Emotional Bidens commemorate World AIDS Day at White House

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden held an emotional commemoration of World AIDS Day at the White House on Sunday, expressing empathy with families who have lost loved ones and telling them they “stand felt a special obligation to use this sacred place to ensure that everyone was safe.” seen.”

Behind the Bidens, a giant red ribbon hung on the south portico and the AIDS memorial quilt was placed on the south lawn. The quilt now has 50,000 panels bearing 110,000 names and weighs 54 tons. It was the first time he was displayed on the lawn.

“Like the first threads of this quilt…this movement is entirely woven into the fabric and history of America,” Biden said. “Highlighting the memory and legacy of all the brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, partners and friends who we have lost to this terrible disease.”

The president and first lady were emotional throughout the event, with the president at times appearing to wipe tears from his face during Jill Biden’s remarks and the first lady choking up as she spoke in front of survivors, their families and their defenders.

“And though we are strangers, we know untold truths about each other: We will spend the rest of our lives longing for a face that is gone forever,” Jill Biden said, having to pause for a moment. “And that when they left our world, they took with them a light within us.”

“When I look at this beautiful quilt with its bright colors, its names in large letters, its representations of lives and loves, I see it as a mother, and I think of the mothers who sewed their pain into a patchwork panel so that the world would remember their child not as a victim of a vicious disease, but as a son who had played in the high school jazz band as a child, who grew up to proudly serve our nation in uniform, like the girl whose favorite holiday was Christmas,” she continued.

President Biden is no stranger to grief and often references his own loss during similar events. On Sunday, he acknowledged that while the ceremony was a celebration of those lost lives, “they bring back all the memories.”

“They are tough. It’s not easy. It’s important, but it’s not easy.

He said the White House ceremony sends a “clear message” to the world that the United States is united in the fight against the epidemic.

“Together, we honor the spirit of resilience and extraordinary strength of individuals, families and communities affected by HIV/AIDS. Including almost 40 million people living with HIV worldwide today,” he said.

Biden highlighted the “stigma of misinformation” and the U.S. government’s failure to act as the outbreak raged, saying it “has compounded the pain and trauma of a community that has seen a generation of loved ones perish and of friends.”

“It was horribly, horribly wrong,” he said.

Biden highlighted the progress made under his administration in the fight against HIV/AIDS and against the stigma of discrimination against the HIV community. He also called attention to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who attended the event, for his leading efforts to advance the fight for his career.

As he prepared to depart for Africa in the evening, Biden thanked former President George W. Bush for creating PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which improved results for people living with HIV on the African continent and saved more than 26 million people. lives on a global scale.

Biden said he plans to call on Congress to pass a five-year PEPFAR reauthorization to maintain this progress before leaving office in January.