An inside look into Callen-Lorde’s 2024 budget advocacy
Callen-Lorde’s advocacy work makes a tangible impact on city policy and funding efforts for LGBTQ+ health. However, advocacy often isn’t a transparent endeavor. We’ve broken down the timeline of our engagement this spring, which centered around fighting for city funding for HIV services, to provide an inside look into how Callen-Lorde makes a difference.
January: Mayor Eric Adams releases preliminary budget
The mayor released his fiscal 2025 preliminary budget in January that included specific budgets for each city agency. Prior to his announcement, Callen-Lorde leadership had heard that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would have to cut its budget by 5%. After the preliminary plan was released, it became clear that the department would have to shave money from its budget for HIV services contracts with community-based organizations. This could jeopardize Callen-Lorde’s available funding for our own HIV programs that provide lifesaving care.
Adams’ proposed budget kickstarted Callen-Lorde’s preliminary advocacy to fight against proposed cuts to HIV programs. In the absence of any definitive information about the budget cuts, we sought to begin to lay the groundwork for a potential advocacy campaign. We worked with GMHC and Housing Works as well as other HIV service organizations in the Ending the Epidemic Coalition to gather information and get organized. Callen-Lorde’s EVP of public policy and advocacy Kimberleigh Smith knew that if planned budget cuts were made public, we would have to raise our voice and make a strategic amount of noise to get the administration to listen.
April: We learn that Undetectables funding could be eliminated
On April 18, Callen-Lorde learned that if the preliminary budget went through, funding for our Undetectables program would be completely extinguished. The letter spurred specific action with the City Council.
We met with the Council’s finance team to discuss how the cuts would impact our ability to provide services, educate members on other organizations’ programs that would be cut and come up with a strategy for pushing the Adams administration. The LGBTQ+ caucus of the city council sent a joint letter to the mayor pushing him to reinstate the funding.
May: Executive budget still includes cuts
Adams’ executive budget still included DOHMH cuts to HIV service programs. In response, our manager of public policy and advocacy Kyron Banks testified at a hearing on May 13 about the dangers of cutting money for health access programs for vulnerable patients.
On the 15th, Gothamist broke the story about the potential slashes. Callen-Lorde followed up with a statement to the public and patients.
June: Callen-Lorde rallies at City Hall
In the middle of the month members of the Callen-Lorde community joined elected officials and representatives from other health care organizations to protest the cuts in front of City Hall. Natasha Goykhberg, Callen-Lorde’s director of care coordination, spoke to the crowd about the Undetectables program’s impact and why it’s essential for hard-to-engage patients.
Toward the end of June, an op-ed penned by our chief executive Patrick McGovern went live in Nonprofit News Media, City & State’s nonprofit arm. Patrick hit the same points we’d championed throughout the spring and used a personal patient anecdote to illustrate how losing Undetectables funding would endanger patients that need Callen-Lorde’s help most of all.
Our work paid off at the very end of June when the Adams administration enacted a $112 billion budget deal that reinstated HIV services funding. That result would not have been possible without Callen-Lorde and its people making our voice heard.
Plenty of Callen-Lorde staff took action to help achieve our goal. Our community wrote emails to the Adams administration and the city Office of Management and Budget expressing concerns and amplified our message as the months unfolded. We’re looking forward to more hard work next year!