Seven Days in June: Health Is Primary - A Call to Action - San Francisco Bay Times

"Now there is a new call to action: asking you to show up, not just for a day, but for an entire week, focused specifically on the healthcare crisis our country is facing. Activist Cleve Jones and a growing coalition of organizations and advocates are calling for us all to show up and speak out throughout the first week of June, to demand that our federal, state, and local representatives prioritize healthcare."

"He has been at the forefront of healthcare activism since the very beginning of the AIDS pandemic. This June 5 will mark the 45th anniversary of a rare pneumonia affecting gay men being reported in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It eventually became known as AIDS. This current moment in our country is eerily reminiscent of that time, when our government was not responding to the growing health crisis, and it became clear that Americans had to step up and demand action."

"Cleve talked about his reaction when Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office mandating a pause on funding for USAID-and then Elon Musk gleefully boasted about taking a chainsaw to the agency. He said, "It was heartbreaking, and made me angry. Then when Trump tried to cancel World AIDS Day, I thought about the nearly 45 million people who had died of AIDS. We were on the verge of being able to""

Since January 2025, large numbers of Americans have protested destructive actions and policies. A new campaign called Seven Days in June asks people to show up throughout the first week of June to speak out about a healthcare crisis. Activist Cleve Jones, long involved in healthcare activism since the AIDS pandemic, connects the current moment to earlier government inaction during the emergence of AIDS. June 5 marks the 45th anniversary of a rare pneumonia report that later became known as AIDS. Jones reacts to actions such as pausing USAID funding and canceling World AIDS Day, describing them as heartbreaking and angering, and emphasizing the scale of AIDS deaths and the need for government response.

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