SAN FRANCISCO – When Lonnie Payne-Clark went to a health center in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood to get tested for HIV in the mid-1980s, it was with his family: his partner, Joel Swandby, his twin brother. , Lawrence and Lawrence’s Partner, O Timothy.
All four men tested positive.
“We have all developed opportunistic infections and diseases, and those AIDS-defining diseases killed Lawrence, Tim and Joel in 1996,” said Payne Clark, now a board member of the National AIDS Memorial. “They told me he would die at the end of 1996.”
Payne Clark shared her story Saturday at a ceremony at Golden Gate Park National AIDS Memorial Park to mark the 40th anniversary of the first AIDS cases reported in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was joined by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), as well as San Francisco Mayor London Breed, State Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) and LGBT activist Cliff Jones.
Along the edges of the orchard were sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a project Jones co-founded to honor the lives lost to the epidemic. Some known victims were honored, such as the dazzling and radiant square of movie star Rock Hudson. Others honored well-known people in smaller communities, such as David Avery, bowler, trombone, golfer, newspaper boy, and “a very special friend, dear to our hearts,” according to his chart.
Dozens of people gathered to hear speakers at the special ceremony, which was then streamed online along with messages recorded by Governor Gavin Newsom and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. ., In honor of millions of lives. lost. in the epidemic. Before giving speeches, Pelosi and other guests placed a wreath at the memorial to the victims, walked through the trees, and stopped to look at the hanging sections of the quilt.
Pelosi, who has said she remains determined to end the AIDS pandemic in the United States, said the four-decade battle for recognition and federal support for the battle against the virus has also been instrumental in laying the foundation for the equality in marriage and the end of discrimination. Against LGBTQ people in the military.
He also recounted that Jones first approached him with the idea of a quilt to honor lost souls, an idea he thought was doomed. “Who is sewing now?” Pelosi remembered thinking. Well, he was a visionary. I knew it was a way of expressing sadness in an artistic way. “
Weiner recounted how terrifying it was to come of age in 1987 as a 17-year-old gay man, when information about the disease was still scarce and evidence, much less effective treatment, had been developed. He said the ceremony is a reminder of the work that remains to be done.
“We want to make sure that this quilt, as pretty as it is, stops growing,” he said.
More than 700,000 Americans and 32 million people worldwide have died of AIDS in the 40 years since the CDC reported five cases of what later became known as AIDS among Los Angeles men. Currently, an estimated 1.2 million people are living with HIV / AIDS in the country. AIDS refers to the most serious stage of HIV infection.
The number of new diagnoses has dropped dramatically since the peak of the epidemic in the 1980s. But it still disproportionately affects MSM and communities of color, particularly black Americans who make up 13 percent of the population, but 42 percent of new HIV diagnoses in 2018, according to the CDC.
“Ending HIV / AIDS by 2030 remains a priority for me,” said Lee, co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on HIV / AIDS. “We will not get there.”
Later, speakers began reading the names of people who had died of AIDS, and guests and volunteers continued the effort until 6 p.m. Mike Ritchie, co-chair of the National AIDS Memorial, said after the speeches that that, and the 40 quilt sections of more than 300 panels and sewn with nearly 1,200 names, were invaluable in the effort to remember those lost to the pandemic. The names are read one by one.
“It’s the strongest combination of garden and quilt,” he said. “It is a historic occasion.”
For Pine Clark, his positive diagnosis gave him a new mission in life that allowed him to continue suffering and losing.
“I realized that I had a new purpose and that purpose was to help others,” he said. In short, I live. I am an AIDS survivor for a long time. “
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