During President Obama’s visit to Philadelphia this week, members of ACT UP called on him to step up his leadership for people with HIV/AIDS.
While the president was meeting with recently graduated seniors from Science Leadership Academy at the Franklin Institute Tuesday evening, ACT UP unfurled a banner at a neighboring parking garage that read: “Obama: Homes not Graves for People with AIDS. Tax Wall Street; Treat the People.”
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security detained two ACT UP activists in the parking garage for over two hours, and they were interviewed by a number of law-enforcement officials.
They will not face any charges, said ACT UP member Kaytee Riek.
The garage was located a few blocks from the Franklin Institute, by the Chestnut Street Bridge.
The action was meant to call attention to the need for funding for Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS and for a “Robin Hood Tax” — a less-than .5-percent tax on stocks, bonds and dividends trades that advocates say could generate $350 billion annually to be used for the creation of green jobs and health causes, such as HIV/AIDS programs.
“There’ve been amazing scientific breakthroughs on AIDS in the four years these students have been at SLA,” said ACT UP member Jose DeMarco. “We learned that treatment can drastically cut the spread of AIDS. We learned that providing housing is necessary to treat and prevent AIDS, and we’re closer than ever to a vaccine and a cure. The science is there; what we need is leadership, the leadership to tax Wall Street for the money to end AIDS.”
The banner also included a website — wecanendaids.org — that ACT UP groups around the nation and others are using to mobilize activists for a large-scale demonstration July 24 in Washington, D.C., at the International AIDS Conference.
Riek added that ACT UP will keep up the pressure on Obama.
“The activists are going to continue to raise the fact that the president has broken his promises on funding AIDS programs here and around the world,” she said. “As we head closer to the International AIDS Conference in July in D.C., the president is going to continue to hear about this.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].