Video: We Can End AIDS! 5 marches converge for creative action at White House, July 24, 2012

Hundreds of Philadelphians joined thousands of Americans and International AIDS Conference delegates to form five protest marches to the White House on July 24, 2012 as part of the historic We Can End AIDS mobilization. The marches --

**Human Rights and Harm Reduction**
**End the War on Women**
**People over Pharma Profits**
**Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street**
**Promote Sound Policies**

-- met up at the White House, where 13 activists tied condoms, dollar bills, pill bottles, and other tools for ending AIDS to the fence in a civil disobedience action. This video starts with the Human Rights and Harm Reduction march, documents some of the speakers at the White House, and ends with the activists using red ribbons to tie the tools to end AIDS to the White House fence.

We Win! Funding for Syringe Exchange, and no dumb 1000 foot rule!

In case you weren't sure that grassroots AIDS activism really worked, I can no promise you it does. This year, Congress lifted their ban on funding needle exchange programs. Here's how it went down, as far as I know:

1) Grassroots AIDS activists worked to get a President, Senators, and Representatives elected who would lift the ban.
2) They got into office and we immediately started writing, calling, protesting, opining in the media, and more, reminding them of their promises.
3) They balked.
4) We pressured. We talked to our Congresspeople, we wrote letters to the editor, we shined the media spotlight on those who were going back on their promises.
5) They balked some more.
6) We pressured some more. 26+ AIDS activists shut down the capitol building, getting arrested in the process. The media covered us.
7) Speaker Pelosi and Representative Obey had a little chat... the result: A House appropriations bill that lifted the ban on funding syringe exchange, sort of, but with a restriction that made it impossible to actually get funding.
8) We pressured some more. Phone calls, lobby visits, demonstrations, more letters to the editor... We made maps and calculated that syringe exchanges in Philly could only operate in the Schuylkill River, and in DC could only operate in Congress!
9) The Senate and the House missed their deadlines and needed to repackage their appropriations bill into one big bundle (the omnibus spending bill) and, knowing that they needed to lift the ban and do it right, managed to do it.

You can tell from the way they lifted the ban, by saying that exchanges could be located anywhere, but that public health and local law enforcements could ask them to relocate if needed, that they actually heard the voices of people who run needle exchanges and people who use them. We got those voices into their offices, in their faces, saying, "look, we know how this works and you better not mess it up." And we won. They listened. That's how activism and democracy are supposed to work.

Good News / Bad News from the House of Representatives

Good news first:

The House of Representatives finally lifted the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs! They passed an appropriations bill without that nasty little sentence...

It was a close vote, too, 218 to 211 so thanks and congratulations to everyone who worked on this, whether it was emailing or calling their Representative, writing a letter to the editor, sitting down for a meeting with a Representative's office, attending a demonstration, or even getting arrested in the US Capitol Building. It's been 20 years of hard work, but it paid off...

Now the bad news:

The House of Representatives included language restricting where needle exchanges can occur. Specifically, they can't be within 1000 feet of any school, daycare, playground, park, pool, video arcade, or youth center.

Practically this means there is literally nowhere they can operate in most urban neighborhoods. Want proof? Check out these maps...

Philadelphia:


Zoomed in on one of the neighborhoods where you might have thought you could squeeze something in -- note how even more schools show up and you realize nope, it's really impossible:


Just in case you thought it was Philly-specific, here's South East Washington DC:


And in case you're thinking this will only be a problem on the East Coast, here's downtown Des Moines, IA:


All of these maps were created by using Google Earth to locate all of the schools, daycares, playgrounds, parks, pools, video arcades, and youth centers within a town, and then using Geometer's Sketchpad to draw 1000-foot radius circles around each location. If you know of an easier way to do this, please comment!

Also, feel free to use these maps, but please give credit to ACT UP Philly and this blog. http://actupphilly.blogspot.com

Finally, if you'd like me to make a map of your city or town, please leave a comment.