Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS have resigned in frustration with the Trump’s Administration’s apparent lack of interest in “the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic.”

Since its creation in 1995, the council has sought to craft national policy on the disease, prevent its spread, and promote effective treatment as a cure is developed, according to U.S. News and World Report.

The members of the council who quit began becoming concerned during the 2016 presidential campaign when the Trump team showed little interest in meeting with advocates for those struggling to survive the disease. At that point, while the council noted the Trump camp’s disinterest, they clung to the hope that he could be engaged on the issue once in office, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Things escalated when the White House site “Office of National AIDS Policy” was removed during Trump’s inauguration, said Scott Schoettes, a member of the council since 2014.

The final misstep was when the new American Healthcare Act was passed by the Republican-majority House of Representatives, despite pleas from marginalized communities that it would have disastrous impacts, especially for those with HIV/AIDS.

New HIV infections in America declined 18 percent between 2008 and 2014, according to estimates from the Center for Disease Control. The council worked with the previous administration to create the new healthcare system that provided easier access to diagnosis and treatment. Those who quit the council felt that the new GOP bill would take that away.

Schoettes, and his peers, wanted to provide input for the council, but said that they could no longer stand idly by as the Trump Administration ignored their recommendations. Schoettes wrote in a guest column for Newsweek announcing the resignations:

The Trump Administration has no strategy to address the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate HIV policy, and — most concerning — pushes legislation that will harm people living with HIV and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease.

Trump has still not appointed anyone to head the White House Office of National AIDS Policy after 150 days, while former President Barack Obama appointed a leader after only 36 days. Schoettes penned the column, but it was cosigned by his partners in resignation Lucy Bradley-Springer, Gina Brown, Ulysses W. Burley III, Grissel Granados, and Michelle Ogle.

While the council can have up to 25 members, it currently has only 15. The council last met in March, at which point the members wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price expressing concern about the repeal of the American Healthcare Act and the impact it would have on access to HIV/AIDS treatment. Price responded with an uninspiring, “perfunctory” response, according to Schoettes, which further frustrated the council.

Still, Schoettes says he and his colleagues have a desire to help the community they have worked with for many years. They don’t foresee Trump mustering any more interest than he has shown, but they hope other politicians find it necessary to work on a serious public health issue. The column finished:

We hope the members of Congress who have the power to affect healthcare reform will engage with us and other advocates in a way that the Trump Administration apparently will not.

Josh Schmidt

Josh Schmidt is an editorial intern and is a native of the Washington D.C Metropolitan area. He is working towards a degree in multi-platform journalism with a minor in history at nearby University of Maryland. Contact Josh at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Despite having improved over recent decades, HIV/AIDS rates remain a particular problem for sex workers in Cambodia. On Thursday, July 9th, an event at the Pulitzer Center delved into these issues, raising many questions about how to combat the crisis–including creating common sense laws to protect women who are forced into sex work. Video journalist Steve Sapienza gave an inside look at the life that sex workers in Cambodia are living through his project “The Hidden World Of Cambodia’s Sex Workers: New Risks, New Hope.” Accompanying him were Antigone Barton, a free-lance journalist who has written extensively about the AIDS epidemic in the US and abroad, and Sebastian Kohn, program officer for law and health with the Public Health Program based in New York.

Sapienza began the conversation with some background information about the situation in Cambodia. Sex workers are often, although not always, forced into this business by sex traffickers. Kohn stated that “trafficking involves threats of abusive force.” Traffickers use these women for commercial sex acts to make a profit. Because the practice is so prevalent in Cambodia, there remains a high risk for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

The first case of HIV was found in Cambodia in 1991. The disease was quickly spread through sex workers, causing the country to have the highest HIV rate in Southeast Asia. In an effort to stop the spread of HIV, troops were even sent to the brothels where sex workers saw customers. In 2003 a law passed that mandated that girls in Cambodia’s brothels had to use condoms. Although this lead to a dramatic decrease in the percentage of the population with HIV, in 2008 prostitution became completely illegal. That didn’t stop the illicit sex trade, however, as there was a 46 percent increase in prostitution after it became banned. When the government decided to close these brothels, sex workers started going to bars, clubs, and restaurants to secretly continue their business. Others also recruited clients on the street. Estimates put the amount of sex workers somewhere between 20,000-100,000. Most importantly, HIV transmission still remained a problem, although it has dropped dramatically in recent decades.

Sapienza highlighted some changes that have helped to stem the epidemic. Sapienza’s video showed a quick look at programs such as SMARTgirl, which aims to prevent and lessen the impact of HIV among “entertainment workers” living in Cambodia. SMARTgirl gives out free condoms and offers free HIV screenings, but with sex workers often constantly on the go many of them are not able to be checked regularly.

Most strikingly, the event also highlighted some shocking truths that seem to run counter to commonsense. For example, Sapienza explained that Cambodians can get arrested for carrying around condoms because it is seen as evidence that they are sex workers. Sex workers that want to be safe while working have to be very careful carrying protection or they can be taken to jail. Many of these women believe that police use this as a means to get money–essentially citizens found with condoms sometimes have to bribe police officers to avoid arrest. Inconsistent policies along those lines have made it hard to improve the HIV/AIDS rate in some cases.

When it comes to considering the dangers in sex work, it’s important to remember that for many women, it was not a choice. When an audience member asked if most of the sex workers seemed to be happy with their employment, Sapienza stated, “I don’t think any expressed joy, it [prostitution] was a fallback.” Many of the women involved in the prostitution business continue working because they feel that it is one of the only ways they can provide for their family; or because they are victims of human trafficking. Both are sad realities of the sex trade in many countries.

It’s clear that things are getting better in Cambodia for sex workers in some ways, particularly when it comes to the HIV infection rate. Yet, there is still much work to be done–particularly when it comes to ineffectual laws that punish women for trying to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, regardless of whether or not they are sex workers. Programs like SMARTgirl need to continue to implemented, and advocates like Sapienza need to continue bringing up the difficult conversations.

Taelor Bentley

Taelor is a member of the Hampton University Class of 2017 and was a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer of 2015. Contact Taelor at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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