{"id":76023,"date":"2025-11-30T23:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/76023\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T23:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:13:07","slug":"county-world-aids-day-events-continue-despite-federal-directive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/76023\/","title":{"rendered":"County World AIDS Day events continue despite federal directive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>A man adds an ornament to the Tree of Life for a World AIDS Day ceremony. (Photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

San Diegans will commemorate the 37th annual World AIDS Day<\/a> Monday at various events around the county.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme is \u201cOvercoming disruption; transforming the AIDS response,\u201d a call for sustained political leadership, international cooperation and a human rights-centered approaches to ending AIDS by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day is an opportunity for public and private partners to spread awareness about the status of the pandemic and encourage progress in HIV\/AIDS prevention, treatment and care around the world,\u201d according to the World Health Organization<\/a>. \u201cIt has become one of the most widely recognized international health days and a key opportunity to raise awareness, commemorate those who have died, and celebrate victories such as increased access to treatment and prevention services.\u201d<\/p>\n

UC San Diego is hosting free and confidential rapid HIV testing Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a resource fair Tuesday at Student Health Services<\/a>, Murray\u2019s Place and the LGBT Resource Center on campus.<\/p>\n

The Oceanside Public Library<\/a> will hold a World AIDS Day event at 5 p.m. Monday, with refreshments, live music, HIV testing and resources, flu and hepatitis vaccines, volunteer opportunities, wellness bags, a moment of remembrance, Heart of Hope interactive art and a display of historic AIDS Memorial Quilt Panels.<\/p>\n

Participants will form a heart shape with candles to honor those who have died.<\/p>\n

The 34th Annual Tree of Life Ceremony<\/a> at 6 p.m. Monday will be an evening of remembrance, singing, and a candlelight ceremony hosted by Mama\u2019s Kitchen<\/a> and Village Hillcrest at 3955 Fifth Ave. Proceeds from ornament sales will support nutrition services.<\/p>\n

Next Friday, the University of San Diego will host \u201cWest Coast Kiki People\u2019s Choice Awards Ball: Remember the Times<\/a>\u201d at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

Some events were being held this weekend, including a gala at Rich\u2019s nightclub<\/a> in Hillcrest on Sunday night, and an International HIV Kiss-in Sunday afternoon at Friendship Park along the Mexican border.<\/p>\n

The border event was sponsored by MPact Global Action for Gay Men\u2019s Health and Rights<\/a>, a nonprofit founded by an international group of activists concerned about the disproportionate HIV burden being shouldered by gay and bisexual men. It has an office in San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cMPact\u2019s international HIV Kiss-In, or Besoton Sidoso Internacional, is a bold demonstration of the sexuality of queer people living with HIV and the fundamental human rights of queer migrants,\u201d MPact spokesperson Alex Garner told City News Service. \u201cIt\u2019s a fearless political act of visibility and a declaration that our lives have value and meaning. It reminds us that existing is resisting and we can dismantle arbitrary borders of nation, gender, and sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the WHO, in 2024, an estimated 40.8 million people were living with HIV globally, approximately 630,000 people died from HIV-related causes, and an estimated 1.3 million people acquired HIV.<\/p>\n

Last week, the U.S. State Department<\/a> directed employees and grant recipients not to use federal dollars to observe World AIDS Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn awareness day is not a strategy. Under the leadership of President Trump, the State Department is working directly with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden sharing,\u201d according to a statement from State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott to the New York Times.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man adds an ornament to the Tree of Life for a World AIDS Day ceremony. (Photo by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[44053,44054,467,44055,44056,44057,74,76,75,44058,44059,5729,44060,39240],"class_list":["post-76023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-hiv-testing","tag-hiv-aids-prevention","tag-human-rights","tag-mamas-kitchen","tag-mpact-global-action","tag-oceanside-public-library","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-tree-of-life-ceremony","tag-u-s-state-department","tag-uc-san-diego","tag-world-aids-day","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}