of life.

This administration claims they cannot afford to make the necessary investment in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, yet Mr. Bush has consistently asked for more money for religious backed-abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in his budget requests to Congress. These programs may work in crazytown, Mr. Bush, but we are living in the real world not a world of magic and prophecies. Evidence shows these programs do NOT work, and congressional investigations have discovered widespread medical inaccuracies in these government-funded curricula and criticized the programs for promoting stigma against people with HIV.

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Below are a few excerpts from the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP) press release in response to President Bush's State of the Union this week.

"I'm sad to say that my president's talk on AIDS in these speeches does not translate into dollars, and certainly hasn't brought any decline in the number of new HIV infections," said Judith Dillard with CHAMPs, a woman living with HIV in Fort Worth, TX. "His pledges to reduce infections aren't worth the paper his speechwriters print them on, as long as he keeps attacking reality-based HIV prevention, and as long as he keeps on paying religious programs to preach abstinence rather than funding public health programs that work. The man has cut our HIV prevention funds nearly every year of his Administration, so he's got a nerve saying he cares."

The CDC HIV prevention budget may receive a fourth consecutive year of funding cuts in 2007, even though former CDC officials estimate that an additional $340 million annually is needed to achieve the Bush administration's goal of reducing the number of new HIV infections by half.

In the 2006 State of the Union speech, Bush proposed a $90 million initiative to fund HIV testing. The Administration made no significant efforts to secure these funds, even in a Republican-controlled Congress, and the proposal has gone to the wayside.

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"Bush has made global AIDS a centerpiece of his compassionate conservative agenda, but it's neither compassionate to deny people accurate information nor conservative to waste taxpayer money on clearly ineffective programs," said Julie Davids, CHAMP's Executive Director.

Currently, one-half of all money used for preventing sexual transmission of HIV, the biggest source of new infections in Africa, is used to promote abstinence to the exclusion of evidence-based approaches. The number of new infections each year has doubled since PEPFAR funding been introduced.

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How much does Mr. Bush really care about the state of our union? Wars aside, Mr. President, the world is watching and history is judging.