Carla Tuff rode one of 12 buses that departed Los Angeles at 3 a.m. today to join an estimated 1,500 people protesting statewide HIV service cuts at the Capitol. The "Fight for Your Life" rally was organized by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation along with other HIV and AIDS awareness organizations.

Tuff said she was one of 58 other protestors who rode a bus from the Tarzana Treatment Center in Los Angeles, where she has received medical and mental treatment as an HIV-positive patient for the past several years.

"If they stop our medications ... I won't be able to raise my kids," Tuff said.

Now 44 years old, Tuff said she was 26 and pregnant with her first child when she was diagnosed HIV-positive. The father of both her children died from the disease. Her children, who are 16 and 17 years old now, are HIV-negative because of treatment she has received.

"Thank God that they are negative," she said.

Chris Vigiano, a social worker who participated in the rally on behalf of the Tarzana Treatment Center, explained that the $80.1 million cuts from public health care will curb AIDS and HIV programs such as HIV counseling, epidemiology studies, case management, surveillance and AIDS drug assistance programs.

"The proposed budget cuts are basically jeopardizing services for our clients," Vigiano said. "If state funds won't be able to support guidelines of federal grants, [it will be] detrimental to the HIV community."

For more information on the statewide rallies against HIV cuts, visit the following link.

*Author’s notes: All photos courtesy of Ed Fogle; click the following link to view website: Maverick Photography.