NEW YORK CITY — Protesters rallied against proposed federal funding cuts to HIV programs in New York City on June 5. Hundreds of people holding candles marched toward the Stonewall Inn, with participants dropping to the ground on the sidewalk and roadway and placing their backs against the pavement.

Marchers protested federal policy changes, including efforts to restrict Medicaid, reduce international funding, and shrink the National Institutes of Health's research budget. The Trump administration issued new Medicaid rules this month as part of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, which requires low-income Americans to demonstrate 80 hours of monthly work or activity to maintain health coverage. In early 2025, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was dissolved, more than 12,000 workers were laid off, and its remaining functions were incorporated into the State Department.

The U.S. House of Representatives has proposed cutting $225 million from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, which delivers low-cost care to approximately half of all individuals with HIV in the United States. State AIDS drug assistance programs in several states are experiencing funding shortfalls and creating waitlists, including in Florida, though the Florida state legislature reversed some cuts to its program last month. Housing Works and allied groups submitted comments during the federal comment period for the Medicaid work-requirement rule and are lobbying Congress to reject the proposed cuts to the Ryan White program and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prevention funding.

"The HIV community has always been the one to push the scientific community and the government to do the right thing," said Oni Blackstock, an HIV physician. She added, "HIV advocacy groups have never taken their foot off the gas of organizing and pushing forward." Blackstock also said, "It's been a steady drumbeat because there are constantly policies trying to devalue people with HIV – and this time will be no different." Vincent Wong, a former USAID and World Health Organization official, said, "You've eliminated an agency that played a major role in ensuring technical excellence, and the state department had not traditionally played that role." Wong added, "The state department was always a political agency, not a technical agency." He also stated, "We're moving to a system that is untested and unknown."

A stop-work order in January 2025 froze nearly all U.S. foreign assistance. Activists delivered 250 fake coffins to the front steps of the State Department and occupied a House of Representatives office building twice. They have also disrupted congressional testimony as recently as this month, including testimony by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "For people with HIV, that's a matter of life or death, because if your treatment is interrupted, even for a short time, you can lose viral load suppression," said Virginia Shubert, a senior policy adviser at Housing Works. Shubert added, "It goes beyond the law, and it's very cruel."