Experience AIDS/LifeCycle 2 (2003)

Day by Day Coverage: Day 7 - Ventura to West Hollywood

Closing Remarks by Lorri Jean, CEO, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center

Hello, Riders! Welcome to Los Angeles and congratulations on your victorious completion of AIDS Life/Cycle 2! You have accomplished an amazing feat, something that many of you thought might never be possible. But, it was possible. You did it!

And listen to this crowd—they know what I know: that all of you are heroes!

This year is the tenth year that a group of riders has bravely made its way from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a phenomenal effort to make a difference in the AIDS epidemic. 10 years ago, I stood in this very place and welcomed the first 600 people who had dared to do what you have done.

We started riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 1994 because we were desperate. Too many people with AIDS were dying. Too many others were becoming infected. And, too many people went without any help at all because there wasn’t enough money to care for everyone. So, we had to do something bold. Something that some people thought was crazy. Something that had never been done before. We had to do something extraordinary because we knew that was the kind of effort it was going to take to make a real difference in the battle against AIDS. And, every year since then, thousands of you have ridden with the same goal in mind.

This year, all of you became a part of that inspiring tradition.

But, I have to tell you, that I am very, very sad that, 10 years later, we are still riding—that we still have to ride because this epidemic is not over.

And I’m more than sad. I’m MAD.

I’m mad that worldwide HIV and AIDS are still destroying hundreds of thousands of lives—a tragedy of epic proportion affecting people of all ages, races, genders and sexual orientations.

I’m mad that there are 40,000 new HIV infections in this country every year, and that 8,000 of these are in California alone—and that half of these new infections are among young people. I’m mad that in this country, 12,000 people die every year of AIDS—a majority of whom are gay, bisexual and transgender.

And, I’m mad that so much of the political leadership in this country has not had a fraction of the courage and the will and the determination that you have shown—the courage and the will and the determination to do more.

If we can find hundreds of billions of dollars virtually overnight to wage war against Iraq because of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, why is AIDS funding in this country being cut? Why isn’t it keeping pace with the epidemic? Why don’t we have a similar all-out assault on HIV? Imagine what $300 billion could do in the fight against AIDS!

But, we don’t have anything even approaching this because the Bush Administration and other political leaders are putting politics and ideology before public health. For example, they are requiring ineffective prevention strategies like “abstinence only” and retaliating against AIDS Service Organizations that serve predominantly gay, bisexual and transgender people and appointing blatantly homophobic and AIDS phobic fanatics to important AIDS positions. Why? Because they are pandering to religious political extremists who have a clear and indisputable anti-gay agenda that NONE of us should be tolerating.

I am mad that in this day and age we still have to deal with such ignorance and bigotry and hatred, especially by those who know better.

But all of you represent hope for change in this country. You are setting a different kind of example. You have shown what can be accomplished when people of all kinds join together and combine a common mission—fighting AIDS--with uncommon determination and extraordinary commitment!

Together, we can make miracles happen.

Together, we can save lives.

Together, we can act up, fight back and fight AIDS.

Together, we CAN make a difference. And we WILL make a difference.

We will continue to ride until there is no need for us to ride any further, until we have achieved our greatest dream of an end to AIDS and HIV—a dream that all of you have helped to bring closer this past week.

Thank you for your courage, your commitment, your determination and your generosity. You are an inspiration to all of us.
See you next year at AIDS Life/Cycle 3!