World AIDS Day spotlights part of memorial quilt

GMU event one of many in area focusing on awareness, prevention

By Darryl Fears

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 29, 2009

 

On Tuesday, World AIDS Day, a 1,200-square-foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at George Mason University in Fairfax County.

More than 100 panels will be shown in a day-long commemoration as part of the school's HIV Awareness Week. The event will include a speech by Hydeia Broadbent, an international AIDS activist who was born HIV-positive. Broadbent, 25, was abandoned at a Las Vegas hospital and was not expected to live past age 5. She became a "test baby" for HIV medications and now advocates for awareness, prevention and treatment.

The George Mason event is one of many taking place in the Washington area. The Whitman-Walker Clinic will hold a candlelight vigil at 5:30 p.m. at Dupont Circle. The Metro D.C. LGBT Community Center will host several events, ending with an "Our Heroes" exhibit of 150 black-and-white photographs of people who have influenced the struggle against HIV/AIDS. And World AIDS Day at the World Bank will feature a panel of speakers, including the bank's president, Robert Zoellick, and the executive director of the Global Fund to fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

But George Mason's event will be among the largest, with more than 500 students assisting the layout of the AIDS Quilt at the Johnson Center and thousands expected to attend. Free HIV testing will be offered.

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