Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The Bay Area Reporter - May 19, 2000
Terry Beswick
Rudy Galindo, winner of the 1996 men's title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, will march in San Francisco's event, which begins at 8 p.m. at Castro and Market streets and proceeds to City Hall.
As in years past, the march will honor those people lost to AIDS and the commitment of those who continue the fight to end the AIDS pandemic, according to local organizers.
In a telephone interview, Monday, May 15, Galindo told the Bay Area Reporter that he will march in San Francisco for the same reason that he decided in February to tell the world that he had tested positive for HIV - because he wants to help prevent others from engaging in risky behavior.
"I want to tell people that, being gay and going through down times in your life, you have to be careful and protect yourself," said Galindo, who will be in the Bay Area this weekend performing with "Champions on Ice."
The march will be followed by a 30-minute program of music, performance art, and remembrances, according to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the nonprofit charity that is organizing San Francisco's vigil.
"This year the AIDS Candlelight Vigil will begin with PWAs carrying the original banner from the very first march in 1983, proclaiming what has become the motto of the PWA empowerment movement: 'Fighting for our lives,'" said SPI's Sister Kitty Catalyst.
"Break the Silence: Honor Every Death à Value Every Life," is the international theme for this year's events, organized worldwide by the Global AIDS Council in Washington, D.C. The march was initiated by San Francisco-based Mobilization Against AIDS in 1983. But the event outgrew Mobilization, and the local group turned over the reins to the larger and better-funded council, an association of international health care advocacy groups and individuals.
The memorial is observed with events on six continents, in 43 nations, in hundreds of cities and towns around the world.
"The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial and Mobilization is an opportunity to let our neighbors, our communities, our nations, and the world know that the lives of the 34 million people living with HIV and the lives of the 16 million who have died are valued, are priceless, are irreplaceable," according to a statement from the council.
People magazine recently referred to Galindo's seroconversion as "the latest sad chapter" in his life; Galindo lost his brother and his coach to the epidemic.
But for the champion skater, it has been another challenge to overcome.
"I guess for some people it was sad to know that I have [HIV], but for me, it's made me a stronger person," Galindo said.
For more information about the march, call (415) 331-1500, ext. AIDS, or visit www.AIDS CandlelightVigil.org.
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