‘Why Trump’s attempts to reduce access to life-saving HIV medicine are a global catastrophe’

I’ll never forget seeing Donald Trump whizzing around Parliament Square in his limousine as I held a giant rope alongside 10 other ‘Trump Babysitters’ while the gigantic Trump Baby loomed over Parliament to welcome him. I’ll smile all the way to my deathbed knowing that he “felt unwelcome” upon his arrival to the UK because of this. 

Mission accomplished.

Living with HIV+ for 20 years, I’ve grown accustomed to thinking about deathbeds. Every morning as I take my two antiretrovirals (ART) out of my leopard-print meds-case, before I pop them into my mouth, I take a moment, my heart pumping with gratitude for the generations of healthcare workers and activists who have made this possible. However, some mornings aren’t so easy.

Waking up this week to the news of Trump halting the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a flagship initiative in the global HIV response since its establishment over 20 years ago, my gut filled with dread. For anyone who is comfortable with medication access – this has a boomerang effect for us all. Trump’s pound-shop accomplice Nigel Farage has supported pulling out of the World Health Organisation (WHO) too, both sharing horrific views on people living with HIV.

PEPFAR provides antiretroviral medication as well as crucial prevention, testing, support and educational services in 54 countries, saving nearly 26 million lives. A global outcry followed the announcement as HIV clinics across the world considered shutting their doors. Indeed, Simon Collins from HIV treatment activist organisation HIV i-Base received this message this week from trans-activists in Uganda: “Unfortunately, I have some distressing news to share. The health centres in Mulago that used to provide us with ART have been shut down. This is a devastating blow to our community, and I’m worried about the consequences.”

The US Secretary of State then stepped in with an emergency waiver, welcomed by UNAIDS, that allowed it to continue, in part due to pressure from global activists.

In times of overwhelm I turn to my HIV+ family. The legendary ‘Patient L1’ Jonathan Blake, immortalised in the film Pride for his activism with Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), has something to say: “Dan, it’s an utter disgrace. It will produce devastating effects globally: Trump is a monster from the dark ages but it will prove ruinous for people globally. He doesn’t have a shred of compassion in him yet brags that he is chosen by Christ.”

Silvia Petretti, fashion icon working with ACT UP Women’s Catwalk for Power, Resistance, and Hope and CEO of HIV peer-led services charity Positively UK, sprang into action and declared: “This global setback will undermine the UK’s efforts to achieve its goal of ending new HIV transmissions by 2030. Many UK citizens have families and connections in low-income countries, where disruptions to HIV care will fuel a resurgence of the virus.” 

Then, turning to one of the Mothers of the AIDS Movement, Andria Mordaunt from Users Voice who exclaimed: “Dan, this is shocking! Why do US leaders want to radically reduce the numbers of trans folk, poor and Black folk, people who use drugs (PWUDs), sex workers and people living with HIV in the world by reducing access to life-saving HIV medicines? We need to be clear: this is mass murder ultimately: a cull of many of our most vulnerable fellow humans … and not for the first time.”

Andria lost her husband to government inaction for people living with AIDS and Silvia and Jonathan have lost countless loved ones too. Their grief-fuelled wisdom is priceless to me.

I don’t need to talk more about the gravity of these cuts – STOPAIDS and the UK-CAB HIV treatment advocates network have just submitted a petition to the British Prime Minister which I signed. It states “… This has catastrophic implications. These abrupt cuts will put additional pressure on health systems globally, decreasing their pandemic preparedness and resistance which will cause further economic strain, negatively affecting us all.” 

What I do need to talk about, however, is resistance.

Good timing too. It’s February and the theme of this year’s LGBTQIA+ History Month is ‘Activism and Social Change.’ 

The Baby Trump balloon came after decades of trailblazing transatlantic LGBTQIA+, feminist, anti-racist and healthcare activism.

Who knew that when my doctor told me my diagnosis as I shivered in that surgery so long ago that I would soon become part of one of the most successful, fierce and transformative civil rights movements for change. 

Organising political funerals, putting giant condoms over homophobic politicians houses (US Senator Jesse Helms), dumping half a tonne of horse manure in front of their Nigel Farage’s house after stating that HIV positive immigrants should not be allowed to come to the UK and then hosting ‘HIV anti-stigma’ classes in his local pub, invading pharmaceutical company Gilead’s offices demanding access to PrEP in 2016 and yet again last year for the lowering of the price of HIV prevention drug Lenacapavir, raising awareness through theatre shows like HIV Blind Date and the countless mass ‘die-ins’ from Trafalgar Square to Wall Street in New York to call for change, bring attention to the AIDS crisis and convey that leaders are directly responsible for the deaths of 40 million (extra)ordinary people who have died since the onset of the pandemic.

Events are moving fast, but if there’s one thing I have learnt from the HIV+ movement, it is a stubbornness to ensure that the wool will never be pulled over our eyes. Our medications, movements and achievements are hard fought for – but can easily be removed. Thankfully, UNAIDS have now announced a narrow waiver on the funding ban. However, the ‘resumption of work‘ in this waiver is temporary and not exclusive to HIV. All barriers to healthcare are connected and so ‘life saving medications’ must be available for all threatening conditions, such as TB – leopard-print meds-holders a bonus. 

So what do we do? Continue as we always have! 

Through remembering the dead to fight like hell for the living – we act up and fight back! Until there is healthcare for all. Right then, I’m off balloon shopping.

Dan Glass is an LGBTQ+ human rights activist, investigative reporter, speaker and mentor.