We can hand down our experience learned in the epidemic's first twenty years. We can build new leadership among young gays and lesbians so that they can develop new creative prevention strategies. We can confront the drug use that too often accompanies gay social life and heightens HIV risk. We can build a community that sometimes values the experiences of a long life over the fleeting physical beauty of youth. We can overcome the racial and sexual barriers that divide communities affected by the disease.
Several tools are at our disposal.
And our AIDS advocates work diligently to ensure that government funding increases and that researchers persevere to try to find better treatments, vaccines, microbicides and a cure. Twenty years after the start of the AIDS epidemic, we have much for which we are thankful. New treatments have bought precious time for those affected by the disease. And there is renewed hope that this promise of time will be shared with more than just a few of the 34 million people living with HIV worldwide. More and more community and political leaders are joining the battle, particularly those from communities of color and faith-based organizations.