A dozen activists arrested in high-profile street protest demanding U.S. end Puerto Rico's AIDS nightmare
via Housing WorksIt was everything you could hope for in a protest.
After staging a spirited press conference in lower Manhattan's Foley Square decrying U.S. neglect of Puerto Rico's worsening AIDS crisis, about 50 AIDS activists marched the short distance to Broadway and Worth streets. A dozen brave souls wearing blue T-shirts bearing a ghostly skull superimposed on a Puerto Rican flag paused for a red light, then lined up across Broadway holding up signs reading "Health and Human Services Must Act Now. People with AIDS in Puerto Rico are Dying." And then they waited for the cops.
It took New York's finest a while to arrive, giving the activists—supported by Housing Works, UDCAS New York, CitiWide Harm Reduction, Harm Reduction Coalition, New York City AIDS Housing Network, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Washington Heights CORNER Project and ACT UP Philly—plenty of time to chant "Puerto Rican AIDS Crisis, Save Lives Now," and make their point about U.S. inaction in the Commonwealth.
The goal of the protest was to pressure the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the division of HHS that oversees HIV/AIDS in all U.S. states and territories, to take over the dispersal of millions in Ryan White CARE Act funds in Puerto Rico. Mismanagement and fraud of those dollars have led to a crippling of the island's AIDS infrastructure and grievous delays in care for people living with HIV/AIDS, including lack of access to medication.
The protest prompted HRSA to respond to the protestors demands...
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