World AIDS Day West Hollywood 2025 will stretch across nearly two weeks this year, with a panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt in council chambers, a gathering at STORIES: The AIDS Monument, the Paul Andrew Starke Warrior Awards and quiet moments along the AIDS Memorial Walk on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Each year on Dec. 1, communities around the globe mark World AIDS Day as a time to stand with people living with HIV, remember the lives lost to AIDS-related illnesses and recommit to ending the epidemic. The observance began in 1988 at a World Health Organization summit and has since grown into a worldwide day of reflection and action.
This year’s #WorldAIDSDay theme, “Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response,” points to a growing funding crisis and to laws that push LGBTQ+ people and people who use drugs further from care. The World Health Organization is calling on governments and communities to protect the right to health by confronting those inequities and keeping HIV and AIDS work on track even in turbulent times.
West Hollywood, a city shaped by the AIDS crisis from its earliest days, is once again putting local focus on that global message.
AIDS Memorial Quilt in council chambers
A panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display inside the City of West Hollywood’s Council Chambers/Public Meeting Room at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. from Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, through Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, courtesy of the National AIDS Memorial.
Considered the largest community arts project in history, the Quilt was conceived in 1985 by longtime human rights activist Cleve Jones as a way to remember people who had died of AIDS-related illnesses and to help the public understand the scale of the crisis. Today, the Quilt includes roughly 50,000 panels honoring more than 110,000 individuals and weighs in at about 54 tons, a visual reminder of loss that is still growing.
Visitors will be able to view the panel during regular public meeting hours and scheduled events at council chambers throughout the two-week display period.
World AIDS Day at STORIES: The AIDS Monument
On Monday, Dec. 1, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., community members are invited to the first World AIDS Day gathering at STORIES: The AIDS Monument in West Hollywood Park, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd.
The evening will bring people together to honor lives lost to AIDS-related illnesses and to uplift the voices of those living with HIV and AIDS. The program begins at 5:30 p.m. at the monument and will feature readings by the APLA Health Writers Group, a collective founded in 1989 for HIV-positive writers and their allies, curated by former West Hollywood poet laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace.
After the readings, the gathering moves just across the park to ONE Gallery, 626 N. Robertson Blvd., for a reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Guests will be able to enjoy refreshments and take in the newly opened Herb Ritts: Allies & Iconsexhibition, which highlights portraits of artists and activists who helped shape the fight against AIDS.
The World AIDS Day event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here.
The night is co-sponsored by APLA Health, ONE Institute and the Foundation for The AIDS Monument, in collaboration with the City of West Hollywood.
For more background on how the monument came to life, you can read WEHOonline’s coverage of the opening of STORIES: The AIDS Monument.
Flowers along the AIDS Memorial Walk
Throughout World AIDS Day, the Alliance for Housing & Healing, a program of APLA Health (formerly AIDS Project Los Angeles), will lay flowers on the bronze plaques embedded in the sidewalk along the West Hollywood AIDS Memorial Walk on Santa Monica Boulevard from Crescent Heights Boulevard to N. Robertson Boulevard.
The Memorial Walk, created in 1993, honors people who were lost to the AIDS pandemic and continues to grow as new plaques are added. The simple act of placing flowers along the route offers residents, friends and family a quiet way to remember loved ones in the middle of the city’s main street.
From the earliest days of the epidemic, West Hollywood was one of the first government bodies in the country to fund local HIV and AIDS organizations through social services grants, and the Memorial Walk remains one of the ways the city keeps that history visible on the sidewalk, not just in archives.
Paul Andrew Starke Warrior Awards return
The 25th Annual Paul Andrew Starke Warrior Awards will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. at the City of West Hollywood’s Council Chambers/Public Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
The event is free and open to the public and no RSVP is required. Limited parking will be available at the five-story West Hollywood Park parking structure.
The Warrior Awards recognize outstanding employees and volunteers from local agencies that provide HIV/AIDS and substance use prevention and care services. These are the people who show up every day for clients and communities, often without much public recognition, and the awards are meant to shine a light on that work.
This year’s program will feature Drag King performer Spacee Kadett, an award-winning drag king with more than 18 years of drag performance experience. Also participating are Steven Reigns, former West Hollywood poet laureate, and Hernán Molina, the City’s Government Affairs Liaison.
The event will posthumously honor Russell Ybarra with the Lifetime Achievement Award. This year’s Warrior Awards honorees are:
Miguel Arevalo, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Jack Crozier Inman Jr., Life Group LA
Rob Lester, Men’s Health Foundation
Maricor Lopez, APLA Health
Alexandra Magallon, TransLatin@ Coalition
Chloe Opalo, Los Angeles LGBT Center
Andrew Ramos, C.I.T.Y x1 Youth Group
Jim Scott, Being Alive
A long history, and an HIV Zero vision
The onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit West Hollywood hard, especially among gay men, and the city lost a devastating number of residents in the 1980s and 1990s. In response, West Hollywood became one of the first cities in the nation to fund HIV and AIDS services directly, sponsor an AIDS awareness campaign in October 1985 and build a network of local providers that has since been recognized as a model for other communities.
The City continues to develop programs that raise awareness about HIV and AIDS and connect people living with HIV to services. In 2015, West Hollywood announced its vision to become an “HIV Zero” city and is currently implementing its HIV Zero Strategic Initiative to reduce new infections and stigma. More information is available on the City’s website here.
Taken together, the Quilt panel, the monument gathering, the Warrior Awards and the AIDS Memorial Walk offer different ways for residents and visitors to show up this World AIDS Day, whether in a crowd at West Hollywood Park or in a quieter moment on Santa Monica Boulevard.
For more information about World AIDS Day programming or local HIV and AIDS services, contact the City of West Hollywood’s Human Services Division at wehocares@weho.org or (323) 848-6510. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, dial 711 or 1-800-735-2929 (TTY) or 1-800-735-2922 (voice) for California Relay Service assistance.
