At the height of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s, lawmakers began criminalizing otherwise legal behaviors of people living with HIV and adding HIV-related penalties to existing crimes. These laws were based on fear and limited medical understanding, and were passed at a time when there were no effective treatments for HIV. Discrimination towards those affected by HIV was rampant.

As more research and data was released, it was APLA Health’s duty to educate the public and lawmakers about how to reduce HIV-related stigma and improve the health of our communities.

In 1985, APLA Health convinced Los Angeles to become the first city in the nation to bar discrimination based on HIV. In the 1990s, we worked at the federal level to secure funding the Ryan White Act. We helped modernize California’s HIV state laws, including two years ago when we helped pass SB 239 that removed a law charging any person living with HIV with a felony simply for having sex.

We’ve come a long way since the 80s, but we still have work to do. Help us continue to Educate and advocate for those with HIV by raising funds at AIDS Walk 2020.

What to do this week

Submit your story! We all Walk for a reason and for our digital walk it’s more important than ever to make your story heard. Who inspires you to Walk? What’s your personal participation history? Have an amazing memory from a past AIDS Walk you just have to share? We welcome all stories about the people and causes that have moved you to get with us this year.

Sarah Murray

Director of AIDS Walk Los Angeles

Meet Sarah, our Director for AIDS Walk Los Angeles. She has been involved in AIDS Walks around the country since she was eighteen—starting with AIDS Walk Phoenix, budding to include AIDS Walk San Francisco, New York, and of course LA.

“I wear a lot of hats. I am Chican@, born and raised in LA. My family has been here for about four generations. Several of us were amongst those displaced in Chavez Ravine by Dodger Stadium. I am also a queer person. Fighting HIV is important to me because all of my communities, it hits us harder than others. It shouldn’t. I am HIV-negative, but I understand discrimination, and how that can feel. I Walk year after year to show up for my fellow Angelenos and remind them: your HIV status does not determine your worth.”