Tacoma candlelit vigil in memory of World AIDS Day takes place at Owen Beach this week
A candlelit vigil to honor and remember those lost to HIV and AIDS will take place at 3 p.m. Friday at Owen Beach.
The event is coordinated in part by Starlett Cunningham, who was a client at the Pierce County AIDS Foundation for more than 30 years before PCAF laid off a majority of its staff and CEO in October amid allegations of financial mismanagement.
Cunningham, a Federal Way resident now receiving medical case management for HIV at Lifelong, said she has lost five friends to HIV/AIDS this year alone.
Organizing a vigil was especially important this year because much-needed community and resources PCAF once offered have been lost after 36 years, she said.
“I got these Chinese lanterns for the water, and I figured we would acknowledge a few things about people that we have lost and how we remember them and celebrate their memory that way,” she said. “To honor those and keep their memories alive. To do that for me was really important.”
Cunningham said it’s been powerful to see former PCAF clients and staff come together in solidarity to help each other.
“I’ve been really fortunate because I’m good at advocating for myself,” she said. “Some people just don’t have that knowledge and don’t know how to look. You know, they were totally dependent on someone helping them get through [Economic Impact Payment Card] paperwork or food cards or things like that.”
Cunningham said there is still a negative connotation surrounding HIV/AIDS that can prevent people from seeking the help they need and prevent needed funding for medical research, support services and access to medications that control the disease.
“It’s really important to support World AIDS Day and to support all the research and all the communities who contribute to that research and all the people who are affected ... by this,” she said. “And to keep fighting the stigma. It’s a big fight daily. It has gotten a little better, but it’s still there.”
Since the virus HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) in the 1980s, more than 700,000 people have died of AIDS-related complications in the United States since the beginning of the epidemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today there are more than 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States and more than 35,000 new infections each year.
HIV continues to disproportionately impact gay and bisexual men, transgender women and people of color, including Black and Hispanic Americans.
