A video titled Dear Donald Trump: Are You Listening? features some of AIDS organization Harlem United’s diverse clients and staff voicing their worries about how the new administration will address their needs regarding HIV, Medicaid, women’s health and more. At least the public is listening—the video is being widely shared on social media. (You can watch it below or visit Harlem United’s website here.)
Among those asking such questions as “How will you help people like me?” and making statements like “I hope that as my president, you are not going to count me out” are people living openly with HIV.
Posted on the Harlem United website as well as on Facebook on the eve of President Trump’s inauguration, the video is part of a campaign that seeks both to give an outlet to people afraid of losing access to affordable health care and to communicate some of these fears to the new administration. A message submission form encourages viewers to join in the conversation. With viewers’ permission, Harlem United will share those thoughts with the new administration. On its website, Harlem United also highlights some responses, such as this one:
I am a woman who lost her father and his partner to AIDS in 1990. At the time his insurance cancelled on him due to his HIV status. We sold everything we had for his pentamidine treatments and care. I was 18 when he died, my first day of college. I used plan parenthood for birth control, cancer screening, and cervical cancer treatment I put myself through college, graduate school and am a very successful professional today. Without the medical help I had then, I would not be here today. Programs like Harlem United, and Planned Parenthood are a necessity not an option for so many of us.
– Kendra, Westfield, NJ
At last count, the video had been viewed more than 60,000 times on Facebook, proving that now that Trump is president of the United States, folks concerned about the state of health care want to be seen and heard.
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