Due to the lack of adequate recognition of the breadth and success of the Clinton Foundation’s many HIV and AIDS initiatives, we at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the world’s first and leading AIDS service organization, felt it was time to speak up.

GMHC is not a partisan or political organization. We have one singular mission — end the AIDS epidemic. To that end, GMHC has sought to raise public awareness of the epidemic’s continuing, harrowing impact and to press government officials to devote the resources needed to accomplish this goal.

We both condemned President Reagan’s failure to address the HIV crisis and praised President Bush’s expansion of federal HIV treatment programs; we have criticized President Clinton’s HIV and AIDS strategy while in office and applauded President Obama’s policy response to the epidemic. GMHC has a long history of speaking up when we have felt that our elected officials and public figures are not doing enough, and an equally long history of praising our leaders, nonprofits, and other organizations when they introduce initiatives or plans that bring us closer to finding a cure.

Thus it is crucial that we recognize the Clinton Foundation’s efforts toward eliminating HIV and AIDS around the world and acknowledge the dangers in discontinuing these initiatives.