Jun 27 2008
Global AIDS Superhero Rally for Senator Kerry
As you know, the PEPFAR bill has been stalled for many weeks in the Senate legislative process. As part of a national effort to bring PEPFAR to a vote, PHR student members and AMSA organized a rally yesterday in front of Senator Kerry’s Boston office. Students gave him a giant global AIDS superhero award to thank him for his work to bring PEPFAR to a vote.
Click the photo to see more photos from the rally on Flickr.
Senator Kerry has been instrumental in working to eliminate the discriminatory HIV+ travel ban for people entering the US. The harmful policy has no public health basis and was passed in a climate of fear during the 80’s. Senator Kerry’s legislation to repeal the ban has been incorporated into the current version of PEPFAR in the Senate.
Thanks to the work of Senator Kerry and other leaders like Senator Reid, Obama, McCain, Biden and Lugar, the Senate version of PEPFAR is starting to move again. There remain a few sticking points with concerns raised by Senator Tom Coburn and a small group of conservatives before the bill is brought up for a vote.
Our hope is that a fully funded $50 billion dollar clean bill with provisions to train and retain 140,000 new health care professionals, that eliminates the abstinence-only earmark, that integrates family planning and HIV services and eliminates the HIV+ travel ban, is brought to the floor for a vote soon. Our fear is that a small group of conservative Senators will continue to base AIDS policy on political formulas and religious ideology.
As the legislative process continues to shake out in DC, I’ll work to keep you up to date here on the blog. We will need the help of health professional students to defend the final bill from harmful amendments and to fight to keep PEPFAR focused on evidence and human rights-based treatment, prevention and care. Please keep a look out for action alerts and emails soon.
Check out this great video from the rally our friends at AMSA held in Chicago for Senators Obama and Durbin.
One response so far
Aids Coalition to Unleash Power(ACT-UP) Philly organized a huge rally in DC to deliver global AIDS superhero awards to Senators Biden, McCain and Obama. They ran into Senator Biden in the hallway of the Senate office building and were able to thank him personally! Check out this photo of grassroots advocacy in action.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/2616032248_ef97c5c335.jpg?v=0