May 14, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

Dozens of AIDS activists, including the heads of prominent AIDS organizations, have vowed to take part in a peaceful, civil disobedience action leading to their arrest on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on May 20 to demonstrate their disillusionment at the nation’s response to the AIDS epidemic.

“We feel both the administration and Congress are not adequately focused on AIDS, and we want to draw attention to that,” said Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS.

NAPWA is one of 35 national and local AIDS groups that are participating in the May 20 event, which is being billed as a peaceful protest expected to attract hundreds of participants, according to an announcement released by the organizers.

Anderson and other organizers said a smaller contingent, whose numbers have yet to be decided, will separate from the larger body, move to a location at or near the Capitol Building and engage in an action that will lead to their arrest.

“We’re not saying what we’re going to do,” said Michael Kink, legislative counsel for Housing Works, a New York State AIDS organization and one of the lead organizers of the protest. “If you come to the protest, you’ll find out.”

The announcement issued by the organizers doesn’t identify which activists or heads of AIDS organizations plan to get arrested at the protest. Kink said that information would not be released until shortly before the event unfolds.

He said at least some of those planning to be arrested would be heads or top staff members of groups that have chosen not to officially endorse the protest out of fear that Congress or Bush administration officials might withhold federal funds from their organizations.

“They will participate in the protest as individuals,” Kink said.

Organizers said they chose to hold the protest on May 20 because it immediately follows the annual, three-day “AIDS Watch” lobbying event, in which several hundred AIDS activists from throughout the country come to Washington to lobby members of Congress on AIDS issues. The AIDS Watch lobbying, which is sponsored by NAPWA, is set to take place May 17-19.

A news release announcing the protest says participants will assemble on Capitol Hill at Folger Park, at 3rd and D Streets, SE, at 11 a.m., on Thursday, May 20. From there, participants will march in front of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, which are located nearby, before proceeding to the West Lawn of the Capitol.

Candidates quiet on AIDS
Kink said organizers believe neither President Bush nor the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), have adequately addressed AIDS issues in their respective campaigns.

“Both Bush and Kerry have the potential to show strong, moral leadership on AIDS,” Kink said. “But I don’t think either of them have shown the leadership needed to save lives. Right now, they are asleep at the wheel.”

Kink and Anderson said a coalition of AIDS organizations participating in the protest have adopted a platform calling on the Congress and the Bush administration to take a series of actions to address U.S. domestic and global AIDS issues. Among the highest of priorities, Anderson said, is the allocation of more funds for U.S. domestic and global AIDS programs.

The two said the platform was prepared and adopted by a larger coalition of AIDS groups and published on the Web site, AIDSvote.com.

Among other things, the platform calls for an improved health care system “that will fully address the medical needs of people living with HIV/AIDS,” support for “effective, science-based prevention efforts” to reduce new HIV infections, and a national policy to “diminish” AIDS discrimination.

Anderson said the May 20 protest will also call for greater funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, known as ADAP, which subsidizes AIDS drugs for low-income people with HIV and AIDS.

The groups that have endorsed and plan to participate in the protest, in addition to NAPWA and Housing Works, include the New York City-based Gay Men’s Health Crisis; the San Francisco-based Project Inform; POZ Magazine; Communities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief (CAEAR) Coalition; the American Academy of HIV Medicine; and the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition.

Also participating in the event are Act Up groups in D.C., Texas, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay area, with Act Up Philadelphia playing a lead role in organizing the event.

“We expect six buses from Philadelphia,” said Philadelphia Act Up organizer Suzy Subways.

Subways said several more buses were expected from New York and Baltimore, among other East Coast cities.

Some sit out the protest
At least ...