Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.

Good morning, Washington. Today is World AIDS Day, which puts what happened at the National Portrait Gallery yesterday in some interesting context. On November 29, Penny Starr penned this article for conservative news outlet CNSNews, which singled out the National Portrait Gallery’s GLBT-focused “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” exhibit, and specifically A Fire in My Belly, a video by David Wojnarowicz which examines AIDS in American society. (Wojnarowicz had AIDS and died of complications in 1992.) The CNS piece got picked up by Drudge, and as a result of the attention, the NPG announced it would be removing A Fire in My Belly from the exhibit. Republican Congressional leaders John Boehner (R-OH) and Eric Cantor (R-VA) went further, calling for the entire exhibit to be pulled and the museum’s funding examined, but National Portrait Gallery director Martin Sullivan was adamant that “Hide/Seek” will stay up through February, as planned. Of course, conservative politicians threatening to revoke funding for art they deem offensive is nothing new. But, in this case, it’s tough to decide what to be more annoyed at: the knee-jerk Bible-thumping rhetoric or the rash decision of the NPG to simply cave and remove A Fire in My Belly — which was part of an exhibit that even the original CNS report concedes was curated with private, not public, funding.

24 Hour Gap-Closing People: Okay, not quite — but yesterday’s public hearing on the District’s $188 million budget gap did last about 15 hours, finally coming to an end at 12:16 a.m. Hundreds of testimonials later, however, and things are still a mess. City Administrator Neil Albert and representatives from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (D.C. CFO Nat Gandhi had a “prior commitment” and didn’t attend) didn’t have very many answers for the Council, while nearly everyone who testified pleaded with the Council to maintain their cause’s funding. Some came to the chamber to testify that they’d be okay with higher income taxes; even fewer came with ideas of how the District could creatively save their programs. The Council will now pick at Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposal, and it’ll be interesting to see what they switch around. (It could be quite a bit.) As for the long hearing: since the District is projected to hit its 12 percent debt cap at some point within the next five years, we should probably just get used to these kind of marathons. Here’s hoping Vince Gray, who really seemed to be enjoying himself as the hearing went into the evening, isn’t too tired for his big lunch date with President Obama today.

Saunders Wins WTU Run-off: George Parker is out as the head of the influential Washington Teachers’ Union, losing his seat to Nathan Saunders, who defeated the incumbent by a vote of 556 to 480. The Post’s Bill Turque has the post mortem; with Parker voted out, Michelle Rhee gone and Adrian Fenty soon to be departing, where the union will go under Saunders’ leadership is anyone’s guess. His three-year term begins today.

Briefly Noted: Teen shot and killed, girl hit by car in Petworth…The usual post-tragedy WaPo tearjerker on the woman who threw her granddaughter off a Tysons Corner Center elevated walkway…P.G. County police officer suspended for sexting…WMATA to ask board of directors for $60.5 million to replace faulty track circuits, other NTSB-recommended safety fixes…Tick Tock Liquors owners plead not guilty on smuggling charges…Tornado watch in effect this morning around the region.

This Day in DCist: Last year, the Council approved the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009,” the first of two votes which eventually opened marriage to same-sex couples in the District.