White House Official: President Committed To Addressing HIV/AIDS

Jeff Crowley, the director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, this week discussed the government's role in addressing HIV in the first of a series of town hall meetings convening "across the nation as part of the Obama administration's attempt to dialogue with the public to design a national strategy to fight HIV/AIDS," the Southern Voice reports. "With a September deadline looming for congressional funding of the Ryan White CARE Act, Crowley assured the capacity crowd Obama was intent on refunding the act that provides state and local money for HIV care and prevention campaigns." Crowley said, "The president cares deeply about HIV/AIDS. He also expects us to do our share." Town hall attendees' recommendations included "authorizing a needle exchange program, comprehensive sex education in schools and having the CDC focus more efforts on tracking HIV in the transgender community as well as funding transgender HIV prevention efforts," according to the Southern Voice (Bagby, 8/28).