WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden distributed the AIDS Memorial Quilt for the first time on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday in honor of World AIDS Day.
Along with the president and his wife Jill, survivors, family members and advocates gathered to remember the lives lost to the epidemic. The president emphasized the federal government’s support for the 1.2 million people in the United States living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can lead to AIDS.
“This movement is completely woven into the fabric and history of America,” Biden said. “For all the lives lost, for all those still alive, look at what you have already done to change hearts and minds, to save lives across the country and around the world. That is the power of this movement.”
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There were 124 pieces of the quilt on the lawn in memory of people who died from AIDS-related illnesses. The quilt, designed in 1985, first appeared in 1987. There was also a red ribbon, a symbol of support and awareness for people with HIV and AIDS, draped over the South Portico of the White House.
According to the White House, there are 40 million people living with HIV worldwide.
Biden was introduced by Jeanne White-Ginder, whose son, Ryan White, contracted AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion at age 13 and died at age 18 in 1990. She said her son’s experience taught America that “we should fight AIDS and not the people who have it.”
The Ryan White CARE Act became law in 1990, and White-Grinder recalled being at the U.S. Capitol to speak in favor of the measure and meeting Biden when he was a senator from Delaware.
The president also saluted Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert until he left the government in 2022. Fauci attended the event as he worked to treat AIDS, though he is known in much of the country for his efforts to tackle the problems. coronavirus pandemic that made him a target of criticism from many Republican lawmakers.
The Biden administration has sought to make investments to stop the epidemic and the stigmas attached to people living with HIV. It has worked, among other things, to expand access to PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, which at-risk populations use to prevent HIV infections.
