"These activists stepped up to sound the alarm, knowing that they wouldn't get help unless they demanded it. Some of us laid a Quilt-stitched with equal parts sorrow and fury-at the feet of our elected officials. ACT UP and other groups staged impossible-to-ignore direct actions that forced a response from those in power. It took all of us, using every tool in our arsenal, to demand the funding and research and support needed to fight HIV and AIDS."
"One of their actions was laying a "Cuts Kill" quilt-inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt-on the National Mall to highlight the impact that cuts to HIV funding and public health will have on our communities. Their message is urgent: We are facing an unprecedented public health crisis. Under the leadership of unqualified partisan hacks, our nation's public health system is unraveling at an alarming rate."
During the 1980s the United States faced the AIDS pandemic alongside a homophobia-driven governmental failure that produced countless needless deaths and spawned a generation of activists. Activists used dramatic public demonstrations, including a Quilt and ACT UP actions, to demand funding, research, and support for HIV and AIDS. At the U.S. Conference on HIV & AIDS, Bay Area activists and others laid a "Cuts Kill" quilt on the National Mall to protest proposed federal cuts to HIV funding and to warn about impacts on care and prevention. Public health agencies are being hollowed out by partisan leadership, prompting departures of experienced public servants.
Read at San Francisco Bay Times
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