After many months of hard work by the talented folks at Loyal Design and many of our Board members and Staff, we are proud to invite you to explore our re-designed website.  There is a mobile friendly version along with a desktop version.

The home page features a poignant quote which changes frequently for the sake of variety.  It also includes our mission statement, and a video featuring a clip from an inspirational Larry Kramer speech that you won’t want to miss.  

If you scroll down to the STORIES section of the home page, you’ll see a Word Wall featuring 30 words representing the types of Stories we have gathered for visitors to the website and the Monument site to hear and read. Those words will be engraved into 30 of the “Traces” at the Monument.

If you click on a word in the Word Wall, the site takes you to a series of stories (both text and audio recordings) corresponding to that word. 

Please explore the stories and be sure to visit often, because we are adding new stories all the time.  A big thanks to The AIDS Memorial on Instagram for allowing FAM to use selected stories from this wonderful Instagram page and to have them recorded for your listening pleasure.  

Also, be sure to check out stories recorded by celebrities or stories about prominent people who were activists or who died of AIDS, such as: 

• Whoopi Goldberg about “Sister Act” director Emile Ardolino
• Billy Porter about disco, funk and R&B singer Sylvester
• Jim Parsons about teenage hero Ryan White
• Adam Lambert about rock legend Freddie Mercury
• Sterling K. Brown about Major League Baseball player Glenn Burke
• Cheyenne Jackson about opera singer White Eagle
• Sheryl Lee Ralph about poet and artist Assotto Saint
• Jake Glaser about his mother and sister Elizabeth & Ariel Glaser
• Rob Epstein about author, GLAAD and ACT UP co-founder Vito Russo

Recordings to look out for in the near future include:  Sharon Stone about Elizabeth Taylor, Matt Bomer about Rock Hudson, Eric McCormack about Robert Reed, Don Lemon about news anchor Max Robinson, Dustin Lance Black about author Randy Shilts, Richard Gere about photographer Herb Ritts, and many more!  We currently have 58 stories on the website and plan to have at least 100 stories by the time the Monument opens to the public.

Below the STORIES section, you’ll find a “carousel” containing quotes from and photos of Essex Hemphill, Paul Monette, Connie Norman, Gil Cuadros, Elizabeth Glaser and ACT UP/LA.  All of these quotes will be engraved at the Monument in West Hollywood Park.  You can learn more about each of them by clicking the “Read More” link.

Below the carousel, you will find the “Remember & Celebrate” section which features photos or other visuals of those we’ve lost to AIDS and photos of survivors, activists, caregivers and community leaders.  If you click on the photo, you will find a story about the person or other subject in the photo, and an audio recording.  This section is for those who would prefer to choose a story based on a visual reference rather than a word from the Word Wall.

Below the “Remember & Celebrate” section, you’ll find some information about the Monument and the devastation caused by AIDS in the US and worldwide.  Click to read more on the “Monument” page, including why we chose the name STORIES: The AIDS Monument, a description of the “Traces”, renderings of the Monument, and information related to the design of the Monument.

Click on the Menu (at the upper left of the page) to find other features of the website, which include:

• History:  a timeline of important events (locally, nationally and worldwide) related to HIV/AIDS.  The timeline will continue to grow as we add more events from the past and as important things happen in the future.  If you want to suggest a event for the timeline, please use the link on the website’s Contact page
• Library:  videos which can be searched using the categories of Activism, Science, Government and Culture
• About:  meet our Board members, Staff and see the names of all donors who contributed $100 or more
• Resources:  community organizations related to HIV/AIDS, searchable by category
• Visit:  this will be updated once the Monument opens in West Hollywood Park
• News:  current and past newsletters from FAM along with other news items of interest
• Events:  FAM’s upcoming and past events
• Donate:  we encourage site visitors to donate so that FAM can continue to gather and tell important stories and produce educational events

Once the Monument in West Hollywood Park opens to the public, the website will include an audio tour for Monument visitors, featuring welcoming remarks from the City of West Hollywood, a description of the various areas of the Monument site and the creative choices that led to the Monument design, and a brief history of HIV/AIDS.