Skip to main content
Life

Photos: San Francisco gathers for World AIDS Day events in the Castro, Golden Gate Park

A overhead shot from above of names of people who lost their lives to Aids written in chalk on the sidewalk.
In an aerial view, names of the victims of AIDS are seen written in chalk on Castro Street on Friday in honor of World AIDS Day. | Source: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

On the corner of Castro and 18th streets on Friday, George Kelly unbuckles the top clips of his chalk-dusted overalls, revealing a shirt that reads “HIV+” in a red and yellow font similar to what you’d see branded across Superman’s chest. 

Kelly, now 63, discovered he was HIV-positive when he was a 20-year-old college student studying health care in Texas.

“The doctor said I had six months to two years to live, make my peace with God and stay close to my family,” Kelly said, reflecting back to when he was diagnosed.

He made his way to San Francisco as a young adult, motivated to leave Texas by both a fear of his family seeing him deteriorate physically as well as a desire to get involved in local efforts to understand and fight the pandemic, which started in 1981. 

A man wearing a beige-colored baseball cap, a blue long-sleeved shirt and blue denim overalls crouches close to the ground. He has a piece of yellow chalk in his hand and is writing on the ground. A person can be seen behind him in the background to his right, and a telephone poll and trash can are to his left in the background.
George Kelly, founder of the “Inscribe” World AIDS Day event, writes a name on the sidewalk at the corner of Castro and 18th streets on Friday. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard

Dec. 1 marks World AIDS Day, an international day of mourning and raising awareness about the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic, which the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates has killed over 40 million people worldwide since it began. 

World AIDS Day has been observed since 1988. It’s a particularly important day in San Francisco, an early epicenter of the illness that devastated the city’s LGBTQ+ population in the ’80s and ’90s—and continues to affect residents today. In both the Castro and Golden Gate Park, San Franciscans attended community gatherings in honor of the day. 

“It’s about remembering our friends—the people that were here, the people that we loved and played with and lived with that are no longer here to celebrate with us,” Kelly said.

A person in a black hat reads the names of people on the sidewalk written in chalk during World AIDS Day.
A Castro Street passerby stops to read names written in chalk on the sidewalk during the “Inscribe” remembrance event in honor of World AIDS Day in San Francisco on Friday. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard
Rose ontop of names that are etched in marble who have passed because of AIDS.
Flowers are placed near the engraved names of AIDS victims in the Circle of Friends at the National AIDS Memorial Grove on Friday. | Source: Justin Sullivan/Getting Images

Following a poignant event in Golden Gate Park’s National AIDS Memorial Grove on Thursday night, the National AIDS Memorial hosted two educational conversations Friday looking at the intersectional issues facing people currently living with HIV/AIDS. Both conversations emphasized the importance of continued conversation about and de-stigmatization of the illness. 

People sitting and watching Danza Azteca perform during World AIDS Day.
A Danza Azteca performance starts the World AIDS Day event program in Golden Gate Park’s National AIDS Memorial Grove on Friday. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard

The Origins of a Solemn Tradition

Nine years ago, Kelly was volunteering at the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, a primary school in the Castro, when he learned of a teacher who had passed away from AIDS complications a few years prior. He saw the story as an opportunity to share his own and to educate young students about how the disease has impacted loved ones in their community. 

From there, “Inscribe” was born, an annual World AIDS Day event that Kelly hosts along Castro Street between Market and 18th in which people are encouraged to grab some chalk and write the name of someone they want to remember who has passed away from HIV/AIDS complications. Over the course of the 12-hour event, the street filled with hundreds of names, each representing a loved one gone too soon.

A person in a blue baseball cap writes a person name in pink and purple chalk during World Aids Day.
Michael “Doug” Bradish writes a name on the sidewalk at the corner of Castro and 18th streets on Friday. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard
A box full of different color chalk that has been used to write peoples names down on the side walk during World AIDS Day.
Boxes of different colors of chalk sit on a table at the corner of Castro and 18th streets on Friday. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard
A bus stop where people on gettting on and off while the sidewalk is covered by peoples names with chalk that have died because of AIDS.
Castro passersby get off and on a bus during the “Inscribe” remembrance event in honor of World AIDS Day on Friday. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard
A purple plastic cup with chalk with a person shadow over someones name.
A message is written in chalk on the sidewalk at the corner of Castro and 18th streets during the “Inscribe” remembrance event in honor of World AIDS Day on Friday. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard

Though modern medicine has made strides in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, there is still no known cure, and the WHO says that hundreds of thousands of people still die annually from AIDS-related illnesses. So as research continues, World AIDS Day is a way for San Franciscans to come together with the global community and keep advocating for a better future.

Morgan Ellis can be reached at morgan@sfstandard.com