| Dear Equality Illinois Supporter,
To say I'm mad is an understatement. The Trump administration has released its proposed Fiscal Year 2027 federal budget. And it is not an abstraction. It is not a political document filed away in Washington. It is a direct assault on the communities we serve, written in the plainest possible language, and I want you to know exactly what is in it. Nearly $2 billion in cuts to HIV-specific services. The elimination of the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program. Slashed funding for transgender health care. The gutting of fair housing protections. Defunded research on LGBTQ+ health. And tucked inside the budget document itself, language describing organizations like ours as "radical," "woke," and "wasteful" for daring to care for people who have been left behind. Let me tell you what radical looks like from where I stand. Radical is a Black trans woman in Chicago who finally has a roof over her head because HOPWA existed. Radical is a young gay man in Alton who got tested and treated because a nonprofit showed up for him. Radical is a teenager in rural Illinois who saw, maybe for the first time, that someone who looked like them was worthy of care and protection. These are not political causes. These are human lives. And this budget treats them as line items to be deleted. I stood before you at our January Gala and made a promise. I said that my charge as your CEO was to make sure nothing essential falls apart. I meant it then. I mean it now. And I need you to understand what that promise requires of all of us in this moment. What is essential? The housing program that keeps a person alive. The clinic that sees a trans kid without shame. The advocate who walks into a state hearing room and says, with data and with conviction: we are here, we matter, and we will not be erased. That is what Equality Illinois does. That is what nonprofits like ours do, every single day, in the gaps that government chooses not to fill. When the federal government withdraws, the burden shifts. It shifts to state legislatures. It shifts to local leaders. And it shifts to organizations like ours, and to people like you, who refuse to let the most vulnerable among us disappear. This is not a time for panic. But it is absolutely a time for clarity. Equality Illinois is preparing. We are deepening our civic engagement work. We are strengthening our policy infrastructure. We are building the kind of statewide presence, from Chicago to Cairo, from Bronzeville to Bloomington, that means our communities have someone in the room when decisions are made. We are not waiting for Washington to do the right thing. We are building what we need ourselves. To our sibling organizations across Illinois: we see you. We know what you carry. We know the staff you are trying to protect, the clients whose lives depend on your doors staying open, and the weight of doing essential work while the ground shifts beneath you. You are not alone in this. Equality Illinois stands with you, not above you. Our reach, our relationships, and our platform exist to defend this entire ecosystem. It is our job as a community to protect each other. And we intend to do exactly that. None of us can do this alone. I am asking you to stand with us. Give if you are able. Amplify our work and the work of every organization fighting for our communities right now. Show up at hearings and town halls. Speak the names of the programs being cut. Do not let this budget pass in silence. The people targeted by this budget did not choose to be targets. They chose to survive. And survival, in this country, in this moment, requires all of us to be more than bystanders. Equality Illinois has been standing since 1991. We are not going anywhere. I made a promise at the Gala. I am keeping it. In solidarity and in service,
Channyn Lynne Parker (CLP) |
