GLAAD ELEVATES STATEMENTS FROM HIV LEADERS, FACTS ABOUT HIV, AND IMPACTS OF PROPOSED FUNDING CUTS TO HIV PREVENTION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

(March 19, 2025 – New York, NY) GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, is releasing facts about HIV and elevating responses from HIV leaders about reports of proposed funding cuts to HIV prevention programs.

The Trump Administration is reportedly considering cutting and possibly eliminating HIV programs and funding at the Centers for Disease Control, including in the Division of HIV Prevention (DHP). Cuts to the Division of HIV Prevention would also impact resources to prevent and combat hepatitis, tuberculosis, and other sexually transmitted infections.

Statements:

PrEP FOR ALL: “Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative at the CDC has resulted in a 21% reduction in HIV incidence in EHE jurisdictions compared to a 6% reduction in other local jurisdictions. Eliminating EHE funding will result in 44,000 HIV cases and cost $24 billion in lifetime HIV related medical costs.”

AIDS UNITED:  “This unconscionable decision would place all of our progress in reducing new HIV transmissions at risk and fly in the face of decades of bipartisan federal HIV policy, including the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative that President Trump created. Pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and preventive services are critical to ending the HIV epidemic.”

SOUTHERN AIDS COALITION: “Southern states rely on CDC funding to offset healthcare and prevention costs. Without it, states will face higher financial burdens and overwhelmed clinics.   Already fragile healthcare systems, facing cuts to Medicaid, rural hospital closures, and workforce shortages, will face even greater challenges that place lives at risk.”

NMAC: “Community programs are at risk – Many local HIV education, testing, support programs and health care workers rely on CDC funding. Without it, countless people will lose access to life-saving services and healthcare workers will lose their jobs. Existing and emerging HIV prevention and HIV testing technologies mean nothing if at-risk communities can’t access them. Federal funding for HIV prevention is necessary to ensure those who need these tools the most have access.”

GLAAD: “Suggested cuts to HIV funding are disgraceful and wasteful. These cuts will result in more cases of HIV, and end up costing taxpayers billions more in new health care costs. Remind your representatives to do their jobs: protect funding they appropriated. Speak out against illegal plans that go against proven strategies and resources that improve everyone’s health, safety, and wellbeing. Together we can end HIV when we work to share accurate information and break down all barriers to prevention and treatment.”

+LIFE MEDIA: “These cuts aren’t just numbers on a budget—they are lives, our communities, and decades of progress in the fight against HIV on the line. We cannot stand by and let this Administration turn back the clock. We need to fund the fight, not sabotage it. Lives are at stake, and we will not be silent. This is not just a policy—it’s a death sentence. We must demand that our leaders protect, invest in, and expand HIV programs. The stakes have never been higher.”

Facts:

• Prevention of HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis and all sexually transmitted infections are cost savers for the United States. Each new case of HIV brings a lifetime cost of at least $500,000 per person. New cases will result in billions in new and avoidable costs for the U.S. health case system.
• HIV incidence declined nationally by 12% between 2018 and 2022. The Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative at the CDC has resulted in a 21% reduction in HIV incidence in EHE jurisdictions compared to a 6% reduction in other local jurisdictions.
• Cuts to CDC funding conflict with the FY25 Continuing Resolution that Congress just passed and would be an illegal impoundment of federal funds.
• In his 2019 State of the Union Address, President Trump pledged to “end HIV in the United States by 2030.”
  
• The current Trump administration has already targeted at least 20 National Institutes of Health grants funding HIV research, according to Roll Call.
• The Trump administration was ordered to restore censored government health websites to reinstate mention of HIV and LGBTQ people. The administration restored some sites with an inaccurate disclaimer banner to falsely and egregiously discredit the reality of transgender people. Transgender people, including trans Black women, are disproportionately affected by HIV and at risk of HIV because of discrimination they face in employment and in accessing health care.
• Scientific and medical advances have allowed millions of Americans to live long and healthy lives with HIV, including medications such as PrEP which are 99% effective at preventing HIV transmission through sex.
• Proper treatment of HIV can suppress the virus to the point of being undetectable and therefore untransmittable, the key message of the U=U campaign.
• 2 million Americans are living with HIV. About 13% of them do not know they have HIV.
• About 8,000 people in the U.S. die every year from HIV-related complications. About 50,000 people died from HIV in 1995. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV worldwide.
• HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy has no medical credentials or expertise, and has a record of spreading disinformation about HIV, including denying the longstanding scientific consensus that HIV causes AIDS, and led the purge of accurate information on federal health websites to spread disinformation about LGBTQ people