Popstar Madonna has on Monday criticized the U.S. government’s decision to effectively ignore World AIDS Day on that day, in an Instagram post. “Donald Trump has announced that World AIDS Day should no longer be observed. It is one thing to order federal employees not to observe the day, but to urge the public to act as if it never existed is ludicrous, absurd, and unthinkable,” wrote the Queen of Pop. The day has been observed worldwide for four decades by people from all walks of life, “as millions are affected by the HIV issue,” the 67-year-old said. “People have lost their loved ones to this deadly disease, for which there is still no cure, their lovers, partners, mothers, daughters, and children.”
The Government’s Silence
Last week it emerged from a report in the New York Times that the State Department had instructed its staff and organizations receiving federal funds not to use U.S. government funds for World AIDS Day. The directive was part of a broader policy to “refrain from all communications about commemorations, including World AIDS Day,” the New York Times cited an internal email.
Direct link | Last year the outgoing U.S. president Joe Biden had delivered a World AIDS Day address
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Employees were allowed to continue “highlighting the work” done under various programs “to combat this dangerous disease and other infectious diseases worldwide,” the email continued. They were also allowed to attend events related to the commemoration. However, they should “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any channels of communication, including social media, press contacts, speeches or other public-facing communication.”
It is the first time that a U.S. government has ignored the day observed annually on December 1 since 1988. In fact, on Monday neither the controversial U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his administration nor the White House and President Donald Trump acknowledged the global day of remembrance and action. “Silence = Death,” was an early slogan from the AIDS movement.
Madonna’s Personal Memories
“I bet he has never seen his best friend die of AIDS, holding his hand and watching the blood drain from his face as he took his last breath at age 23,” Madonna wrote about Trump. Her close friend Martin Burgoyne, who designed the cover for the 1983 single “Burning Up,” died of AIDS in 1986. In the same year, Trump’s attorney and mentor Roy Cohn also died from the disease.
“The list of people I’ve known and loved and lost to AIDS is pretty long,” she said. “Let me say it again: there is still no cure for AIDS and people still die from it. I refuse to accept that these people died in vain. I will continue to observe World AIDS Day, and I hope you’ll observe it with me.”
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The Trump administration had already at the start of the year rejected the global fight against HIV/AIDS. So funding from USAID was cut, which included lifesaving deliveries of HIV medications and other drugs. Funding for research and prevention was also rolled back or cut worldwide. UNAIDS estimates that the withdrawal of U.S. aid, if not replaced by other sources, could lead to roughly 4.2 million additional AIDS-related deaths by 2029.
