President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden welcomed AIDS survivors, advocates, and families who have lost loved ones to the disease for a display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt at the White House. This marks the first time in its decades-long history that the quilt has been shown there.
The occasion, in honor of World AIDS Day, included speeches from the Bidens and Jeanne White-Ginder, whose son Ryan White passed away due to AIDS in 1990.
Both Joe and Jill Biden became emotional during their speeches, expressing their sympathy for those in attendance who had lost family and friends. President Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and their infant daughter, Naomi, tragically died in a car accident in 1972, and his son, Beau, who was raised by Jill Biden, succumbed to cancer in 2015.
The event commemorating World AIDS Day showcased speeches by the Bidens and Jeanne White-Ginder, who shared the story of her son Ryan White, a teenage victim of AIDS.
“As I gaze at this beautiful quilt, adorned with vibrant colors and names in bold letters, I see it through the eyes of a mother, thinking of those mothers who wove their pain into a patchwork panel for the world to remember their children,” said Ms. Biden.
“This movement is intricately woven into the fabric and history of America, illuminating the memory and legacy of all the sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, moms and dads, partners and friends we have lost to this devastating disease,” Mr. Biden stated. “We stand united in the fight against this epidemic.”
Once their speeches concluded, the president and first lady strolled hand in hand past sections of the quilt, pausing to examine it closely before returning to the White House.
According to the World Health Organization, 42.3 million people have died since the onset of the AIDS epidemic.
