Chicago-area groups that support LGBTQ+ individuals are navigating an uncertain landscape while bracing for federal funding cuts that could affect HIV care and prevention.

Cuts outlined in President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget mean some groups stand to lose federal funds that support medical services like testing and HIV treatment, as well as nonmedical patient supports such as housing and food subsidies. Research money that goes toward drug development is also on the chopping block. Advocates say that because the virus disproportionately affects transgender, Black and Latino individuals — and prevention efforts have been focused on those communities — HIV funding has taken a hit as diversity, equity and inclusion programs are rolled back.

“When we allocate funds to prioritize the needs of this community, it’s a community that has been impacted by health disparities since before we’ve been counted by the census,” said Terra Campbell, associate director of community relations at LGBTQ+ health care provider Howard Brown Health. “It’s not special treatment. It’s investment in the needs of your neighbor and the community.”

The Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center’s funding will be cut completely in the current budget proposal for fiscal year 2026. It provides training and support for health care professionals working in HIV prevention, care and treatment. Shanett Jones, Illinois program director, estimates the center trains more than 4,000 providers every year.

The center receives funding under the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, the largest federal program for HIV in America. The 2026 budget proposal eliminates the part of the Ryan White program that establishes and funds all AIDS education and training centers across the United States.

“If we do lose this funding, we risk having a less prepared workforce, which leads to delayed diagnosis of people living with HIV,” Jones said. “This is an infrastructure that, once it’s dismantled, it does not come back easily — you can’t win the race by slashing the engine.”

AIDS Foundation Chicago gets more than 80% of its funding from federal sources. Alongside advocacy work, the foundation provides support services for people living with HIV, including testing and prevention resources, education, housing and health insurance. In 2024, the foundation served more than 8,000 people in the Chicago area.

Timothy Jackson, senior director of policy, said the foundation is currently planning for a projected loss of 40% of those funds in the president’s 2026 budget request.

AIDS Foundation Chicago is partially funded by both Ryan White and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization, the proposed budget cuts all of the CDC’s HIV prevention funds.

The foundation also receives funding through the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program, which will also be eliminated in the proposed 2026 budget. These nonmedical services are essential for reducing HIV in Chicago, Jackson said.

“We have to look at all of the other things that make HIV possible, or make the transmission of HIV possible. So that’s when we talk about housing, that’s when we talk about harm reduction. That’s why we talk about transportation and food access and all of these other different things,” he said.

AIDS Foundation Chicago filed a lawsuit in February along with two other nonprofits challenging executive orders that sought to end “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” programs and equity-related grants and contracts.

“Our mission is rooted in ending HIV and homelessness in the communities that are most impacted. And it is very difficult to do that when you are not leading with equity,” Jackson said.

These organizations’ work has already been affected by the National Institutes of Health funding pause earlier this year, and will continue to be affected by cuts to research funding in the planned budget. Jackson said the recent success of the twice-annual HIV prevention shot, lenacapavir, would not have been possible without NIH and CDC funding.

“This administration does not value science. We see that play out over the huge cuts at the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, which all impact HIV and the work around new HIV treatment and prevention modalities,” Jackson said.

Even groups that are not largely reliant on federal funding are experiencing the strain of an uncertain economic future. Chris Balthazar, executive director of TaskForce Prevention and Community Services, a health and wellness group serving LGBTQ+ youth in Chicago, says many of his organization’s partners are only signing contracts for quarterly periods, instead of their usual 12-month periods, in case funding disappears. These partners are how TaskForce provides many of its services, which include legal and housing aid, HIV and other STD testing, and connecting patients to medical care.

“Imagine what the impact of that is on the ground. How do you sustain a job on a grant that you don’t even have a full 12-month contract for?” he said.

Additionally, Balthazar explained that while state funding is not being cut as explicitly as federal funding, it is still expected to decline. The federal government partially funds the Illinois and Chicago Departments of Public Health, which then give grants to groups like TaskForce. Since the health departments don’t know what sort of funding to expect in the next year, they aren’t able to commit to the same grants they have in years previous.

“So much of the state budget comes from the federal budget. And I think that it’s scary that, unfortunately, if this continues and nothing is undone, we’re going to see major cuts, and we’re going to see more and more people who are on the margins of the margins be even more drastically devastated by this,” he said.

Both Jackson and Jones said that the most important thing anyone can do for HIV care and prevention in Chicago right now is to call their representatives and express support for continued HIV funding.

“It’s reassuring that we have people who are still engaged, who are still advocating, who are still hoping. And when I go and I talk to community groups, I tell them, we can’t go back to the ’80s,” Jackson said. “We’re going to do what we have always done in 40-plus years of the epidemic: rely on community to get us through.”