As President Joe Biden’s tribute to World AIDS Day, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was for the first time displayed on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on Sunday, December 1, 2024. Advocates, survivors and activists braved a chilly day to hear remarks from the president as well as First Lady Jill Biden and Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White, one of the most consequential figures in the history of AIDS activism.

“Today, for the first time in history, sections of the AIDS Quilt are publicly displayed at the White House,” President Biden told the crowd. “I want to thank all of you allies and advocates in the long history of this fight, globally and here at home. The AIDS Quilt started with one name on one panel nearly four decades ago. Decades later, with 50,000 panels and 110,000 names, this quilt weighs 54 tons, and it’s the largest community art project in the entire world. It tells tragic stories of precious lives cut too short. I do realize that in these days of celebration, it brings back all the memories that are hard. It’s important, but it’s not easy, so I want to thank you for being here.”

The president noted that Anthony Fauci, MD, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was among those gathered. Judging from the rapturous applause, this politically savvy crowd was well-acquainted with Fauci’s outsize contributions in the battle against HIV and AIDS.

Biden also acknowledged his predecessor George W. Bush for establishing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has invested over $110 billion in the global HIV and AIDS battle, saving an estimated 25 million lives while preventing countless HIV cases in more than 50 countries.

White-Ginder, whose decades of advocacy are still propelled by her son, Ryan, introduced the president.

“Ryan was a smart and funny teenager who became HIV infected at the age of 13,” she told a hushed crowd. “He contracted HIV at the age of 13 from a blood transfusion. AIDS took him from us five and a half years later, but not before he fought his way back to school and taught America that we needed to fight AIDS. Not people who have it.”

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on World AIDS Day 2024 at the White HouseJay Lassiter


White-Ginder recalled her first trip to Capitol Hill after Ryan’s passing.

“When I went to DC, the first senator I met was Senator Joe Biden,” she said. “With tears in his eyes, he told me that he had lost his child and that the only way he found to deal with it was to work through this grief with real purpose. And in the 34 years since, that’s exactly what I’ve tried to do in partnership with the extraordinary community here today that has become my family. In many ways, personal grief has fueled the AIDS movement since the beginning. I’m especially grateful for President Biden’s tireless leadership and all that he has done in the fight against AIDS in the United States and around the world as senator, vice president and president.”

As the president and the first lady made their way back into the White House, advocates briskly filled every inch of walkable space between the panels. The somber occasion was a far cry from Biden’s festive Pride Event on this same lawn earlier in 2024.

Neil Abadie, a board member at Hudson Pride Center, one of New Jersey’s largest AIDS service providers, summed up the event’s bittersweet mood.

“Seeing the gravity of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the setting of the South Lawn is a somber reminder of those we’ve lost and the importance of not letting it be in vain,” Abadie told POZ. “As we enter the unknown of the next administration, we must stay vigilant and prepare to fight harder than we have in decades to ensure we don’t surrender the progress we have made.”

Bruce Richman, a longtime activist and evangelist of the Undetectable Equals Untransmitable message, also attended the event.

“It was deeply moving to attend the White House ceremony with my niece and so many extraordinary colleagues in the field,” Richman told POZ. “Seeing each life lost, each life honored and represented with such love and creativity in the Quilt, I was overcome with grief. As someone living with HIV for over 20 years, I’m so grateful to live in a time and place where I have access to treatment that keeps me healthy with zero risk of passing it on. But I worry about the future—for my niece, for people living with HIV and especially for the most marginalized communities—as human rights and health care access face greater threats in the years ahead. We’ve shown what we can achieve as an HIV community, and now is the time to unite to ensure access to HIV treatment and care for all people living with HIV, which is the foundation to end the epidemic here in America and globally.”