The National Aids Memorial organizers pushed for a new light display at the Memorial Grove at Golden Gate Park in connection to World AIDS Day on Wednesday.
The light remembers lives lost in relation to HIV and those who are still fighting the disease, KPIX reported.
“It’s important to remember a memorial is so much more than names engraved in stone or panels lovingly stitched together to create the quilt,” John Cunninghan, National AIDS Memorial CEO, said.
Jason Neal Fulton was among the millions of people who died from HIV. Growing up, he suffered from serious Hemophilia A and contracted HIV from infected blood.
“He’s more alive here than at any other gravesite and it gives us a chance to remember the lives lost and to recommit ourselves to the mission to never let it happen again,” his younger sister, Ursula Dunivant, said.
Forty years have passed since the first cases of the disease were reported in the country. Since then, deaths from the disease have already reached over 700, 000.
“They didn’t care that gay people were dying, they didn’t care, drug users were dying, immigrants were dying, they didn’t care hemophiliacs were dying, they didn’t care because they didn’t look like mainstream America,” Eric Ciasullo of San Francisco said.
The depressing news was revealed to Jason when he was 17 and he died at the young age of 24.
“If we don’t keep talking about it and educating and re-educating our younger populations it will never go away,” Dunivant said.
The candlelight display and the vibrant colors serve as a reminder for Jason’s family that hope is shining through even in the darkest times.
“Being together with a community sharing hope and stories galvanizes our commitment to continue the fight to have a day without HIV and AIDS,” Cunningham said.
The said display was only put on Wednesday and will be open to the public only on that day.
