President Biden and first lady to debut AIDS Memorial Quilt on the White House South Lawn

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will mark World AIDS Day on Sunday by unveiling the AIDS Memorial Quilt at the White House.

It will be displayed on the South Lawn as the Bidens celebrate the day with their families and supporters.

A red flag will also be placed on the South Portico of the White House to recognize those who have died of AIDS-related illnesses, as well as the more than 40 million people worldwide living with HIV.

The red ribbon — now an annual tradition — made its first appearance in 2007, during the Bush administration.

The White House said in a statement that the Biden administration has made ending the HIV epidemic a top priority.

The statement praised the administration National Strategy against HIV/AIDSFocused on reducing new HIV infections, improving outcomes for people living with HIV, and breaking down barriers in society. It was created in 2021.

The White House Office of National AIDS Policy will release a progress report on the Biden administration’s strategy next week.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt was a powerful symbol of the human toll of the virus originally displayed on the National Mall At the National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington in October 1987, at a time when many believed the federal government was too slow to respond to the crisis.

The quilt, which is regularly displayed in the US as an educational tool, now contains nearly 50,000 panels, honoring more than 105,000 lives lost.

HIV infection in the US declined 12% overall between 2018 and 2022, but remains a persistent problem, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services announced an effort to end the US HIV epidemic by reducing the number of new infections to 9,300 by 2025 and to 3,000 by 2030. However, in 2022, there were 31,800 more new HIV infections. According to the CDC.