DR. DRIFFIN: Hello. I'm Dr. Daniel Driffin.
As a person living with HIV, working daily among the HIV Vira- — the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, days like World AIDS Day are significant to me.
For more than 36 years, nations near and far have raised awareness of those impacted by and living with HIV.
Today, with the theme of "Collective Action: Sustain and Accelerate HIV Progress," I know we can continue to reduce the negative impact that HIV continues to have on our lives.
Action and progress link our globe as we continue to make advancements towards ending HIV. Action and progress have taken our world from no test for HIV to having rapid, home-based testing.
We went from medications that only stop HIV on one step of the life cycle to medications that stop HIV throughout the process of multiplying.
We went from the days where people had to take many pills more than one time a day to now being able to either take a pill once a day or even an injection every two months, and additional therapies and longer options are on the horizon.
We know pre-exposure prophylaxis works. We know post-exposure prophylaxis works. We boldly know undetectable equals untransmittable, especially for the people living with HIV — I mean thriving with HIV.
As a person living with HIV, a new discussion is finally afforded around the importance and shared decision-making with your medical providers.
So, today, as we share time, take a moment and take in the more than 110,000 lives which are shared on these panels behind us. Thank you for the artists. Thank you for beauticians. Thank you for lawyers. Thank you for scientists. Thank you for community health workers, doctors, caregivers, lovers, and maybe even future congressional members, and all of the other friends that we have lost due to HIV and AIDS.
I am happy to bring up our first lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden. (Applause.)
THE FIRST LADY: (Laughs.) Thank you. Thank you.
Daniel, thank you. Your leadership is redefining what it means to support people with HIV — not only access to health care but with community as well. Because of your work, more people know that they are not alone.
So, good afternoon and welcome to the White House. (Applause.)
Hidden in crowds, scattered throughout workplaces and grocery stores and parks, there is a fellowship of people who have lost sons and daughters.
To the uninitiated, we look normal, average, whole. But like a secret handshake, I can spot them by the sadness that rests in the corner of their smile, by the curve of their shoulders, as if they can still feel the small arms of a child wrapped around their necks.
And though we are strangers, we know untellable truths about one another: that we will spend the rest of our lives longing for a face that's gone forever and — and that when they left our world, they took a light inside us with them.
Still, we have discovered moments of grace too. Somehow, against all odds, we rise from the floor, we find a fortitude that we didn't know we had, and we reach out for help. We realize that we're not alone.
And as I look at this beautiful quilt, with its bright colors, the names in big block letters, renderings of lives and loves, I see it as a mom. And I think of the mothers who stitched their pain into a patchworked panel so the world would remember their child not as the victim of a vicious disease but as a son who had played in the high school jazz band, as the child who grew up to proudly serve our nation in uniform, as the daughter whose favorite holiday was Christmas.
The act of quilting creates a work of art that wraps us up in its beauty.
This one was woven together with a grief powerful enough to move the world toward unity, acceptance, compassion, and grace.
And Joe and I are proud to have the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the South Lawn of the White House for the first time ever. (Applause.)
And it is especially meaningful to gather with you on World AIDS Day.
May we all feel the power of this worldwide day of unity. And may we always cover each other in kindness, compassion, and beauty.
Joe and I are honored to have Jeanne White-Ginder here with us and to join with her in remembering her son, Ryan White. (Applause.)
Jeanne, I know you didn't choose the life of an activist. But when Ryan got sick 40 years ago, you stepped up in the fight against discrimination and helped the world see this disease more clearly.
I know that a part of you is still missing. Mother to mother, thank you for your strength.
So, Jeanne, would you like to say a few words? (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Want me to hold your cane?
MS. WHITE-GINDER: Yeah, let me see.
Where's my —
THE FIRST LADY: Here, I think it's this way. Here it is.
MS. WHITE-GINDER: Okay. (Laughter.) Sorry.
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Jeanne White-Ginder, and I am the mother of Ryan White.
