AIDS activist Mike Smith described the significance of the first-ever display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the lawn at The White House and the ceremony that was held there on Sunday, December 1, World AIDS Day 2024:
“It’s World AIDS Day, and after 38 years of waiting, today we were finally invited inside The White House grounds for an AIDS Quilt display. [There have been] thirty-eight years of displays on the Mall or the Ellipse, but never inside. [There have also been] die-ins on the sidewalk outside the fence, throwing fake blood outside, [and] pouring ashes of dead loved ones through the fence.
I was 26 when we started the Quilt and I’m now a few months from Medicare. A lifetime. Finally, today, the hundreds of thousands of people memorialized on the Quilt, the largest community art project in the world, have been heard by power, seen by power, and can rest in peace. Not that we are done. The fight goes on with the incoming new administration.
But today, after laying out 1000 panels on the southern lawn, having a few moments in the Oval Office with my husband Steven Clay by my side, to teach and thank the president, and being publicly acknowledged by the president for our world-changing effort, I am renewed, recharged, and ready for future battles. [It was] the most wonderful day of my life, but one that ignites my passion to do more.”
Published on December 5, 2024
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