ICYMI: Human Rights Campaign Health Expert Slams Trump's HHS Cuts: "We're Choosing to Go Backwards"

New Washington Blade article details harmful effects of Trump-Kennedy cuts to HIV advocacy and public health

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 16, 2025 - Health and LGBTQ+ advocates are sounding the alarm over sweeping harmful public health cuts orchestrated by the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration. The dismantling of HIV prevention infrastructure and public health research capacity could mean a resurgence in preventable disease outbreaks, disproportionately affecting LGBTQ+ communities. HRC Senior Public Policy Advocate Matthew Rose, spoke with Christopher Kane of the Washington Blade for an article published today.

Key Points:

• Impacts Felt by Entire LGBTQ+ Community: Matthew Rose, HRC Senior Public Policy Advocate, emphasized that the cuts disproportionately harm LGBTQ+ populations and other underserved groups already at heightened risk for HIV.
• CDC HIV Infrastructure Gutted: Entire divisions tasked with tracking, preventing, and responding to HIV, hepatitis, and STI outbreaks have been slashed. Cuts target the CDC's Division of HIV Prevention and the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP).
• Elimination of Programs That Were Working: Despite clear progress including CDC-documented drops in new HIV infections by up to 26% in key regions Trump's administration has dismantled programs and eliminated the teams tracking such progress.
• Future Public Health Blind Spots: With CDC surveillance units gone, outbreaks could go undetected for a decade, advocates warn. This creates conditions for a return to the pre-treatment era AIDS crisis.
• Research Pipeline Crippled: Key NIH and CDC research units advancing prevention tools like long-acting PrEP and behaviorally congruent HIV interventions for women and trans people are now shuttered or gutted.

Quote Highlights:

• "There is no evidence to suggest the initiatives combating HIV were ineffective," said Rose. "So I'm left with the impression that the Trump-Vance administration does not care about Americans' public health, especially when it comes to efforts focused on disfavored populations."
• "The fact that we'regetting rid of the labs to test people means that we're literally choosing to go backwards, stick our heads in the sand, and hope that no one has the ability to want to say anything."
• "Last year, CDC documented that we had reduced new HIV infections by 6%, and by 23% and 26% in counties that were in the Ending the Epidemic jurisdictions," Rose noted.
• "The outbreak in Scott County can happen over and over again, if we don't have CDC surveillance," he warned. "We're still having a fentanyl crisis in the country but you end up with outbreaks that bloom very quick and very fast."
• "The really crazy thing is that they got rid of disease intervention and branch and response," said Rose. "These are literally the disease detectives that chase down outbreaks When COVID came along those folks are the folks who do this."
• "We wouldn't truly know what's going on until probably 10 years later, when those folks' CD4 counts finally crash to an AIDS diagnosis level," he said. "They'll start looking like we haven't seen people look since probably 30, 40 years ago."

Matthew Rose has over a decade of experience advancing health equity through policy, advocacy, and community engagement. As a Senior Public Policy Advocate at the Human Rights Campaign, he collaborates with policymakers and coalitions to secure LGBTQ+ protections across a broad range of issue areas, including health, housing, appropriations, global affairs, immigration, tax policy, employment, foster care, data collection, and gun violence prevention. Matthew is available to speak on-record regarding recent HHS cuts to HIV and public health advocacy.

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.