Massachusetts: AIDS Activists Urge Fight on Budget Cuts

With tough times ahead in the fight against HIV/AIDS -- Massachusetts' funding for prevention and detection could be cut by $8 million next year -- hundreds of activists gathered Saturday to shore up their strength with prayer, music, inspirational speeches and breakfast. Members of the black and Latino communities predominated at the event at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester, where the mood was upbeat despite talk of coming challenges. Organized by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, the annual breakfast is named for Bayard Rustin, a gay African-American who faced a struggle finding acceptance within the civil rights movement despite his pivotal role as an assistant to Martin Luther King Jr.

Minorities suffer disproportionately from the AIDS epidemic, according to the latest report from the state Department of Public Health. There are 13,298 Massachusetts residents known to be living with HIV or AIDS; half are black or Hispanic, though those groups make up about 11 percent of the state's total population. According to the Department of Public Health, residents of color are four times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population.

The budget of the Massachusetts HIV/AIDS Bureau has already been cut by 20 percent this year, forcing the downsizing of testing and counseling services at a time when an estimated one-third of those with HIV still don't know they have the virus, according to E. Denise Simmons, Cambridge City Councilor and the keynote speaker at the breakfast. Michael Duffy, the AIDS Action Committee's new executive director, called this year -- the organization's 19th -- "the best of times, the worst of times." Duffy urged supporters to rally at the State House on Tuesday to show dissatisfaction with the "devastating" funding plan proposed for next year, which would cut about another 20 percent, decreasing the AIDS bureau's budget from $41 million to $33 million.

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