In honor of World AIDS Day, President Joe Biden had the AIDS Memorial Quilt laid out on the White House South Lawn for the first time on Sunday.
To honor the lives lost to the epidemic, survivors, family members, and advocates gathered beside the president and his spouse, Jill. The president underlined the federal government’s commitment to helping the 1.2 million Americans who are infected with HIV, a virus that can cause AIDS.
According to Biden, this movement is deeply ingrained in American history and culture. Consider what you have already done to alter people’s perceptions and save lives both domestically and internationally, for all the lives lost and those who are still alive. That is this movement’s power.
To honor those who lost their lives to AIDS-related diseases, 124 portions of the quilt were placed on the grass. The quilt was created in 1985 and debuted in public in 1987. Additionally, a crimson ribbon—a sign of awareness and support for people living with HIV and AIDS—was hung across the White House’s South Portico.
The White House estimates that 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV.
Biden was introduced by Jeanne White-Ginder, whose son Ryan White died in 1990 at the age of 18 after catching AIDS at the age of 13 via a contaminated blood transfusion. She claimed that America learned from her son’s tragedy that we must battle AIDS, not the disease itself.
White-Grinder remembers meeting Biden as a senator from Delaware and speaking in the U.S. Capitol to support the Ryan White CARE Act, which was signed into law in 1990.
As he worked to treat AIDS, the president also praised Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading authority on infectious diseases in the United States until his departure from government in 2022. However, Fauci is best known for his efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, which led to him being criticized by many Republican lawmakers.
To combat the epidemic and the stigmas associated with HIV, the Biden administration has attempted to invest. It has sought to increase access to PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, which at-risk groups use to avoid HIV infections, among other initiatives.
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