Douglas Brooks—the first openly gay, HIV-positive, African-American man to be named the head of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP)—stepped down from the position March 24.
Senior policy advisor Amy Lansky will replace Brooks in the interim.
President Bill Clinton created the post in 1993. President Obama named Brooks to the position two years ago.
In a statement, National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director/CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks said, “As the first openly gay, HIV-positive Black man to hold this post, Director Brooks has led ONAP with grace, humility and unyielding strength, while working to ensure that those most impacted and at-risk for HIV/AIDS have access to the tools they need to combat this disease.
“Under Director Brooks’ leadership, our federal government updated the National HIV/AIDS Strategy in 2015 by focusing efforts on the needs of minority communities, gay and bisexual men, women of color—including transgender women—and other groups disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS.” Lettman-Hicks also listed some of Brooks’ other accomplishments, such as the expansion of the role of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and making “early and frequent testing for HIV a key tenet of public policy.”
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, in a separate statement, said, in part, “As an openly gay, Black man living with HIV, Mr. Brooks brought to his role a level of authenticity and perspective that has made real differences in the lives of millions of Americans nationwide. He will be sorely missed and we owe him a debt of gratitude.”