Post by GayCities Washington, DC, editor Scott Wallis
An estimated 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV and one in five don’t know it. According to Washington, DC’s Whitman-Walker Clinic, at least one in every seven gay or bisexual men in DC is HIV-positive.
World AIDS Day—always the first day of December—is an opportunity to do something about the situation by getting tested and encouraging you friends and loved ones to do the same.
Here in Washington, DC, the day will be marked with a series of events:
- The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will set up a mobile testing vehicle at the District of Columbia Department of Transportation at 414 Gallatin Street NE from 10:30am – 1:30pm and then at Harbor Lights of the Salvation Army at New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road NE from 2:00 – 6:00 pm. (HIV testing also is available free without an appointment every day during business hours at the AHF Blair Underwood Healthcare Center at 2141 K Street, NW.)
- AHF will also be co-hosting the International Conference on Stigma from 8:00am – 5:00pm at Howard University’s Blackburn Center at 2041 Georgia Avenue, NW. Find out more about the conference at whocanyoutell.com.
- Also on December 1, the World AIDS Day Candlelight Vigil, co-sponsored by the DC Center, the Whitman-Walker Clinic and Bet Mishpachah (an LGBT synagogue in Washington; December 1 is also the beginning of Chanukah this year) will take place at Dupont Circle at 5:30pm. Paul Wharton, multimedia beauty, fashion, and and recent co-star on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of DC,” will serve as emcee.)
- To cap off the day, from 5:30 – 8:30pm, Red Hot Night at the Hotel Palomar’s Urbana at 2121 P Street, NW, benefits the Whitman-Walker Clinic.
- The Whitman-Walker’s Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center at 1701 14th Street, NW, and the Max Robinson Center at 2301 MLK Jr. Avenue, SE, also offer free, confidential HIV testing during regular business hours every day all year long.
Not in the Washington, DC area? Find out about World AIDS Day events happening in your neck of the woods by checking out the GayCities event guide to World AIDS Day.