Ryan was a smart and funny teenager who became HIV-infected at the age of 13. He contracted HIV at the age of 13 and — from a blood transfusion. AIDS took him from us five and a half years later but not before he fought his way to — back to school and taught America we needed to fight AIDS and not the people who have it. (Applause.)
In 1990, however, shortly after Ryan died, Senator Kennedy asked me if I would come to Washington to explain to senators how vital it was to pass the AIDS bill which had been recently named after my son, called the — for my son, called the Ryan White CARE Act. He said I was something much more powerful than a lobbyist: I was a mother. I am sure that Dr. Biden can relate. Needless — needless to say, I went. I went to D.C.
The first senator I met, who was getting off the elevator at the Capitol, was Senator Joe Biden. With tears in his eyes, he told me that he had lost his child and that the only way he had found to deal with it was through grief and with — through a purpose.
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. Both Republicans and Democrats and congresses have strongly supported Ryan's bill. And as a result, countless lives have been saved.
I'm especially grateful for President Biden's tireless leadership and all that he's done for the fight against AIDS in the United States and around the world as senator, vice president, and president. (Applause.)
That's why, along with my daughter, Andrea, and on behalf of my dear friend and partner in this work, Sir Elton John, and his foundation — and so honored to introduce today our commander in chief in the fight against AIDS, President Joe Biden. (Applause.)
Thank you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: You're —
MS. WHITE-GINDER: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: You're my commander —
MS. WHITE-GINDER: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: You're my commander in chief.
MS. WHITE-GINDER: (Laughs.) It took us all. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Careful now.
I told her she's my commander in chief. (Laughter.)
Folks, you've changed the world. Sorry, I have a cold. You've changed the world.
Jeanne, thank you for the introduction and for your courage. You just described the first time we met after your son passed away, and what I saw in you then was something extraordinary. You said it best: a mom on a mission, turning your plan into purpose.
After all these years, looking at everything you've achieved, the lives you've touched, the country you've changed, the world you've made better, you're extraordinary, and it's an honor to have you with us today again at the White House. Love you. (Applause.)
To the families here today, as Jill just said, we know how hard it is in different ways, but we know. We know.
I hope you can find comfort in remembering the one thing that's never lost: your love for them and their love for you.
Jill and I, along with countless others, are forever grateful to you for your collective and individual courage. And Jill and I are especially grateful for the trust you put in us.
It's been the honor of our lives to serve in the White House — the people's house, your house. We felt a special obligation to use this sacred place to ensure everyone is seen and the story of America is heard. That's why we're all together here on this World AIDS Day. And I want to thank all of you, allies and advocates who are here, including Sir Elton John's foundation and so many others for the long history of this fight, both globally and here at home.
Jill and I met with Elton and David this summer, and this event is, in no small part, the result of that meeting.
And a special thanks to one of the great public health officials — a true hero — who have led this fight against HIV/AIDS, Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Applause.) Where is Anthony?
Anthony, you're a good man. (Applause.) God love you. As my mother would say, "God love you, Anthony." (Laughter.)
I also want to alo- — acknowledge Dr. Laura Cheever, HIV leader — (applause) — Department of Health and Human Services —
THE FIRST LADY: Oh, right here.
THE PRESIDENT: — who's re- —
THE FIRST LADY: In the front. The blonde.
THE PRESIDENT: — who's retiring this year. She started when she was — after 25 years of service. She started when she was 10, if you take a look at her. (Laughter.) God love you.
The idea of the quilt was conceived in 1985 by Cleve Jones and Mike Smith, who is here with us today.
Mike, there you are. Stand up, Mike. (Applause.)
To honor the memory of all those we lost to HIV/AIDS. It started with one name on one panel nearly four decades ago. And decades later, 50,000 panels and 110,000 names.
This quilt weighs 54 tons, the largest community art project in the entire world, and tells the tragic stories of brothers who died too soon; moms who contracted AIDS at childbirth — her daughter's life stolen, eventually her own as well; friends and partners who lost loved ones of their lives; and so many more stories of precious lives cut too short.
