News update posted Nov. 10, 2011
by Kate Sosin, Windy City Times
2011-11-16
http://www.windycitytimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=34727
The U.S. Conference on AIDS, held this year in Chicago for the first time, opened with a welcoming plenary breakfast that featured major names in HIV/AIDS prevention.
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services headlined the morning.
But the moment that left many talking later in the day was a protest that interrupted the introduction of Sebelius. As Sebelius was announced with much fanfare, a large group of protesters with posters marched out and stole the microphone.
The group, protesting on behalf of Asian Pacific Islanders, demanded that their voices be heard in HIV prevention. They came bearing signs that read “Our Lives Matter.”
“We cannot to wait,” said Sharon Day of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force. “We, the first Americans, can no longer be the last in line for funding.”