New York, NY: Gay Men's Health Crisis ( GMHC ) - the world's first and leading HIV and AIDS service organization - sent all of the candidates running for president a survey asking about their plans to end the HIV and AIDS epidemic on December 3, 2015. The purpose of the survey was not to endorse a candidate, but rather to ask to hear each candidates' polices 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. 16 candidates remain. Of these 16, candidates Hillary Clinton ( D ), Martin O'Malley ( D ) and Bernard Sanders ( D ) submitted responses.
GMHC did not receive responses from the following candidates: Jeb Bush ( R ), Ben Carson ( R ), Chris Christie ( R ), Ted Cruz ( R ), Carly Fiorina ( R ), Jim Gillmore ( R ), Mike Huckabee ( R ), John Kasich ( R ), Paul Rand ( R ), Marco Rubio ( R ), Rick Santorum ( R ), Jill Stein ( R ), and Donald Trump ( R ).
"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."
GMHC's 2016 presidential survey can be found at the link: gmhc.org/about-us/publications/presidential-report-2016 .
In addition to GMHC's 34 years of experience and expertise, the survey questions were informed by the following documents:
The National HIV and AIDS Strategy for the United States.
New York State's blueprint to end the epidemic by 2020.
About Gay Men's Health Crisis
Gay Men's Health Crisis ( GMHC ) is the nation's leading provider of HIV and AIDS care, prevention services and advocacy, serving nearly 9,000 people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS in New York City, the epidemic's largest U.S. epicenter. As the world's first HIV and AIDS service organization, GMHC is an expert in providing services that every person affected by the epidemic deserves. GMHC is on the front lines caring for people who are both HIV negative and positive, including: testing, nutrition, legal, mental health and education services. GMHC also advocates for stronger public policies at the local, state and federal level with the goal of ending AIDS as an epidemic in New York State by 2020. Most recently, GMHC and other HIV and AIDS organizations successfully persuaded the federal government to recommend widespread use of PrEP, a new daily treatment that is over 90% effective in preventing HIV infection. For more information, visit www.gmhc.org .
