Jirair Ratevosian

Jirair Ratevosian (born 1980) is an American policy advisor specializing in global health and human rights who served as the acting chief of staff to the United States Global AIDS Coordinator from 2022 to 2023. Ratevosian was previously a legislative director to U.S. representative Barbara Lee.

Early life Ratevosian was born in 1980 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, to a Lebanese mother and Armenian father. His mother was born and raised in Lebanon until immigrating to the United States in 1976 due to the Lebanese Civil War. Ratevosian's father was born in Siberia as a result of his paternal grandfather being sent there due to his anti-communist activism in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. His parents met in Hollywood. He earned a bachelor's degree in physiology and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003.

Career Following his graduation from Boston University, Ratevosian worked with the Boston Public Health Commission on HIV funding. In August 2014, Ratevosian joined Gilead Sciences as its government affairs director. In 2022, he became the acting chief of staff to the Global AIDS Coordinator John Nkengasong. Ultimately, he finished 9th out of 15 candidates in the primary election.

Ratevosian serves on the board of directors for AIDS United, Equality California and PrEP4All.

Political positions Israel-Palestine He supports the Ceasefire Now movement and has drawn parallels to his own lived experience as an Armenian American.

LGBTQ+ rights Ratevosian considers himself a progressive. He is pro-LGBTQ+ and has proposed a Gay Agenda for Congress to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals.

In a 2024 op-ed cowritten with Laura Friedman, Ratevosian noted that "LGBTQI individuals who also belong to ethnic minority communities, such as Black, Latino, Asian, or Armenian, face disproportionate systemic injustices. They often find themselves at the crossroads of multiple forms of discrimination."

Personal life Ratevosian came out as gay in 2014. , Ratevosian resides in Burbank, California.