Protesters Arrested For Demanding Release of Billions in Life-Saving HIV/AIDS Funding

Featured Images: courtesy of Housing Works, Disability Voters of Maine and Health GAP 

On Tuesday at 11am, U.S. Capitol Police arrested five HIV/AIDS activists outside U.S. Senator Susan Collins’ DC office. Housing Works, Disability Voters of Maine and Health GAP organized the protests, at both Collins’ Capitol Hill and Portland, Maine offices. About 30 people showed, with mock body bags and whistles in hand, to demand that Collins step up to reverse OMB Director Russell Vought’s “illegal chokehold” on billions in appropriated funds for life-saving HIV prevention and treatment.

Specifically, they want the HIV/AIDS relief PEPFAR money be included as part of any spending deal to re-open the federal government. As it stands now, a massive chunk has been slashed. For fiscal year 2025, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has only released $2.9 billion of $6 billion appropriated by Congress for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Marie Follayttar of Disability Voters of Maine told GO that Collins “truly understands the impact.” The activist cited the senator’s extensive experience, including having overseen the insurance industry in Maine, plus time spent on the Health Committee.

“She knows from her insurance lens on to her elected official lens, the exact consequences of withholding treatment, medicine and testing and other treatment strategies around AIDS,” Follayttar says.

“If we don’t have faith that she’s going to protect people globally, is she going to protect people locally?” Follayttar notes the current HIV outbreak in Bangor, Maine, among the largest in the state’s history. Time is running out, and Follayttar points to Collin’s recent comments at a WMIF fireside chat as a measure of the senator’s political lethargy.

“As the implications of the bill become better known, I think there’s going to be tremendous pressure on Congress to change the law, but we’re going to need the evidence, the stories, the research,” Collins said at World Medical Innovation Forum. “… So if we start seeing America, Americans getting sicker as a result of this, having delayed treatment because they no longer have the coverage — and if it’s combined with changes in the Affordable Care Act that also would restrict coverage or make coverage more expensive to get on the exchange — then I think you will see a lot of pressure to take a better look at this.”

“She wants us to show her the body bags,” Follayttar tells GO. “We know the impact of cutting global HIV and AIDS funding. Susan Collins does two things in response to activists — she says we’re political theater, and dismisses [our activism] as dark money.”

As part of the protest, passersby in Portland, ME were invited to write messages on the body bags.

Those arrested were issued a citation for “unlawful entry,” according to Follayttar. They are scheduled to appear before a judge on November 3rd. Housing Works CEO Charles King, was among those taken into custody and later released.