World AIDS Day: The Resistance of Resilience
Every year since 1988 people around the planet come together on the first of December to recognize World AIDS Day. In years past we have taken pause to honor those whom we have lost and celebrate the progress made in the global HIV response.
In 2025, it is nearly impossible to focus on anything but the challenges that threaten to unravel that progress. It arrives at a time of shifting political winds, renewed debates about public health funding, and increasing threats to the systems and supports that people living with HIV rely on every day.
Yet if there is one constant in the HIV movement, it is resilience.
For more than four decades, the HIV community has endured cycles of crisis and recovery. We have faced indifference, stigma, scarcity, and political backlash. And still—through mutual aid, activism, and unshakeable hope—we have rebuilt again and again. This year, with potential federal and state cuts on the horizon, that resilience is not just inspiring, it is essential.
At this moment, the United States stands at a crossroads.
For more than 20 years, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been one of the most successful global health initiatives in history. It has saved an estimated 25 million lives, strengthened fragile health systems, and brought the world closer than ever to controlling the HIV epidemic. USAID has been central to this effort—building clinical capacity, partnering with community-led organizations, expanding access to prevention, and ensuring that millions stay connected to lifesaving treatment.
The current political divide, funding uncertainty, and stalled reauthorization efforts have created a dangerous vacuum. PEPFAR-supported clinics have reported staffing gaps, reduced community outreach, disruptions in treatment continuity, and delays in expanding services to key populations. These cracks—if allowed to widen—threaten decades of hard-won progress.
The message is clear: Treatment access is not guaranteed. Progress is reversible. Lives are at stake.
The uncertainty about the future of our movement does not end outside of the borders of this country. Here, at home, the dismantling of the foundations we have built our successes upon resembles the current state of the east wing.
Policy decisions made in statehouses and on Capitol Hill have life-or-death consequences. Reductions to HIV prevention, care, housing, and treatment programs don’t simply trim budgets; they unravel the fragile ecosystems that keep people alive. Cuts disproportionately impact Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, and rural communities—people who already face higher barriers to care and greater exposure to stigma.
But we have never waited for political permission to do what is needed.
History shows us that progress in HIV policy is rarely linear. Budgets rise, then fall, with the optional attention of charity. Political champions emerge, then fade with the regularity opportunism offers. But the HIV response moves forward because the community keeps pushing forward. When lawmakers scale back, communities scale up. We see advocates testifying at hearings, organizations expanding peer-led services, and networks of people living with HIV stepping into leadership. We see researchers, healthcare providers, and activists working together to protect progress that took decades to build.
This ability to adapt—to find new paths when old ones are blocked—is one of our greatest strengths.
When the early epidemic was met with silence, people living with HIV built their own networks of care. When treatments were inaccessible, advocates demanded—and won—more equitable access. When global leadership faltered, activists and partner nations strengthened PEPFAR and the Global Fund, saving millions of lives. When stigma has surged, communities have countered it with truth, visibility, and love.
This year’s uncertainties are not new terrain. The community has always been its own engine of progress.
Every political cycle brings the chance for renewed commitments…renewed inspiration. Funding threats today can become new opportunities tomorrow—but only if we keep momentum alive.
World AIDS Day reminds us, even during challenging times, that we must steadfastly defend the essential programs that provide medications, testing, prevention, housing, and supportive services. Once an HIV safety net is compromised, rebuilding it becomes multitudes more costly and emotionally taxing.
It also calls us to elevate the voices of those communities that are most impacted. Resilience as it is strongest when those most impacted are centered. Policies crafted with meaningful, empowered involvement from people living with HIV are more equitable, more effective, and more enduring.
Finally it calls us to believe that hard times are temporary. When leadership changes—or when public health once again becomes a national priority—the HIV community will be ready with solutions, partnerships, and a long-term vision rooted in justice.
Resilience is not passive. It is planning, persistence, and refusing to let setbacks define the future.
The progress we’ve made— undetectable becoming untransmittable, vastly improved treatments, longer and healthier lives—is too valuable to lose. The HIV community, and its allies aren’t asking for miracles. We are demanding what we have always deserved: dignity, care, evidence-based policy, and sustained investment in human life.
On this World AIDS Day, we honor the fortitude that carried us this far, and we recommit to the work ahead. No matter how the political winds blow, we will continue fighting for a world where every person living with HIV has the access, resources, respect, and rights they need to thrive.
I urge you to take a moment and remember who we are, because the resilience to rebuild is not just our story—it is our most valuable strategy.