Biden decries 'stigma' and 'misinformation' on World AIDS Day

President Biden called for a fight against “stigma” and “misinformation” on World AIDS Day in remarks at the White House.

“We stand united in the fight against this epidemic,” Biden said Sunday. “It matters, it matters. … I remember as senator, when this epidemic was raging, the stigma, the misinformation, the government failing to act and acknowledge the dignity of [LGBTQ] lives and the seriousness of the AIDS epidemic.”

During the 1980s and 1990s, the HIV epidemic ravaged the LGBTQ community, leading to deep emotional scars and widespread calls for government action from pro-LGBTQ activists. Groups like the the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), who used civil disobedience to shine a light on government inaction on AIDS, sprung up during this time.

“It caused serious harm,” the president said Sunday of the government’s inaction at the time. “It compounded pain and trauma for a community watching a generation of loved ones and friends perish. It was horribly, horribly wrong.”

“We've also seen advocates, survivors, families, allies, who've turned their pain into purpose, like all of you have,” Biden added. “Their loss into determination, their anger, into a movement that's literally changing the world.”

The president also noted the presence of “sections of” the AIDS Memorial Quilt “at the White House” that day in his speech, saying it contains “stories of precious lives cut too short.”

According to a report from earlier this year by the United Nations agency working to end the AIDS epidemic, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), there is a foreseeable path to ending the epidemic by 2030. 

“The data and real-world examples in the report make it very clear what that path is. It is not a mystery. It is a choice. Some leaders are already following the path — and succeeding,” UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima wrote in the report’s executive summary.

Updated at 7:13 pm.