The Specter of Trump Shades AIDS Memorial Messages

By ANDREA AUSTIN

The message was clear at the dedication of the New York City AIDS Memorial Park Thursday: that the fight to end AIDS would continue to move forward in New York, regardless of any future policies under President-elect Donald Trump.

Remember, reflect, renew is the theme of the memorial, which was dedicated at an event co-hosted by the End AIDS NY 2020 coalition, a partnership of more than 60 organizations together with the city and state  health departments and the city AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent’s Triangle in Manhattan, the first significant public space dedicated to the AIDS epidemic here. Over 100,000 New Yorkers have died from AIDS, and many of them were treated across the street from the memorial at the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, which housed the first and largest AIDS ward on the East Coast.

“Our dream was to create a memorial for remembrance of lives lost, but also a community gathering spot where personal stories and constraints could be shared, a living memorial,”said Paul Kelterborn, co-founder of the memorial. “I hope that it serves that purpose as a reminder, a tool for education, a place for gathering, and a hope for the future.” 

Mayor Bill de Blasio and other public officials spoke of the great strides New York has made in combatting HIV and AIDS and the importance of remembering the AIDS crisis. “This is one of those moments where you have to reflect, you have to feel emotionally the history that we’re here to commemorate,” said de Blasio.

“We will not allow the names on this wall to go in vain. We have to pay tribute to them,” said Alphonso David, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief counsel. “We cannot remain silent. And I can tell you, the governor is not going to remain silent, he’s gonna push, regardless of who’s in the white house and we will end AIDS.” Cuomo introduced a three-point plan in July 2014 to reduce the number of new HIV infections to 750 from roughly 3,000 in 2020 and established the Ending the Epidemic Task Force.

Demetre C. Daskalakis, Assistant Commissioner of New York City’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, outlined the future of the AIDS prevention plan and introduced New York’s HIV status neutral prevention and treatment cycle. “This is a whole new framework,”said Daskalakis. “The person living with HIV and the individual at risk who’s on PrEP are from our perspective indistinguishable. The divide ends here.” PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, combined with the use of condoms, makes it nearly impossible to contract HIV.

Councilman Corey Johnson, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive at 23-years-old, spoke passionately about the importance of taking care of one another, especially now “with this illegitimate man being our president.” 

“Silence equals death,” said Johnson,  ‘we will not be silenced, we will not normalize him, or the people who he’s putting in charge of government. We will continue to take care of ourselves, our community, poor people, muslims, LGBT people, people with HIV and AIDS, women, Jewish people. We will stand up together. That’s what this movement was about, that’s what this crisis is about, and that’s what we will continue to do moving forward,”