After more than a decade of planning and debate, STORIES: The AIDS Monument in West Hollywood Park finally opened Sunday night with a moving tribute held at the Pacific Design Center that drew a packed crowd of survivors, caregivers, elected officials and residents who lived through the worst years of the epidemic. It felt less like a ribbon cutting and more like a reunion, a grief circle even, with a call to action rolled into one. The ceremony was moved indoors to the Silver Screen Theatre due to the rain, but the shift from the courtyard to the Center Blue building’s theater most definitely did not dampen the mood.
Inside the theater
The program opened with a moving performance by singer-songwriter Jake Wesley Rogers, followed by an invocation by Rev. Roger L. Culberson of the Unity Fellowship Church of Los Angeles that set a tone of remembrance without turning the night into a funeral. Irwin Rappaport, board chair of the Foundation for The AIDS Monument, reminded the crowd what it took to get to this night. “We made it through a storm that no one could have expected. The clouds have parted, and we can see clearly,” he said, calling the installation “a quietly elegant monument” to all that the community has been through. He walked the audience through the STORIES: The AIDS Monument project, from the brief history of HIV and AIDS to more than 125 oral histories accessible by QR code at the site, and closed with a reminder that “when we tell our stories, we build community, empathy and understanding, and when we unite in love and community, we build bridges, and we are unstoppable.”
Vito Russo’s Words, Then And Now
In one of the night’s most searing moments, actress Alexandra Billings reminded the crowd that you rarely know history is happening while you are living it, then described standing in New York City, holding on to Larry Kramer’s sleeve as Vito Russo, activist, co-founder of GLAAD and author of The Celluloid Closet, spoke. She said, “These are Vito’s words, not mine,” and read a passage that served as a full-throated indictment that still feels uncomfortably current: “If I am dying of anything, it is from homophobia. If I am dying of anything, it is from racism. If I am dying of anything, it is from the indifference and the red tape. If I am dying of anything, I am dying from the fact that not enough rich, white, heterosexual men have gotten AIDS for anyone to give a shit. Living with AIDS is like living through a war which is happening only for those people who happen to be in the trenches. Every time a shell explodes, you look around and discover that you have lost more friends. But nobody else notices. It isn’t happening to them. Nothing has changed to alter the perception that AIDS is not happening to the real people in this country. It is not happening to us. It is happening to them, to the disposable population of fags and junkies who deserve what they get. The media tells them that they don’t have to care, because the people who really matter are not. in. danger.”
Survival, Inequity, And a Reminder Silence = Death
In another powerful moment, internationally renowned HIV/AIDS advocate Phill Wilson spoke about survival and inequity. “When I was first diagnosed, a doctor told me to get my affairs in order. He estimated that I had six months to live. I was 29 years old. In a few months, I will be 70. I personify what it means when people with HIV and AIDS have the love and support of family and friends, and the care and treatment we need and deserve,” he said. Wilson reminded the room that Black and brown communities have been on the frontlines of this epidemic from the beginning, even as they have too often been pushed to the margins of care, funding and attention, and said that has to change. Maria Roman-Taylorson, vice president and COO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, standing nearby, called attention to the struggle facing our trans brothers and sisters today, saying, “We need your support… Do not stand by and be silent, because silence equals death,” echoing one of the more iconic messages of the AIDS movement from ACT UP and tying the monument’s history to the current fight for trans lives.
Women And HIV: “I guess HIV isn’t just a gay disease after all.”
Foundation board member Sherri Lewis also stepped forward to remind the room not to overlook women living with HIV and AIDS. She described being newly engaged and wanting to get pregnant when, on her 33rd birthday in 1987, her doctor called and said, “I’m so sorry, your test results are positive.” She talked about how, in those early years, there were no support groups for women, how a public health system, pharmaceutical companies and doctors largely ignored women’s symptoms, leaving many undiagnosed and unable to qualify for benefits. She pointed to the progress that came only after activists pushed for research, clinical trials and prevention programs that finally addressed women’s needs in the early 1990s, but noted that as of 2022 nearly one in five new HIV infections in the United States is a woman, about half of them Black women, even though Black women make up only a small share of the U.S. female population. “Too often, we fail to realize and report on the impact that HIV and AIDS has on women,” she said, closing with a stark reminder: “I guess HIV isn’t just a gay disease after all.”
Leaders Who Helped Shape The Response
West Hollywood’s political leadership turned out in full force, including Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and all five current members of the West Hollywood City Council, along with former Mayor John D’Amico and his husband, Keith Rand, who were among the major donors who helped bring the monument to life, and former Mayor John Duran, who pushed for the project during his time on the council. Mayor Chelsea Byers spoke along with the other council members. Vice Mayor John Heilman offered a stark reminder of how devastating AIDS was and can be. “I lived through this, and it is personal,” he said. “Back in 1990, I joined a volleyball team, a gay league. There were eight of us on the team. A few years later, I was the only one left. All of my teammates had died from AIDS-related complications.” Heilman, who has served on the council since the earliest days of the epidemic and helped guide many of the city’s earliest HIV and AIDS policies, was a reminder that West Hollywood’s political story cannot be separated from its HIV and AIDS story. Since the city’s early days, council members and community partners have funded service providers, backed housing and mental health programs and, more recently, launched the “HIV Zero” initiative to drive new infections down while reducing stigma.
Much of the city’s history was threaded quietly through the night. References to the old West Hollywood Park pool were especially moving in a story voiced by James Ballard, who walked the audience through the days when West Hollywood Aquatics, the city’s gay men’s swim team, met there because other facilities would not welcome a “fag” team. It feels especially fitting that the monument now quite literally sits on top of that former pool.
Other speakers included activist Gerald Garth, journalist Karl Schmid, actor Daniel Franzese and ONE Institute Executive Director Tony Valenzuela, among others. Going forward, ONE Institute will take over events and public programming at STORIES: The AIDS Monument, in partnership with the City of West Hollywood. Beginning next year, ONE will lead regular tours and history focused programs at the site and work with the City and community groups to keep the monument active with art, education and remembrance throughout the year.
The program ended on a beautiful note with a performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, who delivered an emotional rendition of “That’s What Friends Are For,” a song many of us first heard during the darkest years of the crisis, one that now felt like a shared hymn.
Rain that matched the moment
Some worried the rain might dampen the experience when it came time to walk over to the monument after the program ended. In the end, it was only a light rain. As we wandered and wondered, contemplated and remembered, it felt exactly right for the powerful moment. As I told Irwin Rappaport, if we couldn’t have a rainbow overhead, the walk in the rain turned out to be the next best thing, the setting we didn’t know we needed.
STORIES: The AIDS Monument is located on the east side of West Hollywood Park at 647 N. San Vicente Boulevard, across from the Pacific Design Center. The monument is open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight, admission is free, and visitors can learn more or listen to stories in advance here.
Hey, Brian.
Great job adding the names to the photos.