GLAAD Condemns Drastic Proposed Cuts to Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, CDC, and Planned Parenthood

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, responded after President Donald Trump released the administration’s 2018 fiscal year budget, which highlights their key objectives and priorities in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget includes proposed slashes to programs and departments critical to the LGBTQ community, including Medicaid, Planned Parenthood, and the Center of Disease Control’s HIV and AIDS programs.

Further, the Trump Administration proposed additional cuts in the FY 2018 Budget that could also endanger policies geared to assist transgender women of color and their access to quality HIV-related health care.

“This budget would pull the rug from under some of America’s most marginalized communities, including transgender women of color, at a time when they need our help the most,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “President Trump’s budget is heartless and the latest example of the Administration working to systematically erase LGBTQ Americans from the fabric of this nation.”

Moreover, the proposed budget also slashes dollars to the Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. This office is charged with helping marginalized communities, including LGBTQ Americans, gain access to health care and human services providers without discrimination. Roger Severino, who has a long history of anti-LGBTQ activism and remarks, was appointed to lead the Office of Civil Rights earlier this year.

GLAAD has been documenting the administration’s systematic erasure of the LGBTQ community and policies intended to support LGBTQ Americans. Click here to visit GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project.
 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: How the Trump Administration’s Proposed Budget Harms LGBTQ Americans

Health and Human Services Cuts to LGBTQ Health Care Access

Eliminates $59 million from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. [Health and Human Services FY 2018 Budget, Page 24]

Proposed discontinuing the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Part F AIDS Education and Training Programs and Special Projects of National Significance. [Health and Human Services FY 2018 Budget, Page 24]

The Special Projects of National Significance features a program geared toward transgender women of color hab.hrsa.gov/about-ryan-white-hivaids-program/part-f-special-projects-national-significance-spns-program

Cuts $186 million in HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STIs, and TB prevention CDC funding [Health and Human Services FY 2018 Budget, Page 28]

Drops $6 million in funding for HHS Office of Civil Rights [Health and Human Services FY 2018 Budget, Page 95]
 

Cutting Medicaid Harms People with HIV and AIDS

Advocate: Trumpcare Could Bring HIV Roaring Back: “By gutting Medicaid expansion and other benefits, the proposal could complicate PrEP access and promotion in the states that adopted Medicaid expansion. If passed, the new bill will begin to eliminate money for Medical expansion in 2020, potentially blocking new applicants and access to critical medication…”

WGBH News: Trumpcare Would Harm LGBT People And Those Living With HIV: “Changes to Medicaid proposed by the AHCA would put many people with HIV at risk of losing access to life-saving medicines and treatment” […] Trumpcare would also reverse ACA-related changes to Medicaid eligibility that have benefitted LGBT people. Previously, only low-income adults with dependent children or low-income adults with a disability were eligible for Medicaid. Now people are eligible for Medicaid on the basis of income alone. Since many LGBT people do not have children, this change has made it easier for them to enroll in Medicaid.”
 

Defunding Planned Parenthood Harms Trans Americans
 

HEADLINE: Trump’s Budget Proposes Kicking Planned Parenthood Out of All Federal Programs [New York Magazine, 5.23.17]

Daily Beast: The Attack on Planned Parenthood Hurts Transgender People, Too: “But a lesser-known consequence of the attack on Planned Parenthood is its potential impact on transgender people like Burns who rely on the organization for transition-related medical care. Elizabeth Clark, Planned Parenthood’s director of health media, told The Daily Beast that health centers in 16 states—including California, Florida, New York, and Illinois—currently offer hormone therapy to transgender patients. From 2013 to 2015, she added, there was an 80 percent increase in affiliates that reported offering that treatment.”

The Guardian: How defunding Planned Parenthood could wipe out transgender healthcare; “Unbeknown to many, Planned Parenthood is one of the largest sources in the US of transgender healthcare. The embattled provider offers hormone replacement therapy, which helps a person’s body appear more masculine or feminine, at dozens of its locations, and a growing share of its staff are trained to perform routine sexual health exams for trans patients.

Planned Parenthood in recent years has sought to address that problem. And it has made its clinics a magnet for thousands with few other options. Starting with Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes, in upstate New York, a growing number of its health centers have become places where trans people can begin to transition medically, as well as get basic reproductive services. Its centers use a newer model for gender transitioning that gives the patient input on whether to start their transition, rather than turning the decision over entirely to a psychiatrist. Some clinics have staff with detailed knowledge of how to update driver’s licenses, passports and social security cards to reflect someone’s name and gender.”

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