For the work to curb the spread of H.I.V. in the Nashville region, workers relied heavily on federal grant money. So they were stunned when Tennessee’s health commissioner announced earlier this year that the state would no longer accept $8.8 million in federal grant money, which for more than a decade has been distributed among nonprofit groups, county health departments and health care organizations.
Tennessee is the only state to have rejected the funding; Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, instead plans to allocate $9 million in new state funding for H.I.V. prevention and monitoring in July.
The governor said the move would offer the state greater independence in its decision-making. But some organizations say they are concerned that the state will not offer them funding if they do not align with his conservative positions on issues like transgender rights, and his opposition to abortion access.
“You can’t politicize public health,” said Mia Cotton, the chief programs officer of Friends for Life, a Memphis nonprofit that has received the federal funding.
The governor’s office has indicated that its priorities include “vulnerable populations, such as victims of human trafficking, mothers and children, and first responders.”
These are at odds with the reality on the ground, as those groups represent only a tiny fraction of new H.I.V. cases in Tennessee. Some of the highest-risk groups in the state are sexually active gay men, transgender women and those who inject drugs, according to Greg Millett, the director of amfAR.
An estimated 40 million people are living with H.I.V. worldwide. About 10 million of them do not have access to treatment.
A Lifesaving Program: In the 20 years since its inception, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has delivered H.I.V. treatment to more than 20 million people in 54 countries, according to a new report.
Injectable PrEP: An injection every two months rather than a daily pill could shield many more women from H.I.V., but the shot is unavailable in places that need it most.
The C.D.C. requires that recipients of its H.I.V. prevention and monitoring grants focus on groups that are most vulnerable to H.I.V., using federal data to identify the most vulnerable populations in a particular area. Among the groups identified by the C.D.C. as high-risk are men who have sex with men, transgender people, and Black and Hispanic people. The C.D.C. declined to comment on Mr. Lee’s decision.
Governor Lee, whose signing of a total abortion ban and proposed tax cuts have been broadly applauded by Tennessee Republicans, has faced questions from within his party of the H.I.V. funding decision.
Among those who fear that the state will politicize its funding choices is Ray Holloman, who leads the Tennessee Transgender Task Force, a volunteer group that the state health department established in 2018, during the previous administration.
The team received an annual budget of $10,000, with the goal of connecting transgender residents to H.I.V. prevention resources; the money came from the C.D.C. grants.
When The Daily Wire, a right-wing media outlet, published an article accusing the state task force of moving beyond its original mission of H.I.V. prevention to “promote transgender surgeries and abortion.” A spokeswoman for the governor told the outlet that he did not support the task force.
The Tennessee Health Department removed from its website information about the task force and other health resources for trans people, as well as information about the state’s H.I.V. prevention programs. Then, Mr. Holloman learned that the funding for the task force would end on Dec. 31, 2022.
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, another recipient of the federal H.I.V. funding, was also notified last fall that the Lee administration planned to cut off its access to the C.D.C. grant. In a statement released in January, Planned Parenthood said that it had “attempted to work with the governor’s office following this latest effort, but the state abruptly announced their withdrawal from the federal program altogether.”
The move to eliminate funding to the Tennessee Transgender Task Force is seen as part of a broader attack on trans rights. Governor Lee has approved legislation that bans all gender-affirming treatment, hormone therapies and referrals for transgender children to receive medical care in the state.
Tennessee lawmakers have also advanced legislation that would block trans people from changing the gender listed on their drivers’ licenses.
Over the past decade, the South has emerged as the epicenter of the nation’s H.I.V. epidemic. People in Southern states account for over half of new H.I.V. cases each year, even though just 38 percent of the U.S. population lives in the region. Shelby County, which includes Memphis, has one of one of the highest rates of new H.I.V. infections nationwide.
As many members of the NABWMT know, It’s scary if you’re positive, and don’t know where your antiviral medicine will come from. For one 40 years the NA has pushed back on extreme views that target or affect people at the margins. Please encourage your lawmakers to fight these laws.