Actor Javier Munoz and transgender drag queen Peppermint are fearmongering, “We will be back to HIV wards” if federal funding is cut.
Munoz, best known for starring as Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway play, Hamilton, and Peppermint, runner-up on season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race, met with lawmakers on Wednesday to urge them not to vote for a budget they claim will “eviscerate” government programs dedicated to addressing HIV, according to a report by The Advocate.
“This is not something that is outside of my existence or my life. This is my life, this is my health, this is my future,” Muñoz, a gay man who has been living with HIV for more than 20 years, told the outlet.
“This is my ability to actually maintain breathing and living and access to my treatment on a daily basis,” the Broadway actor added.
Peppermint, meanwhile, is encouraging people to “take advantage of these services while you have them” by using clinics near them and “routinely getting checked” for STDs before members of Congress vote on the House Appropriations Committee’s FY26 funding bill, which is expected to happen before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
“They will put us back to where we started. We will be back to HIV wards, AIDS wards, in hospitals,” Muñoz fearmongered. “We will be dwindled down. We will watch our loved ones die again, and it is completely needless — it’s inexcusable to even have these cuts on the table.”
“Look at me dead in the eye and tell me I don’t deserve to live,” Muñoz added. “Tell me that right now, because I am exactly the person who’s going to be directly affected by these cuts.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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