WILTON MANORS, Fla. – Fears of Trump Administration funding cuts to fighting the spread of HIV are affecting South Florida programs.
The cuts are coming just as Pride month is getting underway.
Pride season in the U.S. enters its peak this summer with World Pride slated to take place in our nation’s capital on June 7.
LGBTQ organizations across the country are reporting substantial cuts in funding, stemming from corporations pulling their support away from sponsoring pride events.
Organizers say it’s a direct result from many corporations ending Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs in alignment with President Trump’s Administration policies.
But even as Pride festivities begin, many of the people who rely on The Pride Center free HIV testing programs in Wilton Manors are not LGBTQ.
For more than 30 years, the center has provided testing for HIV to the community.
“When we identify individuals that did not know their status and are HIV positive, we immediately link them into care. The black and brown communities disproportionately impacted by HIV,” said The Pride Center CEO Robert Boo.
But decades of the life-saving work could soon come to an end. The center received an email that said its funding would officially end on June 30.
Some grants for HIV-related issues have already been eliminated at universities, including the University of Miami.
Figures from the Center for Disease Control show HIV has been declining in the United States. But South Florida accounts for more than half of those cases. Recent numbers show that the state of Florida is number three in new cases.
“Unfortunately, here in South Florida we’ve been the number one and two areas in the country for the past 8 years with new HIV infections, so our work is far from done,” said Boo.
As Federal funding cuts for HIV prevention programs impact organizations across the country, Pride Center staff are fearful of what the future could look like.
The Pride Center now in scramble to make up for this loss. Anyone interested in helping out can visit https://pridecenterflorida.org/.