Global HIV Care Thrown Into Chaos by Trump: “I Will Be Sick and Maybe Die”
In South Africa, a 36-year-old living with HIV since childhood fears she will lose access to treatment due to Trump’s policy. Adding to the confusion is the broad assault the Trump administration has made on LGBTQ+ science, medicine, employment, health, and identification. Not all people who are living with HIV identify as queer, gay, bisexual, or transgender. But those living with HIV or other medical conditions — or those who will needlessly become HIV-positive in the future — are currently suffering, and could die, because of the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies. The U.S. State Department has stopped processing passports for anyone who chose “X,” for nonbinary, as their gender, and its page which once advised LGBTQ+ Americans on overseas travel now just refers to “LGB Travelers,” as if trans Americans no longer exist. (This coincides with Trump’s attempt to kick out trans people out of the U.S. Armed Forces, estimated to be the largest employer of out trans people in the country, if not the world.) The Supreme Court is gearing up to hear a case about whether insurers can opt out of covering pre-exposure prophylaxis, a medication which prevents HIV and has played a key role in lowering HIV in the U.S. over the last decade. Meanwhile, scientists who study LGBTQ+ people have found themselves unable to access important data sets, such as the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System; various PEPFAR databases for countries around the world have been taken offline. Not being able to access data on the health of youth in the United States or on HIV rates globally hinders science and treatment of HIV, sexually transmitted infections, certain cancers, and a host of other public health matters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new demand that all researchers retract papers submitted to scientific journals that use gender-inclusive language will cause harm and even death in the long run. The existential dread of this fight is being felt right now, in the stomach of people like Gwendolyn in South Africa, who doesn’t know if she will be able to get her medication next month. “If I have to default on my treatment, I will be sick and maybe die, like the others, and I don’t want that to happen to me,” she told The Intercept. “I don’t know what to say about this, mate.” -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#35081): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/35081 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/111066594/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
