Sadly these days there are very few American politicians who we can admire and respect, but Congresswoman Maxine Walters of California is a major exception.  She is a real star.  In a white male-dominated congress (there are currently 28 women members), she has shown time and time again that she will not put up with any bullshit.  The video above is when The Orange Man’s gay United States secretary of the treasury Scott Bessant tried to hoodwink Ms. Walters in a public hearing: she made mincemeat of him, and her ‘I’m Claiming My Time’ entered both the history books and our hearts too 

Now Congresswoman Walters is back on our radar again as she has just introduced a resolution earlier this month to recognize National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.  The congresswoman announced H.Res. 1039 on February 6, the day before this year’s National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.   The Day is a day set aside to increase HIV awareness and enhance prevention, testing, and treatment among African Americans,” Waters said in a statement. “It is a day to commemorate the impact of HIV/AIDS on Black Americans and encourage continued efforts to reduce the incidence of HIV, eliminate health disparities, improve access to care and treatment, and show support for all those who are living with HIV/AIDS.”

As Waters noted in both her press release and the resolution, Black Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and have been since the beginning of the epidemic in the U.S. in the 1980s, facing greater barriers in accessing care and treatment and higher morbidity and mortality outcomes than white Americans.

Waters’ resolution, co-sponsored by 29 of her Congressional colleagues, aims to acknowledge that the U.S. House of Representatives “supports the goals and ideals of ‘National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.’” It encourages state and local governments to recognize and publicize the day’s importance and requests that the Secretary of Health and Human Services “prioritize the distribution of Minority AIDS Initiative grants to HIV-based agencies that are minority led with preference given to organizations led by people who identify as African-American/Black, Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian-American, or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.”

This is no one-off for Walters as the Congresswoman has supported HIV/AIDS awareness initiatives since the 1980s, working with the Clinton administration to establish the Minority AIDS Initiative in 1998, and introducing the HIV Prevention Now Act and the PrEP and PEP are Prevention Act in 2025.

H.Res. 1039 has been endorsed by AIDS Foundation Chicago, AIDS United, AMAAD Institute (Arming Minorities Against Addiction and Disease), LA Pride, NAESM Inc., NMAC (formerly the National Minority AIDS Council), and PFLAG National. According to the Blade, the resolution was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.