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Email: VTPWAC@Sover.net OTHER NEWS
President
Obama signs 4 year extension of the Ryan White Act
and Lifts
the HIV Travel Ban
On
Friday, October 30, President Obama signed into law a 4 year extension
of the
Ryan White Act, and on Monday, November 2, he lifted the 22-year-old
ban on
allowing people infected with the AIDS virus into the United States. Both of his actions had strong support in
the HIV/AIDS community.
Below
is the text of his speech as he signed the 4 year Extension of the Ryan
White
Act:
We often
speak about AIDS as
if it's going on somewhere else. And for good reason -- this is a
virus
that has touched lives and decimated communities around the world,
particularly
in Africa. But often overlooked is the fact that we face a
serious
HIV/AIDS epidemic of our own -- right here in Washington, D.C., and
right here
in the United States of America. And today, we are taking two
important
steps forward in the fight that we face here at home.
It has been
nearly three
decades since this virus first became known. But for years, we
refused to
recognize it for what it was. It was coined a "gay
disease." Those who had it were viewed with suspicion.
There
was a sense among some that people afflicted by AIDS somehow deserved
their
fate and that it was acceptable for our nation to look the other
way.
A number of
events and
advances over the years have broadened our understanding of this cruel
illness. One of them came in 1984, when a 13-year-old boy from
central
Indiana contracted HIV/AIDS from a transfusion. Doctors assured
people
that Ryan White posed no risk to his classmates or his community.
But
ignorance was still widespread. People didn't yet understand or
believe
that the virus couldn't be spread by casual contact. Parents
protested
Ryan's attendance in class. Some even pulled their kids out of
school. Things got so bad that the White family had to ultimately
move to
another town.
It would have
been easy for
Ryan and his family to stay quiet and to fight the illness in
private.
But what Ryan showed was the same courage and strength that so many
HIV-positive activists have shown over the years and shown around --
show
around the world today. And because he did, we didn't just become
more
informed about HIV/AIDS, we began to take action to fight it.
In 1990, the
year Ryan passed
away, two great friends and unlikely political allies, Ted Kennedy and
Orrin
Hatch, came together and introduced the Comprehensive AIDS Resources
Emergency
Act -- the CARE Act -- which was later named after Ryan.
In a
few
minutes, I'm going
to sign the fourth reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act.
Now, in
the past, policy differences have made reauthorizations of this program
divisive and controversial. But that didn't happen this
year. And
for that, the members of Congress that are here today deserve
extraordinary
credit for passing this bill in the bipartisan manner that it
deserves:
Tom Harkin and Mike Enzi in the Senate, we are grateful to you for your
extraordinary work; Speaker Pelosi, who's always leading the charge on
so many
issues; Frank Pallone, Jr., Joe Barton, Barbara Lee and Donna
Christensen in
the House, thank you for your extraordinary work. And
Chairman Henry Waxman, who began holding hearings on AIDS in
1982, before there was even a name for AIDS, was leading here in
Washington to
make sure that this got the informed attention that it deserved and who
led the
House in passing the original Ryan White legislation in 1990.
I also
want
to acknowledge
the HIV community for crafting a consensus document that did so much to
help
move this process forward. Some of the advocates so important to
this
legislation are with us here today: Ernest Hopkins from Cities
Advocating
for Emergency AIDS Relief; Frank Oldham, Jr., President and CEO of the
National
Association of People with AIDS; and Julie Scofield, Executive Director
of the
National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors.
And I'm
especially honored
that Ryan's mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, is here today. For 25
years,
Jeanne had an immeasurable impact in helping ramp up America's response
to this
epidemic. While we lost Ryan at too young an age, Jeanne's
efforts have
extended the lives and saved the lives of so many others. We are
so
appreciative to you. Thank you.
You know,
over the past 19
years this legislation has evolved from an emergency response into a
comprehensive national program for the care and support of Americans
living
with HIV/AIDS. It helps communities that are most severely
affected by
this epidemic and often least served by our health care system,
including
minority communities, the LGBT community, rural communities, and the
homeless. It's often the only option for the uninsured and the
underinsured. And it provides life-saving medical services to
more than
half a million Americans every year, in every corner of the country.
It's helped
us to open a
critical front on the ongoing battle against HIV/AIDS. But let me
be
clear: This is a battle that's far from over, and it's a battle
that all
of us need to do our part to join. AIDS may no longer be the
leading
killer of Americans ages 25 to 44, as it once was. But there are
still
1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and more
than
56,000 new infections occur every single year.
Some
communities still
experience unacceptably high rates of infection. Gay men make up
2 or 3
percent of the population, but more than half of all new cases.
African
Americans make up roughly half of all new cases. Nearly half of
all new
cases now occur in the South. And a staggering 7 percent of
Washington,
D.C.'s residents between the ages of 40 and 49 live with HIV/AIDS --
and the
epidemic here isn't as severe as it is in several other U.S. cities.
So tackling
this epidemic
will take far more aggressive approaches than we've seen in the past --
not
only from our federal government, but also state and local governments,
from
local community organizations, and from places of worship.
But it will
also take an
effort to end the stigma that has stopped people from getting tested;
that has
stopped people from facing their own illness; and that has sped the
spread of
this disease for far too long. A couple of years ago Michelle and
I were
in Africa and we tried to combat the stigma when we were in Kenya by
taking a
public HIV/AIDS test. And I'm proud to announce today we're about
to take
another step towards ending that stigma.
Twenty-two
years ago, in a
decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted
a travel
ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Now, we talk
about reducing
the stigma of this disease -- yet we've treated a visitor living with
it as a
threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS
pandemic
-- yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from
HIV from
entering our own country.
If we want to
be the global
leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it. And that's
why, on
Monday my administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the
travel
ban effective just after the New Year. Congress and President
Bush began
this process last year, and they ought to be commended for it. We
are
finishing the job. It's a step that will encourage people to get
tested
and get treatment, it's a step that will keep families together, and
it's a
step that will save lives.
We are
continuing the work of
crafting a coordinated, measurable national HIV/AIDS strategy to stem
and
suppress this epidemic. I'm pleased to report that the Office of
National
AIDS Policy, led by Jeffrey Crowley, has already held eight in a series
of 14
community discussions in cities across the country. They've
brought
together faith-based organizations and businesses, schools and research
institutions, people living with HIV and concerned citizens, gathering
ideas on
how to target a national response that effectively reduces HIV
infections,
improves access to treatment, and eliminates health disparities.
And we
are encouraged by the energy, the enthusiasm, and great ideas that
we've
collected so far.
We
can't give Ryan White back to Jeanne, back to his mom.
But what we can do -- what the legislation that I'm about to sign has
done for
nearly 20 years -- is honor the courage that he and his family
showed.
What we can do is to take more action and educate more people.
What we
can do is keep fighting each and every day until we eliminate this
disease from
the face of the Earth.