West Hollywood Marks World AIDS Day With First Ceremony at New AIDS Monument

By Paulo Murillo
WeHo Times
December 2, 2025

The City of West Hollywood commemorated World AIDS Day on Monday with an evening gathering at the newly opened STORIES: The AIDS Monument, marking the first World AIDS Day program held at the site since its completion earlier this month.

Community members assembled at 5:30 p.m. in West Hollywood Park for the ceremony, hosted by Irwin M. Rappaport, board chair of the Foundation for the AIDS Monument. Rappaport reflected on the years of obstacles that delayed the monument’s construction and said the night was both a memorial and a celebration of the community’s strength.

“I’m thrilled we can come together not only to remember those we lost, but to celebrate how we came together as a community — to care for one another, to advocate for one another, to build organizations from the ground up,” he said. “We had to, because the federal government certainly wasn’t doing it.”

Rappaport also criticized the Trump administration’s decision not to recognize World AIDS Day, the first such omission since the commemoration began in 1988. “Many of us here tonight lived through the 1980s, so we know what that’s like,” he said. “We know what years of neglect under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush were like, and we know that we can get through this together… We know how important it is to preserve our own history, to tell our own stories, and that’s what STORIES: The AIDS Monument is all about.”

Mayor Chelsea Byers, the youngest member of the West Hollywood City Council, called the lack of federal acknowledgment “absolutely abysmal” and emphasized the importance of educating young people.

“It is essential that I not only learn from my history, but understand this current moment,” Byers said. “Around the world, people are still being devastated by the AIDS epidemic. To think that the United States is withdrawing its support from communities that have relied on it for decades is absolutely devastating.”

Vice Mayor John Heilman, noting with a laugh that he is the council’s oldest member, issued one of the night’s most impassioned speeches. He urged residents to channel their anger into activism.

“We have a president who won’t even recognize World AIDS Day,” Heilman said. “We should make a commitment that we’re going to get back out into the streets… It is an outrage that we can prevent AIDS, that we can treat the disease, and this administration has turned its back on us.”

Other speakers included Joe Hui, communications director for APLA Health, and performers from the APLA Health Writers Group and former West Hollywood poet laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace.

Attendees explored the monument’s interactive storytelling features, including light- and sound-based installations that chronicle personal accounts of the epidemic. The project has been more than a decade in development.

At 6:30 p.m., the program moved across the park to ONE Gallery for a reception and access to Herb Ritts: Allies & Icons, a newly opened exhibition featuring portraits of artists and activists who helped shape the fight against AIDS. The event was co-sponsored by APLA Health, ONE Institute and the Foundation for the AIDS Monument.

Beginning Monday morning, a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt went on display inside the West Hollywood Council Chambers, where it will remain through Dec. 15. Considered the largest community art project in history, the Quilt commemorates more than 110,000 lives lost to AIDS.

Throughout the day, residents were encouraged to visit the city’s AIDS Memorial Walk along Santa Monica Boulevard and reflect on the stories preserved in the new monument.

World AIDS Day, founded in 1988, continues to serve as a global reminder to unite against HIV/AIDS, support people living with HIV and honor those who have died. West Hollywood officials say Monday’s events reaffirm the city’s commitment to a future free of stigma, inequity and AIDS.

Commemorations will continue later in the month with the Paul Andrew Starke Warrior Awards on Dec. 10, recognizing individuals and organizations advancing HIV/AIDS awareness, advocacy and care.