President and Jill Biden will host a display of portion of the AIDS Quilt on the White House lawn today in commemoration of World AIDS Day. Of course this will not be a prominent news story today, and we should expect that World AIDS Day will never be mentioned again by the incoming administration for the next four years. This is the only "news" story I can find today:
https://youtube.com/shorts/s89I_1av-Ak?si=I_QRNIfqHfWsy-gw
And this short video about the Quilt:
HIV/AIDS was, perhaps the only disease to be totally ignored by government and even "celebrated" by those who considered gays, sex-workers, drug users and other minorities sinful, deserving of a deadly disease and dispensable. It was, perhaps the first politically charged epidemic.
And while HIV/AIDS is now largely a manageable infection, the disease of homophobia, bigotry and hate still rages unchecked.
3 comments:
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? But at least there's effective treatment for HIV/AIDS now!
I was there in DC in 1992. Overwhelming. I cried the whole time. I got to see the quilt I had made for my best friend, who died the year before. What memories . . . .
Sadly, my first thought was "We won't see this again for a while."
Post a Comment