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Floor Speech
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I know people from all over Washington State have been celebrating Pride this month, and many are going to be heading to Seattle this weekend, and a lot of those celebrations will actually be taking place at Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill. For those who don't know, Cal was a friend of mine, so I want to share a little about his story and how it relates to what is happening in our country today.
Cal was a Vietnam veteran and Washington's first openly gay State legislator. During my time as a State senator, we worked together to help make State government more accessible to the public. But in 1995, like so many at that time, we lost Cal too soon as a result of his AIDS diagnosis.
I remember visiting him in the hospital just a month before he passed, and, of course, he wasn't focused on himself. He was telling me, newly elected to the U.S. Senate, what I needed to do to make healthcare better for other people in our country.
That is still relevant today as we face down Republican attacks on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Cal's election back then was a huge step towards equality, and he really helped change people's opinions.
I have served now on the Senate Appropriations Committee since I was first elected here and have always kept stories like Cal's close to me, fighting to invest in medical research and HIV prevention programs, year after year.
Over the years, we have made enormous and tremendous strides in the fight to prevent and even cure HIV and AIDS so that others do not suffer that fate that Cal did.
NIH funding is supporting work to discover an HIV vaccine. And, separately, PEPFAR, which helps prevent HIV infections around the world, has been one of the most effective programs in our country's history.
But Donald Trump has now terminated more than $250 million in NIH funding supporting work to discover an HIV vaccine. Much of that work happened at Fred Hutch in Seattle for over 20 years. And now he is pushing Congress to pass hundreds of millions in cuts to PEPFAR.
And it is not just that. Trump is terminating all kinds of NIH studies if they even have the words ``gay'' or ``trans'' in them.
He is overseeing an all-out government campaign to turn back the clock and go after our trans friends and loved ones. It is totally wrong, and it is backwards.
Pride this year represents tremendous progress, but that progress is being threatened today like never before. So to everyone who is heading to Cal Anderson Park this weekend, I hope you will join me in reflecting on Cal's story, remembering how his fight matters today, and using your voice to speak up against this discrimination and this administration.
We can't let them sweep these attacks on science and the LGBTQ community under the rug. Let's keep fighting together to end HIV and AIDS, to protect healthcare for everyone, and for equal rights under the law no matter who you are or whom you love because in the end, we will win.
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