Home > News > Pelosi: ‘San Francisco has Led the Way in the Battle Against HIV/AIDS’
Pelosi: ‘San Francisco has Led the Way in the Battle Against HIV/AIDS’
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616
San Francisco – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke today at a ceremony attended by 200 people at the Herbst Theatre to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first official AIDS diagnosis. AIDS is the deadliest epidemic in history, killing more than 25 million people around the world, including more than 500,000 in the United States, nearly 18,000 of them in San Francisco. Below are Pelosi's remarks:
“Mayor Newsom, thank you very much for your great leadership, your relentless advocacy for people with HIV and AIDS, and your tremendous leadership for our great city.
“In the beginning, it didn’t have a name. We heard a rumor that at the university there were some cases that were being diagnosed that resembled cases in the Middles Ages – strange diseases that had come about because of a breakdown of the immune system. It wasn’t called AIDS at the time, but it was something that made us wonder and made some people scared.
“During that time, I was trying to get the Democratic National Convention to come to San Francisco, and we thought we had a pretty good chance. The 1980 election was over and we were preparing for the future. We weren’t worried about HIV/AIDS because it had no name. But it started to spread and we were becoming concerned, and of course, that challenge only heightened our determination that the convention be in San Francisco.
“I remember we had so many events bringing the site selection committee together, with people from the gay and lesbian community. Most people didn’t know anyone at the time who was diagnosed, except people who were sick. We wanted to make sure that they dispelled from their mind any thoughts that this tragedy had befallen us. This disease was something that was going to inject an element of fear into our community and into our country.
“Well we succeeded. We got the convention in San Francisco and everybody had a great time. The ambassadors went home and said, ‘Nothing’s different there.’ Many people in the community were essential to making that important point.
“A few years later, we had many funerals, sometimes two in a day. How many good friends we held in our arms like bags of bones? Older people, younger people – it’s so sad.
“The encouraging thing is that the caregivers were so strong, they never seemed to burn out, and people were determined that there would be a cure, prevention, treatment, and a vaccine.
“In the following years I was elected to Congress, and on my first day my colleagues told me not to speak. You don’t speak the first day, you just get sworn in and that’s it. So I tried to do that, but when Speaker said, ‘Would the gentlelady like to say anything?’ I said ‘Yes, I am here to fight AIDS.’ People asked me, ‘Why would you say that? You don’t need to be labeled that way?’ I responded, ‘Well, that’s why I came here.
“I was pleased to get on the House Appropriations Committee, and to work on the Ryan White Care Act with Steve Morin, Mike Shriver, and Dr. Paul Volberding. There have been so many people behind putting the Ryan White Care Act together. It was community-based. It sprang from the people.
“The next thing I know, Cleve Jones comes to me and says, ‘We’re going to have this quilt and we want to have the press conference in your home. And you’re going to do the first stitches, for this AIDS quilt that we are going to have.’
“‘Nobody sews,’ I told him. I have four daughters, I was taught to sew in Catholic School, but nobody sews anymore. Little did I know. And he says, ‘Oh yes, they will sew. Each panel will be a tribute.’
“Two years later, in 1989, we were in front of the National Park Service saying, ‘I don’t care how many tons this quilt weighs. We want it on the Mall.’ They were saying we were going to kill the grass, and we promised we would lift it up every 30 minutes.
“Imagine in that two years, tons of quilts, tons of patches for this quilt. Cleve was working on it during the week, and even I made a quilt for the flower girl in my wedding who died of AIDS.
“We were very generous in giving our knowledge of how to fight this disease. It had to be community-based if you were talking about prevention, and it had to be appropriate so that it would work. Some people had problem with that. We are not about sensitivity; we are about saving lives here. Prevention, care, and of course research, for a cure still continues.
“The next thing was that we were going to have an AIDS memorial grove. We had acres out at Golden Gate Park and they told me, ‘It’s going to be wonderful, we want you to be part of it. But first we have to weed.’ I said, ‘Weed?’ First we had to sew; now we have to weed – it changed what our Saturdays and weekends were about.
“I am very proud to say that I spent my 10th Anniversary in Congress by having a workday weeding in Memorial Grove. What a beautiful place. In 1996, we were able to have it designated as the National AIDS Memorial Grove.
“On prevention, on care, on the mad search for a vaccine, we have to remember that we are talking about life and death. We are talking about having a moral responsibility to do the right thing. How many more years is it going to take people to face that fact and it’s not just about the money, but it’s about the attitude, it’s about the respect?
“So this love and respect that was demonstrated in San Francisco served as a model to the world.
“I was just in South Africa a couple of months ago to visit all of the AIDS clinics, and I saw San Francisco right there. But early on, San Francisco said that to attack HIV/AIDS you have to go international. You have to participate in the international mobilization against AIDS.
“San Francisco has led the way. San Francisco is a city of respect, of focus, and deserves all of the pride in this great city. I thank all of you, because all of you are soldiers and many of you are leaders in this battle against HIV/AIDS.
“I can tell you one thing, sadly, that when I went to Congress, I never thought we would still be standing here 25 years later without a cure. We have a moral responsibility where there is a need, so five years from now on the 30th Anniversary we can say that AIDS was a terrible memory, one that we will never see again.
“So thank you all for inviting me to participate in and sharing the memories of the last 25 years, especially the early days. And thanks for all that you do to honor the moral responsibility that you have had.”
