Tell Your City Government Officials: Protect LGBTQ+, HIV, and Harm Reduction Services in the City Budget
Send your letter directly at the HIV Advocacy Network website here.
Background
San Francisco is proposing millions in cuts to critical sexual health, HIV & LGBTQ+ community services. These cuts would undermine STI & HIV testing, treatment and prevention, and harm reduction services that provide a lifeline in the midst of an overdose crisis. Similarly programs for LGBTQ youth and seniors and trans health care would be cut as well. As the Trump administration defunds HIV services and attacks LGBTQ+ communities, we need San Francisco leaders to protect us not amplify the harm with cuts to communities already under attack including LGBTQ+ communities of color.
San Francisco has been a national leader in decreasing HIV & STI transmissions; we cannot afford to dismantle the infrastructure that pushes forward key progress in addressing these epidemics among those with the highest disparities. Now is the time to speak up. Please contact city leaders today and urge them to step up and reject these cuts to protect funding for HIV, LGBTQ health equity, and harm reduction services.
Submit your letter using the HIV Advocacy Network (HAN) form here.
Letter Template
Please note: The template below is provided as a starting point — your message will be more impactful if you include personal elements.
I am writing as a community member and advocate to urge you to stop the proposed cuts to HIV, LGBTQ health, and harm reduction funding at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
San Francisco has long led the nation in the fight to end HIV. The City’s own data show troubling increases in new HIV infections and overdose deaths. Both of which have disproportionate impacts to Black and transgender communities. These are not abstract statistics — they represent our neighbors, our families, and our future.
At a time when the federal government is attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, San Francisco should not be retreating from any of our public health infrastructure. Cutting them undermines and jeopardizes progress toward our Getting to Zero goals by once again setting up organizations serving most at risk communities for failure.
Likewise, as federal leaders escalate attacks on transgender health care, this is the worst possible moment for San Francisco to scale back investments in trans-competent training, workforce development, and community-based care. Organizations like San Francisco Community Health Center, Alliance Health Project, and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services provide essential expertise that strengthens the entire HIV prevention and care system. Reducing contracts that support trans competency and harm reduction sends the wrong message at a dangerous time.
Workforce and capacity-building programs — including clinical assistant training and Health Access Point support through San Francisco AIDS Foundation— expand opportunity for people from communities most impacted by HIV while strengthening service delivery across the system. Eliminating these programs risks widening racial disparities, weakening provider readiness, and ultimately increasing long-term costs.
It is deeply concerning that these cuts are moving forward without a clear racial equity impact analysis. In a city that has publicly committed to equity, that should be a baseline requirement.
San Francisco has built a model HIV response rooted in innovation, community partnership, and equity. We cannot afford to dismantle pieces of that infrastructure now — especially not as federal funding becomes more uncertain and political attacks on marginalized communities intensify.
I urge you to reject these proposed cuts and work with providers and community stakeholders to identify alternatives that protect San Francisco’s commitment to ending the HIV epidemic and advancing racial and LGBTQ health equity.
Our values — and our public health outcomes — depend on it.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME HERE]