Every World AIDS Day, December 1st, carries two themes of focus. One global theme, one domestic theme. This year’s global theme is: “End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics.” This year’s domestic theme is: “Ending the HIV Epidemic: Equitable Access, Everyone’s Voice.”

In commemoration of World AIDS Day, Georgia Equality, its Fellows and Youth HIV Policy Advisors will be hosting a summit for elected officials across the state of Georgia pertaining to the state’s current issues with the HIV epidemic. The issues to be shared with state-spanning officials during the summit, “The Summit on HIV Policy in the Rural South,” are Georgia-specific issues aligned with “Equitable Access, Everyone’s Voice.”

Conversations will focus on health equity in terms of Georgia’s alarming rate of rural hospital closures, its urban housing crises for Georgians with HIV, its PrEP-access deficit, its insurance coverage deficit, its frustrating reluctance to adopt comprehensive sex education, and its need for equitable health literacy.

Throughout mid-November to mid-December Georgia Equality’s “African Americans Responding to AIDS 1981-1991” photo exhibit will be hosted at Valdosta State University’s Odum Library in collaboration with their archivist and their Pride Connection. The exhibit will also feature works by photographer Billy Howard and a portion of the AIDS Quilt, the largest piece of community folk art in the world, which is built by loved ones in memory of those who have lost their lives to the AIDS epidemic. On Saturday December 4th, Georgia Equality will host a reception with community partners honoring the exhibit and World AIDS Day. 

Partnered organizations in Macon, including Compass Cares, N. Central Health District, Reach to Impact, Fort Valley State University’s Pride Navigator, and Georgia Equality, will be presenting a candlelight vigil that evening, December 1st, in memoriam of those who have passed due to the AIDS epidemic. A sibling candlelight vigil will be held in Atlanta, which will also recognize the figures helping the lives of the many impacted by the epidemic in the Atlanta area throughout the epidemic’s history.

Continue watching Georgia Equality’s social media for information and updates regarding World AIDS Day and its in-person and online events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor Brown

Ending the Epidemic Fellow