The New York Times - Monday, December 2, 2002
Jennifer Medina

Hundreds of people gathered across New York City yesterday at rallies and memorials for World AIDS Day, though advocates said the sparse attendance reflected a need to refocus attention on the disease.

"It is hard to grasp that we can be this far in the crisis and still have this far to go," Brent Nicholson Earle, a veteran AIDS activist, said during a rally at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village.

Last year, AIDS was diagnosed in more than 6,000 people in New York City. And in November, the United Nations estimated that about 42 million people worldwide were H.I.V.-positive.

From the West Village to China and South Africa, events were held around the globe yesterday to draw attention to their plight.

In China, the government called for a campaign of a million students to spread through the countryside to raise awareness about AIDS and condemn discrimination against those who have it.

While drug cocktails are allowing people with AIDS to live for years with minimal health problems, young people who have grown up knowing about the disease may not fear contracting it, experts say.

Justine Davis, 17, rarely talks about AIDS with her friends at Louis D. Brandeis High School in Manhattan. Except in her health class, sex is never a topic of discussion, she said.

"We get embarrassed," said Ms. Davis, who attended an event yesterday at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan that featured comic books addressing AIDS and a youth theater troupe focusing on H.I.V. and AIDS. "We just assume things about each other. You don't think someone you are hanging out with is going to have AIDS."

Ms. Davis's health teacher had promised extra credit for anyone who attended that event.

The NiteStar program, as the troupe is called, performs plays that explore students' attitudes toward sex in schools throughout the city.

"Students know what AIDS or H.I.V. is, but they don't always know what it means," said David Williams, who has performed with the group for the last three years. "On the one hand, you don't want them to be scared of someone with AIDS, but you also don't want them to think it's no big deal if they get it. It's difficult to try to find that balance."

Judd Winick, who starred on MTV's reality show "The Real World" with Pedro Zamora, spoke of his experience of living with Mr. Zamora, who later died of AIDS.

When Mr. Winick was first chosen for the 1994 television show and was told he would be living with a roommate who had AIDS, he pretended not to be bothered, he said. "But the picture of AIDS was somebody who looked like they had just come out of Auschwitz," he said yesterday. "That was the image then."

While that has changed today, Mr. Winick said, AIDS is becoming a forgotten story. "We have to make this relevant, especially to young people," he said. "There is always this notion that teens think they are invincible. They've grown up knowing what condoms are, but there are still thousands of people getting this disease and dying. But this is 100 percent preventable."

Other events in the city focused on how the disease has spread into all communities. At Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, an H.I.V.-positive choir sang hymns. At a 24-hour vigil on 125th Street in Harlem, the names of hundreds of people who have died from AIDS were read.

"It's time to stop the denial, the partying and the pretension: AIDS kills gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight people," said Doneley Meris, who runs education services at the LGBT center.

021202
NYT021202

Copyright © 2002 - The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved. All New York Times articles contained on the AEGiS web site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of The New York Times Company. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. However, you may download articles (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for your personal, noncommercial use only.

AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Pacific Life Foundation and donations from users like you.

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2002. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2002. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .