National LGBTQ Task Force Condemns Trump’s Firing of Entire Presidential HIV/AIDS Council

On December 30, months after a half-dozen members resigned from the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in response to the White House’s health care policies, news outlets reported that President Donald Trump has dismissed all remaining members, leaving the council vacant.

National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey stated that, “Trump ended 2017 with another horrendous reminder of why — in less than a full year in office — he has become  the most anti-LGBTQ president in modern history.” Carey continued to blast the president, saying the president “lowered” himself and the White House with the dismissal of the remaining council members and said his actions are “part of an ongoing assault on the LGBTQ community, people of color, and of those living with HIV. This president ignored people of color and the LGBTQ community on World AIDS Day, pushed a health care agenda that would have ripped insurance away from LGBTQ, low-income, and minority families, and proposed a budget that would have cut $59 million in funding for the Ryan White Health Care Act.”

The National LGBTQ Task Force is the oldest national LGBTQ advocacy group in the country that works to achieve equality and equity for all and move society to value and respect the diversity of human expression and identity. Also the Task Force organizes Creating Change, the foremost political, leadership, and skills-building conference for the LGBTQ social justice movement with over 3,500 attendees. For its 30th Anniversary, Creating Change will be held in Washington, DC January 24-28.