Activists stack coffins in front of State Department to protest PEPFAR cuts (in photos)

Activists send message that people will die without PEPFAR

Activists stacked more than 200 coffins in front of the State Department Thursday to protest the devastation of global HIV-fighting programs by Donald Trump’s administration.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in January that the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, which provides HIV treatment and prevention drugs and services to hard-hit nations around the world, would be exempt from a freeze on international aid funding. However, the program, known by the acronym PEPFAR, is still not functioning, Matt Rose, senior public policy advocate at the Human Rights Campaign, tells The Advocate. HRC partnered in the protest, which was led by Health Gap, Housing Works, and longtime AIDS activist Peter Staley. About 20 to 30 people participated, marching from the National Academy of Sciences to the State Department gate.

Some distribution of drugs is taking place, but it’s “massively low,” Rose says. He and others have heard that drugs are sitting in warehouses and not going out to those who need them. Many of the people and groups responsible for distribution were hired under contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration has essentially shut down. The situation “is getting very precarious,” Rose says.

Also, under this administration, provision of HIV prevention drugs has been limited to pregnant and breastfeeding women, leaving out LGBTQ+ people and many others.

“We could return to darkest days of AIDS epidemic,” Rose warns, with potentially 100,000 people dying in the next year. The most vulnerable if denied treatment are people with advanced disease and children, whose immune systems have not completely developed. The protest included small coffins to represent children.

Activists have appealed to the State Department previously, but “it just fell on deaf ears,” Rose says. This has happened even though Rubio championed PEPFAR when he was a U.S. senator and Trump didn’t interfere with the program during his first term. PEPFAR was started by another Republican president, George W. Bush, in 2003, and historically has received bipartisan support, although some Republicans in Congress have sought to end the program.

Rose still has some hope for restoring PEPFAR. “We have seen the administration make moves back after public protests before,” he says. “We hope Rubio will remember that PEPFAR saves lives.” And as far as spending goes, global health accounts for 0.1 percent of the federal budget, he says.

Pete Marocco, the official who oversaw the dismantling of USAID, has recently left the State Department, so that gives Rose hope too. But Rubio must be held accountable, he adds.

Scroll down for more pictures from the protest.

Protesting at the State Department

The shirt says it all

Stacking the coffins at State Department

Bringing a chilling message amid the coming of spring

Taking another coffin to the site

Bearing another coffin to the site

Protesters carry another coffin to the site

'Housing, health care, justice'

Symbolizing the potential deaths

Adding to the stack

The message is clear

Laying another down

Reaching the heights

Silence still equals death

Important messages

Yet one more

Reaching the sky

Carrying another

Reminding us of those threatened