MEDIA ADVISORY

Who: People with AIDS and their allies from the US and immigrants from countries affected by Obama’s broken AIDS promises, including members of ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT UP/New York, Africa Action, African Services Committee, NYC AIDS Housing Network, VOCAL-NY Users Union, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, Housing Works, Health GAP, American Medical Student association, MCCNY Charities, Rude Mechanical Orchestra and Philadelphia Global AIDS Watchdogs.

What: Outraged at President Obama’s about-face on AIDS, hundreds of angry AIDS activists will demonstrate outside of his appearance at the DCCC’s $15,000-to-$50,000-a-ticket fundraiser. Activists will come from New York, New England, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC to demand that Obama meet his promises to fight global AIDS and stop turning people who were promised life-saving medication away from AIDS clinics around the globe. These protests follow frightening stories in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe and Newsweek.

There will be many “arresting” photo opportunities!

When/Where: 5:00 PM, Thursday, May 13th, outside the St Regis Hotel, 55th St. at 5th Ave., New York City

*Why:*On the campaign trail, President Obama pledged “to provide at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including our fair share of the Global Fund, in order to at least double the number of HIV-positive people on treatment and continue to provide treatments to one-third of all those who desperately need them.”

This promise was ratified into law in 2008, through the “Lantos-Hyde US Global Leadership against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Act,” which authorized $48 billion over five years. Now President Obama is breaking that promise.

The reality is that since taking office, President Obama’s budgets have shifted funding away from AIDS programs, and his commitments to fighting AIDS have not even kept pace with inflation, let alone increased to the level he promised. As has been highlighted by recent stories in the Boston Globe and Newsweek, a flat-funded budget means that people who were tested under US-sponsored programs and promised treatment when they got sick are now being turned away. Clinics receiving money from the US government are being instructed to enroll no new patients in life-saving treatment programs. Doctors are being instructed to ration drugs and face choices between giving their dwindling supplies to young mothers or children. People who are turned away often have nowhere else to go, and will die. “Obama’s broken promises are killing people with AIDS around the world. We cannot backtrack on our commitment to saving lives,” said ACT UP Philadelphia member Jose de Marco.

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