GRAY SKIES AND SPORADIC DRIZZLING did not deter a crowd of hundreds from walking in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park over the weekend to fundraise for local nonprofits providing HIV/AIDS services.
The annual AIDS Walk San Francisco was an effort to bring a community together and remind the public the ongoing importance of combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Teams competed to see who could raise the most for 18 beneficiaries throughout the Bay Area. Individual participants either went out to their communities or reached out to businesses and asked to be sponsored for the 5K walk through the park.
Participants downed their complimentary pancake breakfast and donned their jackets for the chilly summer morning.
California State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco echoed the message of a need for action during the opening ceremony. He said when he came out as a gay man in 1987 in New Jersey, the AIDS crisis was terrifying and then President Ronald Reagan’s government did not care for the LGBTQ community.
Wiener said that since then, the American public has learned how to properly treat and prevent of HIV/AIDS but now faces hurdles under President Donald Trump.
“We’re at a point now where we know how to end this public health disaster,” he said. “We know how to keep people living with HIV healthy. We know how to end HIV transmission. Now, we have another challenge, we have another government that doesn’t care about us. It doesn’t care if people die. A government that is restricting access to health care, which is how you fuel HIV.”
Recent cuts by the Trump administration under H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, removed funding for several large initiatives, including $1 billion from the Centers for Disease Control for the prevention HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Additionally, funding for parts of the nationwide initiative to combat HIV/AIDS, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, will be cut. The national program, named in honor of a young boy who died of AIDS, was passed by congress in 1990 under the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. In fiscal year 2024-2025, around $2.6 billion was allocated for the program, making it one of the largest public health initiatives in the country.
We’re at a point now where we know how to end this public health disaster. … Now, we have another challenge, we have another government that doesn’t care about us. It doesn’t care if people die.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco
An estimated $74 million in HIV education and training programs, $274 million in programs targeting mothers and children with HIV, and $532 million for housing assistance programs for people living with AIDS will be eliminated from the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget.
Event director Bert Champagne said the purpose of AIDS Walk SF is to get funding to local community organizations that would enable them to not only provide HIV services but also fund other operations. Champagne said taking care of those battling communicable diseases doesn’t stop with providing them with medication but also includes helping them with daily tasks that could be difficult to do.
“Unrestricted funds are so important to smaller organizations because sometimes it’s just getting somebody a vet visit for their emotional support animal,” said Champagne. “It may be legal advice for somebody that has to do their last will and testament because they’re HIV positive and the doctor gave them bad news. These are funds for things government grants won’t cover.”
One of the beneficiaries of Sunday’s walk was the Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness, a San Francisco-based organization providing services targeting Black and African American residents.
Shanell Williams, Rafiki’s CEO, said they were directly feeling the impacts of the recent cuts by the Trump Administration. According to Williams, the cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, education, and public health programs have a disproportionate effect on the clients they serve.
“It’s known Black/African American communities face the brunt of when there are these (cuts) because of that legacy of structural racism that exists in our society,” said Williams. “We really have to strategize about how we diversify the resources that we have so we continue to be that safety net in our community.”
Organizations like the Rainbow Community Center in Concord and the HIV/AIDS clinic, Ward 86, at the University of California, San Francisco also said they are fearful of what the cuts could mean for long term planning of their budgets and services.
For participant Jen Dowd-Kim, the walk for her is a way to remember her dear friend and colleague Red Mangio. She said Red was an avid advocate for the walk and wanted to help as many people as possible until he passed away due to AIDS complications in 2006.
“Red’s end of life was not the way it should have been, and I really hope that it is not the same for other people,” said Down-Kim. “The work that [these nonprofits] do will hopefully help others not be alone.”
Dowd-Kim said she hopes fundraisers like the walk can continue to bring together members of the community while also spreading awareness about the importance of not reversing the progress made to combat the HIV epidemic.
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