Honoring Life and Legacy: Reflections for World AIDS Day
November 6, 2025
Every year, on December 1, communities around the world come together for World AIDS Day, a day of remembrance, reflection, and renewed commitment. It is a day to honor those we’ve lost, uplift those living with HIV, and remind the world that the fight for dignity, health equity, and justice is far from over.
For Monei Evans, D&R staff member and long-time community advocate, World AIDS Day is about refusing to let the lessons and lives of the past be forgotten. “World AIDS Day is important because it brings awareness to the impact HIV left on life, and it can’t be forgotten,” she shares. “It’s here to honor life and de-stigmatize HIV. HIV stigma has been around for so long, and it’s important to know that HIV is not a death sentence. HIV is not a gay disease.”
Her words echo the evolution of understanding that has taken decades to build. Once shrouded in silence and fear, conversations about HIV have transformed into calls for compassion, education, and action. “We’re moving forward,” Monei says. “We can’t move backwards. We need more diverse education to de-stigmatize HIV.”
Aaleh Hughes, D&R staff member and long-time community advocate, reflects on the deep history of pain and resilience that World AIDS Day represents. “It’s important for us to celebrate because there’s so much stigma, and people living with HIV have been treated so wrongly,” she says. “We have to remember Hart Island and the mass anonymous burials in the past. World AIDS Day is about celebrating the people who passed away from HIV and remembering their life.”
Hart Island, located off the Bronx in New York City, became one of the largest burial sites for people who died during the height of the AIDS epidemic, many of whom were buried anonymously due to stigma, fear, and family rejection. Remembering Hart Island is a reminder of the human cost of discrimination and how far compassion and advocacy have brought us since. For Aaleh, remembrance is not just about mourning, it’s about human connection. “We’re pouring our hearts out to people living with HIV and joining them, reminding everyone that we’re all human alike,” she says. “For Diverse & Resilient to be around for 30 years, it speaks volumes to the work we’re doing.”
That legacy of 30 years carries a truth that Deon Bentley, D&R staff member and long-time community advocate, holds close: that resilience is born from purpose. “For Diverse & Resilient to be around for 30 years, it’s meant that there was work to be done, and more work to be done,” Bentley says. “We won’t be oppressed, and we’ll continue this work until we’re no longer needed.”
Left to Right: Aaleh, Bentley, & Monei
As we commemorate World AIDS Day and celebrate 30 years of Diverse & Resilient, we are reminded of the leaders, advocates, and loved ones who paved the way for us to stand here today. From the global voices like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Ryan White, and Phill Wilson whose activism helped shape the intersection of LGBTQ+ and HIV justice, to Milwaukee’s very own Ronnie Grace, whose vision and leadership helped establish our Peer Navigation Program, ensuring that people living with HIV received not only care, but compassion, dignity, and belonging.
Their legacies live on in the work we do, in the people we serve, and in the love we continue to share.
The Red Ribbon Gala is our moment to remember and to celebrate, to honor the lives impacted, uplift the lives still being lived, and recommit ourselves to a future free from stigma, inequity, and silence.
Editor: Tou Fong Lee, M. Ed
Director of Program Operations and Compliance