LGBTQ leaders urge state lawmakers to restore $31 million in healthcare budget cuts

Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revise for the 2025-26 budget proposes to eliminate two major initiatives from the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity: the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) and the Gender Health Equity Section (GHES). 

The move would rescind funding which has already been awarded through existing contracts with nearly 70 community-based organizations across the state, with nearly 40 of those organizations being in Los Angeles. 

“These cuts come at a time when LGBTQ communities are already facing national rollbacks, from Medicaid slashes and  cuts to bans on gender-affirming care and shrinking access to mental health services,” said Dannie Ceseña, MPH, Director of the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network. “With trauma mounting from political attacks, California should be leading, not cutting lifelines. Slashing nearly half of the Office of Health Equity’s budget, the only state office specifically dedicated to addressing health disparities, breaks trust.”

Earlier this year, L.A. County’s Department of Public Health sent a notice to 39 organizations across the county, alerting them of the termination of over $19 million in Centers of Disease Control and Prevention funding, effective May 31. 

The Trump administration released a budget proposal for 2026, where $3.59 billion would be cut from the CDC — which currently handles 90% of all HIV prevention funding on a federal level.  This includes the elimination of millions of dollars worth of funding for community-based healthcare providers in Los Angeles, such as the LA LGBT Center, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Equality California, Trans Latin@ Coalition and others. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also moved to eliminate the CDC’s prevention division as part of the plan to restructure the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Due to the widespread budget cuts coming from all levels of government, healthcare providers are now urging state legislators to allocate over $60 million from the AIDS Drug Assistance Program rebate fund to supplement and sustain the HIV prevention programs for the next year. 

Healthcare providers like the LA LGBT Center have expressed their concerns and have sounded the alarm for the serious repercussions this budget cut will have on the progress that has been made over the past 30 years. 

“We are sounding the alarm: Los Angeles County’s decision to eliminate HIV prevention services now is a direct threat to public health. It will fuel a surge in new HIV transmissions, deepen existing health disparities and saddle the county with far greater long-term costs,”  continued. "We demand that the Department of Public Health and the Board of Supervisors immediately reverse these reckless terminations and honor their contractual funding commitments.” 

The proposed cuts include cutting grants from programs that were created with explicit legislative direction and funded by the Legislature in previous budget cycles. These include programs supporting health equity, LGBTQ foster youth and access to reproductive healthcare. 

The grants fund grassroots mental health services, trauma-informed care, peer support and capacity-building in underserved regions and communities too often overlooked by mainstream systems.

“If the County has truly lost federal funding at a level that warrants terminating all HIV prevention contracts, its leadership should be working overtime with the State, elected officials, and community partners to secure emergency support and fill the gap,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of the LA LGBT Center. Instead, last week’s actions revealed a troubling lack of commitment to HIV prevention—and to the very communities most at risk for the virus.”

Ending the HIV Epidemic, a statewide coalition advocating for funding to eliminate health inequities, end HIV, STI, viral hepatitis deaths and substance overdoses in California, is pushing for state legislators to allocate around $60 million in the state’s fiscal budget for next year, toward sustaining HIV prevention programs across the state, including L.A. County. 

“In this critical moment, California must double down, not retract, its efforts to advance health equity and reduce health disparities,” said Jodi Hicks, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.