To acknowledge the 40th anniversary of AIDS epidemic in this country leaders came together including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Governor Gavin Newsom & others to call for renewed action for an AIDS-Free Generation at the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco. The event took place surrounded by the power of 40 blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Memorial Grove where thousands of names lost to AIDS are engraved as the leaders paid tribute to the more than 700,000 lives lost, the survivors & the heroes during the past four decades. Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated, “On this solemn day, forty years since the discovery of HIV/AIDS, Americans pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Americans we have lost to this vicious disease & draw strength from the more than one million courageous survivors living with HIV today. Moved by the beauty of the Grove & power of the Quilt, this morning we again renewed our vow to finally defeat the scourge of AIDS & bring hope & healing to all those affected. Thanks to the tireless leadership of activists, survivors, scientists & the LGBTQ community, we will not relent until we banish HIV to the dustbin of history & achieve an AIDS-free generation.” John Cunningham National AIDS Memorial Chief Executive concluded, “These stories & this important observance highlight the issues our nation faced in the past year -- a raging pandemic with hundreds of thousands of lives lost, social injustice, health inequity, stigma, bigotry & fear. However, these are also the same issues faced throughout four decades of the AIDS pandemic. They are reasons why today, we have a National AIDS Memorial & why, as a nation, we have much more work to do in the fight for a just future, where HIV/AIDS no longer exists.” WATCH FULL EVENT For More Info…
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