Ways to commemorate World AIDS Day, December 1, 2020

World AIDS Day is held on December 1 each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first global health day, held for the first time in 1988.

Globally there are an estimated 34 million people who have the virus. Despite the virus only being identified in 1984, more than 35 million people have died of HIV or AIDS, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.

Today, scientific advances have been made in HIV treatment, there are laws to protect people living with HIV and we understand so much more about the condition. Despite this, people do not know the facts about how to protect themselves and others, and stigma and discrimination remain a reality for many people living with the condition.

World AIDS Day is important because it reminds the public and government that HIV has not gone away — there is still a vital need to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice, and improve education.

This year, all events are being held virtually because of the Coronavirus/ COVID-19 pandemic. The stories on some of these events:

Explore All 48,000 Panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Online

When the AIDS Memorial Quilt was first displayed on the National Mall in 1987, it contained 1,920 panels commemorating people who had died of the disease. Twenty-five years later, when the quilt returned to the Mall as part of the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, it had grown so much in size that its 48,000 panels couldn’t be displayed simultaneously. Instead, organizers showcased smaller sets of 1,500 squares on each day of the two-week celebration.

If laid out today, it would cover 1.2 million square feet. If each 3-foot by 6-foot panel was laid end-to-end, it would reach from downtown Salt Lake City, along I-80 for 77 miles to Evanston, Wyoming.

The Quilt is now available to view online in its entirety. Together, the panels— sewn into groups of eight — serve as a massive, searchable memorial to the more than 125,000 people who have died of HIV and AIDS since 1980.

“When we created the first Quilt panels it was to share with as many people possible lives tragically being lost to AIDS and to demand action from our government,” says quilt founder and gay rights activist Cleve Jones in a statement. “The Quilt has become a powerful educator and symbol for social justice. My hope is that through continued storytelling and making the panels available online, that more people will be drawn to its stories, its history, and that we can continue to change hearts and minds.”

Jones decided to commemorate the 1,000 San Francisco residents who had succumbed to AIDS to date in 1985 by asking those attending a march to tape placards bearing lost loved ones’ names onto the San Francisco Federal Building. To Jones, the wall of names resembled a quilt.

Most of the quilt’s blocks are rectangles measuring 6 feet by 3 feet, or roughly the size of a grave. Most were individually crafted by people whose friends and family members succumbed to AIDS, This personal touch is evident in the panels’ designs, which range from abstract geometric patterns to intricate multimedia collages and stenciled lists of names.

Katherine Ott, a Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History curator says the quilt “is the largest, most complicated example of folk art in the United States. Furthermore, it was a new kind of memorial; one that was collectively created and movable and shape-shifting, instead of the classic mausoleum sort of thing or sober mourning statue.”

Last November, the NAMES Project Foundation, which was established in 1987 to care for the quilt, announced plans to transfer an archive of more than 200,000 items associated with the project — including biographical records, photographs, news clippings, and letters—to the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center. The Atlanta-based foundation also revealed plans to send the quilt home to San Francisco under the stewardship of the National AIDS Memorial.

The digital archive was launched in June to commemorate the International AIDS Conference, which was held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 40th anniversary of the first reported HIV cases in the United States. When viewing the interactive quilt, users can either appreciate the enormous mosaic in its entirety or zoom in on specific panels, which often include individuals’ names and messages of love. Additionally, virtual visitors can search the quilt for specific names, keywords, or block numbers.

A new initiative dubbed 2020/40 accompanies the interactive quilt. Dedicated to sharing stories from the 40-year fight against AIDS, the platform includes

interviews with such individuals as Al and Jane Nakatani, who lost two of their sons to AIDS, and Rayson Roldan, who was diagnosed with HIV in December 2016.

“As a person living with AIDS, I never thought I would have to live through two pandemics,” says John Cunningham, executive director of the National AIDS Memorial, in the statement. “While very different, there is a thread that pulls through connecting them together, rooted in stigma and discrimination. The Quilt and storytelling efforts can help us learn from the past to positively change the future.”

World AIDS Day ‘Live with Leadership’ online conversation

On World AIDS Day, December 1, the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/ AIDS Policy will host a special Live with Leadership — World AIDS Day Edition conversation to learn directly from key HHS and community leaders about new and ongoing work furthering the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America initiative.

The session will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 1, noon to 1 p.m. MST and may be accessed at bit.ly/WorldAIDS2020.

Harold Phillips, the chief operating officer for the initiative will moderate the session. Speakers include leaders of the Ready, Set, PrEP program, and the ongoing effects of Covid-19 on the HIV community. You may submit questions before the event to EndHIVEpidemic@ hhs.gov or during the session through the Zoom chatbox.

No advance registration required, and all are welcome. There is no cost to participate.

The event is part of the new Live with Leadership conversation series launched earlier this year. Recordings for the sessions held during the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS, the National 2020 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care and Treatment, and AIDS 2020 are available on HIV.gov.

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