Rally & Candlelight Vigil to Support Eastside AIDS Monument in the Face of Anti-Gay Opposition

Clergy, elected officials, residents and community across Los Angeles come together in a rally and candlelight vigil to support an AIDS monument that will soon be built in Lincoln Park, in the Los Angeles community of Lincoln Heights. The event is organized in response to opponents who have made anti-gay and hostile statements about the AIDS monument and the organization building it.

The rally and vigil are being organized to draw attention to the need for an AIDS monument in the eastside of Los Angeles. The goal in building the monument is to educate the public and to end the cycle of shame and denial of HIV/AIDS which still runs deep in many communities. Recent research among gay and bisexual Latino men has demonstrated a link between discrimination and risk for HIV infection.

Opponents of the AIDS monument have constructed a website, www.pinkpork.com.

Keith Malone, co-chair of the Friends of The Wall, a committee which is organizing the rally, said that proponents of the AIDS monument have encountered hostile statements, including,
            
• I dont have anything against gay people, but I dont want my son to be seeing two guys kissing at the park."          
• We dont need this gay shit!"
• Build it in West Hollywood!"

Speakers include Mike Hernandez, who is the former city councilman for the area, and Richard Alatorre, who previously represented the area as a councilman and state assemblyman. Others who have been invited to speak include State Senator Gil Cedillo and Assembly Member Jackie Goldberg.

The monument and the rally have been endorsed by a cross section of local and national leaders, including talk show host Cristina Saralegui, Assembly Members Fabian Nunez, Marco Firebaugh, Paul Koretz and Dario Frommer, Los Angeles City Council Members Ed Reyes, Antonio Villaraigosa, Eric Garcetti, Alex Padilla and Tom LaBonge, among many others.

The Wall-Las Memorias Project, which is building the monument, recently unveiled the artwork that will be part of the monument. It can be viewed at http://photos.yahoo.com/friendsofthewall.

The Wall-Las Memorias Project was founded in 1993 to educate the Latino community about HIV/AIDS, and to show how denial hurts families, communities, and people living with HIV and AIDS. The Wall-Las Memorias goal is the construction of a memorial in Lincoln Park to honor those who have lost their lives to AIDS, and to promote healing and understanding for their loved ones and the community.

The Wall-Las Memorias Project has grown to include other programs which promote self-esteem, understanding and community, including discussion and support groups for men, young adults and mothers, an HIV/AIDS prevention program that reaches out to communities of faith, and a mens softball team. The not-for-profit organization also has a history of engaging in community activism and promoting community involvement. Its efforts here and in Baja California have resulted in the naming of an AIDS hospice in Tijuana in honor of the organization: Casa de la Memorias.