Advocates and state officials gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on a warm spring Tuesday to commemorate Connecticut’s 25th annual HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The event — part celebration, part memoriam, part commitment to continue fighting —  occurred against the backdrop of federal cut s that advocates say threaten to reverse decades of progress in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.   HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, attacks the body’s immune system. If untreated, HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, known as AIDS. Thanks to more effective treatment and prevention tools, developed over several decades, the virus has gone from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease. In 2019, Connecticut reported that 220 people were newly diagnosed with HIV, down from 802 in 2002.  AIDS advocate Doug Moffet said when he was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, he waited six weeks for an appointment to get tested and then had to wait another 12 weeks to receive the result.  “The world is a very different place,” Moffet said, comparing what he went through in the 1980s to today’s reality, where people can receive the results of a rapid antibody test within 30 minutes, which can be confirmed with a lab test within just a few days. But federal funding cuts could reverse that hard-earned progress, several speakers said. Of the nearly 800 National Institutes of Health research grants terminated by the Trump administration, roughly 29% — over 200 grants — relate to HIV/AIDS, according to an article in the science journal Nature. Layoffs and workforce reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services could also threaten the HIV/AIDS programs. “It’s amazing to me how far we’ve come with regard to HIV in this country,” André McGuire, a retired lawyer, pastor and HIV activist who has been living with the virus for over 30 years, said as he addressed the crowd Tuesday. “If we stop putting money into prevention, then the same thing that happened at the beginning of this epidemic will occur again,” he said. Advocates also raised concerns over a line item in the governor’s proposed budget that cuts $300,000 in funding for HIV prevention. West Hartford Democratic Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, who co-chairs the Human Services Committee and serves on the Appropriations Committee, called the move “short-sighted.” “There is no appetite for those cuts on the legislative side,” Gilchrest said.  Chris Collibee, spokesperson for the Office of Policy and Management, said in an email that the money represents funding that’s gone unused in years past. “The reduction in the Governor’s budget proposal reflects the historic lapses over the past three years; we do not anticipate this funding adjustment would lead to a reduction in services,” Collibee wrote. Despite major medical advancements, there is still room to improve on prevention and treatment within certain communities, McGuire said. As of 2020, nearly 70% of people living with HIV in Connecticut were Black or Hispanic, despite only representing a combined 32% of the state’s population. Black and Hispanic men in the state were diagnosed with HIV at rates 10 and 3.5 times higher than white men, respectively. Black women accounted for more than half of new HIV diagnoses among women.  McGuire said heterosexual Black men, for example, aren’t tested often enough for HIV, which he attributes, in part, to their own fear of stigma, but also a failure on the part of public health officials to reach them effectively.  “As a Black male living with HIV, I feel invisible,” McGuire said in an interview with the Connecticut Mirror following the rally, adding that many groups who get funding to do HIV/AIDS research don’t apply their work in Black and brown communities. The commemoration included a performance by Hartford’s Proud Drill Drum and Dance Corp, and ended with cheers from the crowd vowing to “fight back.” ...read more read less