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Roses are red, violets are blue, people are dying, what will you do?
Sarah Garrity Guenther

THE VILLAGE, New York City: As part of a larger movement too protest cuts to HIV/AIDS medication funding, this Monday, the 14th, a group of some 30 New School students collapsed in the Lang Courtyard, symbolically dying to represent the thousands of individuals with HIV/AIDS on ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) waiting lists for medication and health care.

At 1:40, students clad in black t-shirts proclaiming allegiance to the student-led AIDS/HIV advocacy group, Queerocracy, marched out into the courtyard as university classes were letting out. Armed with protest banners and a megaphone manned by Suzanne Exposito, the protestors took their places, standing silently as bystanders looked on and Ms. Exposito recited a mission statement. With her last words, the group fell to the ground and chanted, staying down for around 5 minutes, when the New School security appeared in the courtyard and the protest dissolved.

ADAP is a federally funded drug and health care assistance programs that has began in 1987. It has only recently been a target for budget cuts that began in 2007. This past January, the Kaiser Foundation collected and released nation-wide data that supports the recent movements, like the recent protest at the New School and efforts by ACT UP!/Health GAP, against ADAP. The data reports the number of people on ADAP waiting lists, the presence of a cost-containment strategy (efforts to spend what money ADAP gets in an efficient manner, helping as many people as possible) and the presence of movements on the part of Congressmembers to reform ADAP laws. High numbers are reported in Florida (2,816 people), Louisiana (583 people) Ohio (438 people) while low numbers come from Wyoming (1 person) and New York (no waiting list). Such waiting lists exist in states where ADAP’s funding has been cut or is currently insufficient.

Protest banners advertised each state’s ‘number,’ the number of people waiting on the federally funded ADAP to dispense the medication and health care funds that they need to live and function in society. One of Queerocracy’s founders and leaders, Cassidy Gardner says that the groups focused on protesting against the more than 6,000 people that are waiting on HIV/AIDS medication as a result of funding that has been cut drastically.. Recent budget cuts in the United States drain money from nearly every public program, including ADAP, but Gardner says that this program is “crucial.”

The chants that rang out in the courtyard continued the message proclaimed by the protest banners and signs. Protestors sang out “Barack Obama you’re breaking our heart, fund ADAP and do your part” and a variation of “Roses are Red.” On a day such as Valentine’s Day, usually reserved for candy hearts, lovers and roses, the protest and its message took on the theme of Valentine’s Day, a day for love and friendship. DO YOU HAVE A QUOTE FROM SOMEONE SAYING THEY WOULDN’T HAVE EXPECTED SUCH A THING? OR FROM THE ORGANIZERS SAYING THAT’S WHY THEY PLANNED IT FOR VDAY? OTHERWISE SEEMS LIKE AN ASSUMPTION.

This protest was only the beginning in a series of die-ins being organized by Queerocracy. Elizabeth Harvey Richard, one of the group’s founders and leaders, said through email that the group wants to take its protest against ADAP waiting lists to a larger arena, beyond college campuses.It was a brief protest, a sting operation designed to make noise and get a point across in a short period of time.  What occurred last Monday in the Lang Courtyard was but “a call to action for a larger protest [to be organized] outside of Chuck Shumer’s office.” “Chuck” Shumer is the senior United States senator from New York. Mr. Shumer has considerable influence in Washington.

Health GAP and ACT UP!, two well-known New York based AIDS advocacy groups, held similar protests to the recent one at the New School in September and October of last year. Attendees to the protests held in Philadelphia stretched out in a long line, symbolizing the large amount of people waiting on ADAP waiting lists. Kaytee Riek of Health GAP and Cliff Williams of ACT UP! were present at the Philadelphia protests. Mr. Williams comments on the ideal potential of ADAP, asserting that in order to be able to carry out its purpose, to help HIV/AIDS infected individuals to afford the medication and care that they need to live, the programs needs better funding. He has hopes that the current administration could help to fund ADAP. “Obama could be the president to end AIDS by giving adequate funds to ADAP,” he said through email.

Queerocracy intends to bring their protest plans in front of Health GAP and ACT UP! in the coming weeks, looking for participant, funds and advice. Gardner and Richard promise that the die-in that occurred last Monday is only the beginning of a slew of events centered on ADAP and funding for HIV/AIDS medication.