Check out the moving exhibition, sharing stories from Georgia during the HIV/AIDS crisis
30 years ago, when the AIDS pandemic was affecting people across the globe, the National AIDS Memorial began in San Francisco. The AIDS Memorial Quilt was first imagined by gay rights activist Cleve Jones in 1985, and was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 11, 1987.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is now under the stewardship of the National AIDS Memorial, ensuring that this powerful symbol of AIDS and activism can be used to educate people around the world about a devasting time in our nation’s history. Within each of the Quilt’s nearly 50,000 panels are sewn the names of more than 105,000 lives lost to AIDS. Each year, thousands of panels of the Quilt are displayed throughout the U.S. and world.
Now, Atlanta Pride are providing a virtual display of a few panels from the Quilt, all connected to Atlanta and Georgia.
They reveal, “This Quilt display features sections of the Quilt connected to Atlanta – a city that is diverse and vibrant just like the Quilt. As The Atlanta Pride Committee celebrates our 51st Pride we recognize the place that HIV/AIDS has had in that history.
They continue, “We mourn the generation of LGBTQ+ voices that were lost to this pandemic, even as we are in the midst of a differnet pandemic.”
To view this touching display, click here. Atlanta Pride announced on their Intagram that this virtual exhibition will be live ‘from now until March’.
To find out more information on the National Aids Memorial, click here.