City’s Pride shows
Pride march a chance to teach about AIDS struggles
The new route for Sunday's Pride parade will take marchers past St. Vincent's Triangle Park, the location of the city's recently unveiled AIDS Memorial.
The steel canopy, according to the memorial's website, was "to honor New York City's 100,000+ men, women and children who have died from AIDS, and to commemorate and celebrate the efforts of the caregivers and activists."
The symbolism is not lost on Kelsey Louie.
Louie is the CEO of Gay Men's Health Crisis, the world's first AIDS services organization.
The 43-year-old was shocked when, just weeks ago, he was giving a talk to a group of college students and they had no knowledge of the risk of HIV/AIDS or the horrors associated with the virus.
“They were a group of university students in New York who just didn't know about HIV/AIDS,” Louie told the Daily News. “They were grateful about the talk that I gave. A group of college students who had no idea.”
Louie offered the students some statistics — around 70 million people across the world are HIV infected, around 37 million have died, and 120,000 people in New York City are HIV-positive.
“They don't understand these numbers because they've never met someone who's HIV positive,” he said.
The first Pride march in New York was held in 1970. Since then the parade has since become an annual civil rights demonstration, a memorial to the past and a celebration of culture.
The route change this year was made in anticipation of next year's 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, the cornerstone of the LGBT community's fight for civil rights.
Some 48,000 marchers and 2 million spectators are expected to come out to support gay rights.
Louie hopes that the parade passing the AIDS Memorial will inspire some millennials to learn more about the disease.
“It is a place where can remember those that we lost from HIV/AIDS,” he said. “Tomorrow and this weekend, gay pride is all about celebrating our uniqueness and our diversity. It's also about a time where we can remember and honor those that came before us. Whether it was fighting for civil liberties or people who died of HIV/AIDS.”
Louie said his group's goal is to end the epidemic status of HIV infections in New York City by the year 2020. An epidemic is defined by fewer than 750 infections in a year. Last year saw the lowest number of HIV infections ever in New York State — 2,881 cases. The only demographic where HIV infections are on the rise is women, specifically women of color and trans women of color.
“Our mission is to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Louie said. “In order to do that, not only do we need to get people tested, so that they know they're HIV positive, get them connected to and maintained in health care, and to prevent new infections. We also need to address what we call the drivers of the epidemic.
These are things that can prevent someone from taking their medication on a regular basis, or cause someone to engage in high-risk activities,” he added.