When it comes to deciding which candidate wil get your vote, what topics are the ones that are important to you? What are the issues you want them to address as part of their political platform? Is how they will approach HIV a concern of yours? A concern for the nation?
The Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) wanted to find out if HIV was an important issue or concern of ALL of our presidential candidates. See an excerpt from their report below.
With the election cycle in full swing, U.S. voters are tuning in to hear how the candidates plan to address the issues that matter to them most. For people living with or affected by HIV, there is much at stake when it comes to federal policy regarding access to care; discrimination based on HIV status, orientation, and gender identification; and the spread of scientifically-accurate information on a federal level. So the GMHC, one of the world’s first and most prominent HIV service organizations, took the candidates to task to find out just how he or she plans to govern on these issues.
GMHC sent all of the presidential candidates a 10-question survey on the various issues concerning HIV and AIDS in 2016. The organization said that the purpose wasn’t to endorse any one candidate, but to hear each candidates' policies on ending the epidemic and giving each of them equal opportunity to communicate these positions on HIV and AIDS to the public.
The campaigns were all informed of the deadline and that GMHC would publish their responses without any edits. At the time the survey was released, there were 18 candidates running; today only 16 candidates remain. Of these 16, only three candidates — all Democrats — submitted responses: Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, and Bernard Sanders.
GMHC did not receive responses from the following Republican candidates: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gillmore, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Paul Rand, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, Jill Stein, and Donald Trump.
"While we are extremely disappointed that not a single Republican candidate submitted a response to the presidential survey on HIV and AIDS, we are heartened that those who did respond have thoughtful plans on how we end the epidemic," said GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie. "With 50,000 new infections across the country every year, voters deserve to know where every candidate stands on policies relating to the epidemic. Many debates have taken place, and not one moderator asked about HIV and AIDS, which is why GMHC decided to release this survey. GMHC will continue to work tirelessly throughout the 2016 election cycle to ensure HIV and AIDS prevention, care and advocacy is a priority for any serious contender running for office."
The GMHC Presidential survey began with the following question:
Over the last 30 years, GMHC has seen encouraging results when all levels of government, medical providers, and community-based organizations implement culturally competent, LGBT-inclusive sexual education and outreach that includes scientifically accurate information about HIV and AIDS. If elected, how will you direct your administration to continue and grow these best practices? – hivplusmag.com
For the three Democratic responses, head on over to hivplusmag.com.
There is also the pdf you can download / view of all 10 questions and answers.
Did the info sway you in any way?
Where does HIV rank in the top ten issues when selecting a president?
Is it even in the top ten?
Were you surprised none of the Republican candidates responded? Shouldn't they all have a written policy covering the important issues? Maybe this wasn't important enough for them or maybe they didn't see the GMHC as an important outlet to get back to?
Tell us your thoughts.
h/t : hivplusmag.com