Three female and four male AIDS activists stripped naked inside U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s office in Washington, DC, demanding a meeting with him have warrants against them for their protest. The activists from Queerocracy, ACT UP New York and ACT UP Philadelphia painted slogans on their bodies such as “AIDS Cuts Kill” and “Fund PEPFAR, Fund Ryan White, Fund Global Fund, Fund Medicaid, Fund HOPWA.” The action was intended to draw attention to mandatory budget cuts (a.k.a. sequestration) that will go into effect next year on January 2 (a.k.a. the fiscal cliff) unless Congress comes to an alternative agreement before then. If the fiscal cliff is not avoided, which would trigger sequestration, activists claim at least 620,000 otherwise preventable deaths from HIV would occur, global health programs would lose $689 million and domestic HIV programs would lose $538 million. The action was timed in anticipation of World AIDS Day, December 1, and the announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of a blueprint to end AIDS, which activists claim would be nearly impossible if these budget cuts happen.
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