Reportback from Sunday AIDS march on Washington

This event was NOT the Tuesday, July 24 mobilization, but rather a mass march that kicks off the massive International AIDS Convention.

That convention is in the US for the first time in 23 years, thanks to the lifting of a visa ban on people testing positive for HIV. Unfortunately non-US sex workers who were supposed to participate in the convention were still denied visas.

Many thousands marched in the streets, demanding that the US and the G20 stop cutting funding for AIDS research, existing treatments, and prevention efforts. Criminalization of HIV and sex (like "felony prostitution" laws in California) is also being explicitly condemned, as it increases the spread of HIV by driving it underground.

Rev Al Sharpton spoke at the event, condemning preachers who prescribe bigotry instead of medicine for AIDS, and condemning politicians who balance the budget on the backs of the poor and the ill while pushign tax cuts for the rich