Housing Works: Housing Prevents AIDS. Housing Improves Health.

Media Contact: Diana Scholl; 917-402-2576/D.Scholl@housingworks.org
Organizer Contact: Christine Campbell; 202-409-9786/Campbell@housingworks.org

Tens of thousands of people will converge on Washington this week to march for equal rights for LGBT Americans. They will also remind the nation and the LGBT community that AIDS is on the rise among gay men and pay tribute to the more than half a million Americans who have died from the disease.

The Equality To End AIDS Rally and Vigil will take place Saturday, October 10, the evening before the massive National Equality March, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm on the Ellipse, in front of the White House. The event will feature an inspiring roster of speakers and performers (mostly HIV-positive), culminating in a candlelight vigil. The rally and vigil come just a week after the Obama administration released a “call to action” on HIV that solicits public input on a first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

“The weekend is about achieving full equality for LGBT Americans. We need to use that political power to remind the country that the AIDS epidemic continues. A great many young people will attend the march; we need them to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS,” said Cleve Jones, the founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and one of the National Equality March organizers.

Gay and bisexual men are 50 times more likely to acquire HIV than anyone else in our nation. Among young gay men, the number of HIV infections increased an astonishing 12% each year from 2001 to 2006. Even though treatments have extended life for many people with HIV, recent research indicates that people with HIV live an average of 21 years less than their HIV-negative counterparts.

“Many of our most energized LGBT activists are too young to remember the devastating impact AIDS has had on the gay community. We must re-engage the larger LGBT community in AIDS activism,” said Charles King, President and CEO of Housing Works, which is the fiscal sponsor of the rally and vigil. “Ending the HIV pandemic is an issue of justice that must be their fight as well.”

Speakers and entertainers at the rally will include singer/actress Sherri Lewis, former Miss America and Broadway actress Kate Shindle, members of the Diva League (as seen on America’s Got Talent), Inner Light Ministries Choir, Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, San Francisco Human Rights Commission Chairperson Cecilia Chung, Shawn Decker’s Synthetic Division, poet Brandon Plain, gospel rap artist Desencé, singer/songwriter Dudley Sanders, POZ Magazine founder Sean Strub, Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, Bishop Rainey Cheeks and DJ Stone. Many of the speakers and performers are people living with HIV.

Equality to End AIDS is organized by The Campaign to End AIDS and sponsored by Housing Works, Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS, Westminster Presbyterian Church, More Light Presbyterians, OD/More Light Presbyterians, Advocates For Youth, AIDS Action, The Human Rights Campaign, POZ magazine (media sponsor), partnered with The Afiya Center, Bailey House, , CAEAR Foundation, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), Connecticut AIDS Residence Coalition (CARC) , D.C. Fights Back, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), Health GAP, Inner Light Ministries, Metropolitan Community Church, National AIDS Housing Coalition, National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), SisterLove, Southern AIDS Coalition and endorsed by ACT UP Philadelphia, AIDS Action in Mississippi (AAIM), International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC), Lifebeat, New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), Positive Advocacy Caucus.