WHAT: “ACT UP 39: Money for AIDS and Healthcare, Not ICE and Warfare!”

An Anniversary Rally, March, and Street Protest in Memory of Mark Milano and Others

WHEN: Saturday, March 21st, 12 PM to 2 PM

WHERE: New York City AIDS Memorial (Greenwich Ave. & W. 12th St.) (12:00 PM)

Street march through areas of Lower Manhattan (12:45 pm)

Outside NYC Office of Palantir Technologies, 620 6th Ave. (1:15 pm)

WHO: Sponsors:

• ACT UP New York

• ACT UP Philadelphia

• Housing Works

• Physicians for a National Health Program, New York Metro Chapter

• Rise and Resist

March 21, 2026 – New York, NY – On Saturday, March 21, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) marks its 39th anniversary of fighting the AIDS epidemic by protesting the Trump administration’s slashing of HIV/AIDS budgets while increasing budgets for ICE and the current war on Iran.

Last summer, the Trump administration and its congressional allies enacted spending cuts of $1 trillion that decimated federal healthcare and HIV/AIDS programs and the agencies that operate them. These funds were essentially reallocated from the fight against AIDS to dramatically increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Since Trump took office, funding for ICE and CBP has tripled to nearly $200 billion. The ICE portion expanded the personnel who abduct mostly Black and Brown immigrants and their families from their communities and imprison them in concentration camps before deportation.

“The living conditions in these camps are inhumane, and healthcare services are nearly non-existent resulting in numerous deaths including people with HIV,” said ACT UP NY member Ryan Foster.

To accomplish this work, ICE contracts with software company Palantir Technologies, which profits handsomely and has an office in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Activists are calling for divestment from Palantir Technologies and the defunding of ICE and the war effort.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is using its new additional funding of $155 billion to wage an unauthorized war against Iran and fund weapons to Israel in the Palestinian genocide. Activists are demanding an end to the war in Iran and the Palestinian genocide.

As part of ACT UP’s anniversary, the group is honoring member Mark Milano, who was a longtime AIDS and healthcare activist who died of cancer in early January. He was a leader in the early years of ACT UP and later in the Trump resistance movement through Rise and Resist. Additional ACT UP NY members who have passed away in recent years to be remembered include Nanette Kazaoka, Alan Timothy Lunceford-Stevens, Mel Stevens, Kathy Ottersten, Gerri Wells, and others.

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About ACT UP

Founded in 1987, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. ACT UP currently meets every Monday night at 7PM ET via Zoom. Notes: you will be asked to contribute your first & last name and email address to access online meetings, and KN-95 masks are required for ACT UP NY in person meetings/actions/gatherings. All individuals are welcome!