May 13, 2016
GMHC and Other ASOs Discuss HIV/AIDS With Hillary Clinton
EDGE READ TIME: 4 MIN.
On May 13, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton met with representatives of the Gay Men's Health Crisis and other AIDS Service Organizations to have an in-depth policy conversation around the epidemic, in America and abroad. She was one of only three candidates that participated in their December 2015 survey about the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and more.
"One of the greatest challenges to ending the epidemic and finding a cure is the lack of significant, substantive conversations happening around HIV and AIDS," said GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie. "HIV and AIDS activists have been providing vital feedback to our leaders since the beginning of the epidemic, and yesterday's conversation with Secretary Hillary Clinton signified that candid dialogue offers the potential to generate new ideas and better inform how we create aggressive policies to treat the nearly 37 million people living with HIV globally and to prevent the 50,000 new infections across the United States every year."
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Louie said that our elected officials must play a critical role in ending the epidemic and need to be willing to commit to achieving our collective goal of finding a cure. GMHC sent a presidential survey before the Iowa Caucus to all 16 candidates in the race at the time, and Louie said, "it boggles my mind that only three replied."
He explained that on December 3, 2015, GMHC sent all of the candidates running for president at that time our candidate survey via email. The campaigns were informed of the deadline of January 18, 2016, and that GMHC would publish their responses without any edits. All campaigns were informed of our intention to share with the country which candidates did not respond to our survey.
Our survey is a concise, nonexhaustive list of questions based on:
Before the first votes are cast in the primary season, voters need to know how these candidates will manage one of the worst epidemics on the planet. Our survey gave candidates the ability to answer each question in their own words, so they could inform the public on their policies for treating and preventing HIV and AIDS. Some of them responded, and some of them did not.
"In 2016, you do not get to run for President of the United States and not be willing to answer questions about how you plan to address one of the worst epidemics of our time," said Louie.
GMHC is challenging the remaining candidates running to sit down with HIV and AIDS activists and engage in the kind of dialogue that we did today. We all agree that if you are running for President of the United States, you should answer our questions, hear our concerns, and listen to our proposals.
"We are very grateful that Hillary kept her word and met with us today," said Louie. "I was especially pleased that she addressed stigma as one of the main drivers of the epidemic in this country, and her commitment to addressing this stigma if elected President is the kind of leadership needed to end HIV and AIDS. The conversation also reflected her in-depth knowledge of policy, as well as the sense of urgency that is critical to finding a cure."
That same sense of urgency will be reflected this Sunday when GMHC hosts the 31st Annual AIDS Walk New York in Central Park. AIDS Walk NY started when our President would not even say the word AIDS. Today, it remains an annual event that reminds us of how far we have come, and of the reality that we must work together to finally celebrate the end of HIV and AIDS.
Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) is the nation's leading provider of HIV and AIDS care, prevention services and advocacy, serving nearly 9,000 people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS in New York City, the epidemic's largest U.S. epicenter. As the world's first HIV and AIDS service organization, GMHC is an expert in providing services that every person affected by the epidemic deserves. GMHC is on the front lines caring for people who are both HIV negative and positive, including: testing, nutrition, legal, mental health and education services.
GMHC also advocates for stronger public policies at the local, state and federal level with the goal of ending AIDS as an epidemic in New York State by 2020. Most recently, GMHC and other HIV and AIDS organizations successfully persuaded the federal government to recommend widespread use of PrEP, a new daily treatment that is over 90 percent effective in preventing HIV infection.
