Remembering AIDS is Not Over
Thompson remembers those who have died
For 24 hours on Monday, City Hall Park was brimming with the sounds of loss and anger and hope. Through pouring rain at night and under welcome sunshine all day long, hundreds of Housing Works staff, clients, volunteers, supporters and friends read the names of thousands of people who have died of AIDS at Housing Works’ 24-hour 14th-annual World AIDS Day “Reading of the Names” Vigil.
Those dedicated readers (see video below) were joined by VIPs such as New York City Comptroller William Thompson Jr.; civil rights activist Norman Siegel; reigning Miss New York, Leigh-Taylor Smith; and Ugly Betty star Ana Ortiz, as well as representatives of numerous New York AIDS groups.
The World AIDS Day Vigil has become an unfortunate tradition in New York City, where, year after year, AIDS advocates use the somber event to remember those who have died of AIDS and to demand that leaders throughout the world address the AIDS epidemic locally and worldwide.
Donning sweatshirts that read “NYC is Dying,” participants this year called on President-elect Barack Obama to implement universal health care and create a national AIDS strategy and reminded New York’s leaders that they cannot continue to cut the budget for AIDS prevention and services as infections among young gay men, young women of color and other groups rise. In June the Mayor and City Council cut $6 million to HIV prevention and testing, although HIV services were held harmless for further cuts this month.
“We look forward to finally having a federal government that can be engaged in fighting the AIDS epidemic,” said presumptive mayoral candidate Thompson, who acknowledged that the city government also needs to do more to address AIDS prevention. “We’ve been complacent.” He added that the city should engage community organizations, increase sex education in schools and use the media and Department of Health to raise awareness that AIDS is not over.
National AIDS Strategy needs
Julie Peña, who has been living with HIV since 1995, attended her first Housing Works vigil in 1997. “Every year the list of names grows and it doesn’t get any better. Sometimes I see the list and I think, ‘When am I going to be on that huge list?’ But hopefully I’ll die of old age,” Peña said. “I want Obama to make a National AIDS Strategy so eventually we don’t have to be here.”
Peña, was one of many at the vigil who expressed optimism that Obama will come through with his campaign promises to address AIDS not just globally, but domestically. In recent years federal domestic AIDS funding has remained stagnant, and Medicaid, the number one source of health care for people with HIV/AIDS, has been threatened by the Bush administration.
In a speech at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church on Monday, Obama said, “We must also recommit ourselves to addressing the AIDS crisis here in the United States with a strong national strategy of education, prevention and treatment, focusing on those communities at greatest risk. This strategy must be based on the best available science and built on the foundation of a strong health care system.”
A somber tradition
At midnight December 1, as rain poured down, Housing Works President and CEO Charles King was the first to read a statement about AIDS that, according to tradition, is read at the top of every hour throughout the vigil. King read via cell phone because he was in Haiti to participate in a World AIDS Day parade in the rural town of St. Marc on Sunday. See our coverage of this historic event that featured the first-ever march by a group of openly gay Haitians and check out the Associated Press coverage.
After King opened the vigil, readers began calling out the thousands-long list of names. In addition to almost every Housing Works staffer and client, readers of the names included representatives of Bailey House, Village Care, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies,Samaritan Village and the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, as well as friends and passersby.
Jeffrey LeFrancois passed by the “Reading of the Names” six years ago and has come back to read every year since. “I make it a point to come by and read to remember. It’s the least we can do,” he said.
This year’s hourly statement, read in English and in Spanish, reminded listeners and leaders alike that we have the tools to end AIDS. The statement ends, “Until all people living with HIV have the services and respect they deserve, we will stand before you, as I am standing here now. Every World AIDS Day, every December 1, we will read the names of those we have lost to AIDS to honor their memory and to call the world to action.
Today we remember. For all of them. For all of us.”
See below for a snippet of Dennis Weakley, one of the event’s organizers, reading the World AIDS Day statement.
Posted on December 5, 2008 at 2:52 am
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