HIV Funeral Protest & Life Celebration

Pallbearers procession with symbolic coffins at the Save HIV Funding Campaign's Funeral Protest & Celebration of Life on March 16th in Washington, DC. Long-term HIV survivors, health advocates, community health providers & faith leaders gathered to hold a symbolic funeral to sound the alarm over the growing instability in HIV prevention & care funding across the United States & the impact on America's national healthcare infrastructure. Jeremiah Johnson, Save HIV Funding Campaign Co-founder & Executive Director of PrEP4All stated, “We're going to make sure that our policymakers hear us loud & clear: do we invest in life, or do we invest in death? Do we invest in care, or do we invest in bombs? We have to save our care, save our prevention, save our research, save our housing & we have to do it, not just for those of us in America, but we have to do it globally.” The event was organized by the Save HIV Funding Campaign & held at Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel, host hotel for this year’s AIDSWatch conference. The demonstration used the imagery of a memorial service to warn that decades of progress in the fight against HIV could be reversed if critical prevention & treatment programs continue to face funding threats & policy instability. Speakers included Kamaria Laffrey, Co-Executive Director, SERO Project in Florida, Barb Cardell, Program Director, Positive Women’s Network-USA in Colorado, Aubrianna Escalera Naranjo, COO & President, Poder Unides Inc. in Georgia, Vincent Crisostomo, Director of Aging Services, SF AIDS Foundation in California, Paul Aguilar, Author & Activist in California, Malcolm Reid, Co-Chair, U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus; Founder & CEO of Unity Arc Advocacy Group in Georgia.

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