Nero reputedly fiddled while Rome burned. Today, we are all finding distractions while a potential extinction-level event threatens vast swathes of our human population.
In honour of World Day of Social Justice (20 February)
“If this article doesn’t scare the shit out of you, we’re in real trouble. If this article doesn’t rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay men may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.” – Larry Kramer (1983).
Activist Larry Kramer spoke these words in 1983, warning New York gay men that over a thousand of their friends had, so far, succumbed to a mysterious affliction. Over forty years later, his words are still tragically applicable to us all – even moreso under a Trump Presidency.
Those decades ago, during the early days of the HIV epidemic, there were no available anti-retrovirals to halt the progression of the virus, so millions of people around the world were suffering and dying of what was then called “Full blown AIDS”. Men, women and children were victims of a double stigma: a terrible medical affliction, and wave of prejudice.
Back then, AIDS activist and musician Michael Callen suggested that “We are living in wartime”; while activist Larry Kramer compared the epidemic to a Holocaust because it was a hate-crime disaster largely compounded by indifference and neglect.
The same danger lurks today – a generation after AIDS was tamed by anti-retroviral medications – we may be about to see a resurgence of new transmissions and widespread deaths.
USAID and PEPFAR halted
On his second day in office, US President Trump signed an Executive Order that halted funding for foreign aid, including $6.5 billion for PEPFAR — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — which provides HIV/AIDS medications that save lives and prevent the spread of HIV, and which funds testing and education on HIV/AIDS – having saved the lives of an estimated 26 million people since its inception in 2003.
The American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) reports: “More than 20 million people living with HIV globally—including 550,000 children under 15 — depend on daily services provided with support of the PEPFAR program.”
Dutch organisation aidsfonds hints at the potentially catastrophic nature of defunding PEPFAR when it reports that: “This decision plunges the global HIV and AIDS response into an unprecedented crisis. By suspending funding, access to life-saving medication for millions of people is at risk of being abruptly cut off, leading to new infections and deaths.”
The Desmond Tutu HIV Centre speculates that this could lead to 500,000 deaths in the next 10 years in South Africa alone.
The sheer folly of this situation can be glimpsed at Trump White House reports that condom funding to Gaza (Palestine) had been halted – despite the fact that no condoms had been sent to the Middle East in recent years. It turns out that the condom funding may have been part of an aid grant given to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which works on different health programmes in Gaza, Mozambique. Such confusion, misinformation, and outright ignorance are symptomatic of the problems that can arise when people without adequate knowledge make decisions that can literally mean life and death for others.
These current actions remind me – literally and symbolically – of the 1998 murder of a young South African woman and HIV activist, Gugu Dlamini, from KwaMancinza, a town in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, who was beaten to death by her neighbours after she spoke on World AIDS Day, publicly revealing that she was HIV positive. Decades later, her silenced voice resonates for those today who face endangerment or worse at the hands of those who spread lies, misinformation, hate, prejudice or stigma. Nelson Mandela reminded us that, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”, and current political actions challenge us to ponder the humanity of those around us – especially those who are powerless.
A Call to Action
Despite a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued on February 13 to temporarily lift the suspension of foreign aid, the U.S. government continues to withhold funds from international aid organizations. HIAS reports that even programs that received a waiver for this freeze have not received any funding to continue their lifesaving work.
If funding and services are not restored quickly, the damage to human life and welfare could be incalculable. I already have friends in Africa who have reported that their HIV medications, their LGBT+ services, and their community networks have already been defunded. The wider defunding of humanitarian aid has also impacted upon the provision of food and other life-saving necessities. The announcement of the US withdrawal from the World Health Organisation further compounds this potential African apocalypse.
Black Lives Matter
People of good conscience need to do something NOW. US citizens need to contact their Members of Congress and demand the immediate restoration of USAID and PEPFAR. Citizens of other nations need to ask their politicians to make the same call to the US through every possible diplomatic, economic, academic, humanitarian, and other channel available. Governments everywhere need to be held accountable to prevent this potential danger from escalating before the world suffers another terrible cataclysm like the era of AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. Those years – still within living memory of those of us who survived – echo with a moral and humanitarian calling today.
Singer Jimmy Somerville used music as activism in 1989, as part of a call to push for greater funding for AIDS:
Here we are and we’re standing our ground
And we won’t be moved by what they say…
So we’ll shout (shout!)
As loud as we can
And we’ll shout (shout!)
’till they hear our demands
Money is what we need, not complacency…
Somerville’s words echo down through time, challenging everyone to take a stand for compassion and life:
The power within
We can use it to win
At the time, he was proved right: activists changed the world, saved millions of lives, and restructured our legal, political, religious, social and medical worlds. What are we doing today to stop this latest humanitarian disaster?
STOP PRESS: 26 February 2025: The fight is yielding results but the battle continues.
©2025 Geoff Allshorn