"What do we want? EFFECTIVE PREVENTION! When do we want it? NOW!" shouted HIV/AIDS, women's rights, and faith-based advocates as they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to join a World AIDS Day rally at the White House.

On Friday, November 30, nearly 200 activists—including community members, students, and people living with HIV and AIDS—brought together local, domestic, and global demands for critical changes to U.S. HIV and AIDS policies. Those rallying called upon the government to cut the red tape on HIV and AIDS programs, with particular emphasis afforded to prevention programs at home and abroad.

The rally-goers, armed with posters and giant scissors with messages like "Sex Education Saves" and "Cut the Red Tape on U.S. Global HIV Prevention," weren't the only people making demands of the Administration. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington, D.C.'s non-voting delegate in Congress, issued powerful words to President Bush as part of her address to the crowd.

"Get Serious, Mr. President"

"We need to talk directly to this President, we need to tell him the truth about getting serious about stopping the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic," she demanded. "Get serious, Mr. President!"

Congresswoman Norton noted that U.S. HIV prevention strategies and programs are seriously failing women and girls in the United States and across the world. She called upon Congress to lift the ban on needle exchange funding in Washington, DC. She raised concerns about PEPFAR (The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) because of its ideologically-driven prevention strategies and funding restrictions that harm women and youth. With PEPFAR due for reauthorization by Congress in the upcoming months, she called upon her colleagues and President Bush to rectify these policies.

Geno Dunnington, HIV activist with DC Fights Back, echoed Congresswoman Norton's prevention demands. "To fight this infection, you have to have the correct ammunition [including condoms, needle exchange, and effective training programs in schools]."

We Need More than a Red Ribbon; Cut the Red Tape!

Activists rallying in the President's backyard were greeted by a giant, 28-foot-tall red ribbon hung on the North Portico of the White House. But advocates wanted more than a red ribbon from the White House—they wanted action. With the Administration failing to act upon their demands, rally-goers took it upon themselves to take a stand.

In addition to the rally's focus on improving U.S. HIV prevention programs through comprehensive sex education in DC schools and striking the 1/3 abstinence-until-marriage earmark in PEPFAR, the gathering spotlighted the need for the implementation of a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy and expanding PEPFAR to $50 billion over five years. The rally was also affiliated with the Prevention Justice Mobilization.

Co-sponsors of the rally included: ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), Advocates for Youth, Africa Action, American Medical Students Association, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), DC Fights Back, Global AIDS Alliance, Jubilee USA, Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association, MetroTeen AIDS, RAP Inc., RESULTS, Student Global AIDS Campaign, Unitarian Universalist Association, University Coalition for Global Health, and The Women's Collective



After the rally, in a separate demonstration in front of the White House, forty demonstrators wrapped in red tape (a symbol of the political red tape blocking effective HIV and AIDS action) and wearing shirts that said "At-Risk Youth" and "Hand-tied Teacher," sat in front of the White House and refused to move until the government cut the red tape. Referencing the three warnings advocates conducting civil disobedience are given before they're arrested, they chanted, "Warning one, warning two, warning three, warning eight. We won't leave ‘til you cut the red tape!" In the end, all forty were arrested.