Activists mark 45 years since the start of the AIDS crisis with rally against Trump's health cuts

Hundreds of people brought candles to New York City’s historic Christopher Street on Friday afternoon for a vigil marking 45 years since the first reported cases of AIDS and protesting cuts to HIV care and public health programs under President Donald Trump.The New York City AIDS Memorial partnered with numerous health and advocacy groups for a vigil and march through the historic heart of LGBTQ+ New York, ending at the Stonewall Inn. Forty-five years prior, on June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported five cases of an unknown disease eventually identified as AIDS.“The New York City AIDS Memorial was built as a place for commemoration, but also as a place for action,” Dave Harper, the memorial’s executive director, told The Advocate. “It’s very appropriate that those two things are converging here today.”Related: AIDS Walk New York raises $1.7M this year: ‘I’m going to walk until there is a cure’ Vigil participants stage a die-in on New York City's Christopher Street, just outside the Stonewall Inn. Photography by Alexander Sargent, courtesy of the New York City AIDS Memorial © 2026 New York City AIDS Memorial Advocates warned that reductions to Medicaid and other safety net programs in the 2025 budget bill dubbed by Republicans as the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” could undermine access to HIV prevention, treatment, housing, and health care for vulnerable communities.“Those cuts include a ton of cuts to programs that impact people with HIV and AIDS. But they are impacting way more than just that,” Harper said. “Medicaid cuts across the board. Rural hospitals closing. All kinds of preventative treatment gone. Housing for people living with AIDS gone. Ryan White funding gutted.”The vigil and rally were co-hosted by groups focused on HIV advocacy, the LGBTQ+ community, and civil rights, including ACT UP, Housing Works, PrEP4All, Callen-Lorde, Rise and Resist, Treatment Action Group, Citizen Action of New