And I do realize that these days of celebration, they bring back all the memories. They're hard. It's not easy. It's important, but it's not easy. So, I want to thank you for being here.
This quilt was first displayed on the National Mall in 1987. Over the years, it made its way to the Ellipse and President Clinton's inaugural parade.
Today, for the first time in our nation's history, the sections of AIDS quilts are being publicly displayed here at the White House because — (applause) — because, like the first threads of this quilt stretched nearly 40 years ago — stitched nearly 40 years ago, this movement is fully woven into the fabric and history of America, shining a light on the memory and the legacy of all the sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, moms and dads, partners and friends who have lost — who we've lost to this terrible disease.
Together, we honor the spirit of resilience and the extraordinary strength of people, families, and communities affected by HIV/AIDS, including the nearly 40 million people living with HIV around the world today — 40 million. And we send a clear message to the nation and to the world that we stand united in the fight against this epidemic.
It matters. It matters we reinstate that.
I remember as senator when this epidemic was raging, the stigma, the misinformation, the government failing to act and acknowledge the dignity of LBGTQ+ lives and the seriousness of the AIDS epidemic. It caused serious harm. 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 have turned their pain into purpose like all of you have, their loss into determination, their anger into a movement that's literally changing the world. Science — new scientific discoveries, new preventative care, new global partnerships, and so much more.
For example, through what's known as PEPFAR — the President's Emergency Plan on AIDS Relief — launched by President Bush — and he deserves credit — (applause) — George W. Bush — we made the single largest investment of any nation in the world to tackle a single disease, saving more than 26 million lives so far.
I'm proud to have reauthorized PEPFAR last year, and I can — I'm going to call on Congress to pass five-year PEPFAR reauthorization to sustain these gains we made globally. (Applause.)
In fact, later today, I'm traveling in Angola in Africa, where we're deepening our partnership across the continent on mainly health priorities, including improving outcomes for people with — people living with HIV through PEPFAR.
It matters. It matters throughout the world.
But for all our progress, too many people continue to live with HIV, including 1 million Americans. That's why my first year in office, I launched a new national HIV/AIDS strategy to ensure treatment and prevention is available to everyone everywhere, all across this country, and that includes ensuring medications that can prevent HIV infections are affordable and available in all forms, without co-pays for people with health insurance. (Applause.)
We made clear to the insurance companies they can't deny coverage for these medications or for lab tests that doctors recommend to patients.
We're fighting the stigma of discrimination against the HIV community by ending the shameful — the shameful practice of banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood; strengthening civil rights protections in medical settings for people with HIV; educating the public about the latest science in transmission, testing, and prevention and care.
So many of you have been leading the way in these efforts, including the late Cornelius Baker — (applause) — who passed away three weeks ago, as a pioneer on advancing HIV testing.
Together with all of you, we're also calling on states and community leaders to repeal outdated HIV criminalization laws throughout this country. (Applause.)
And I'm proud to announce, before the end of my term, the Center for Medical and Medi- — Medicare and Medicaid Services will update its guidance on HIV care, encouraging states to adopt the best practices using the latest science and technology. It matters. It matters. (Applause.)
Folks, you've been standing a long time, so let me close with this. (Laughs.) You're pretty good. (Laughter.) I know the fight to end this terrible epidemic is hard. But I look around today — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — I look around today at all of you — survivors, families, heroes who have never given up — and I know it's a fight that we're going to win for all the lives lost and for all those that are still alive.
Look at what you've already done to change the hearts and minds and save lives across the country and around the world.
That's the power of this movement. That's the power of memory of your loved one. That's the power of America.
We just have to keep going, keep the faith, and remember who in the hell we are. We're the United States of America, and there's nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together — nothing, nothing, nothing. (Applause.)
God bless you all. And I know I'd like to invite everyone to view the quilt, so, folks, I'm getting off this stage. (Laughter.)
But really and truly, I mean it from the bottom of my heart: You're changing the world. You're changing the world.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)
3:11 P.M. EST
