This week marks the end of our special 13-month Windy City Times AIDS @ 30 series. It started the first week of April 2011. Initially it was expected to be nine months, then we kept expanding it with articles submitted by a range of Windy City Times reporters. While we will of course continue to cover AIDS issues in Windy City Times, as we have since our founding in 1985, this special section will come to an end this week.
The series has been nominated for a national Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Award, alongside The New York Times and the Boston Globe, which eventually received the award. It is also nominated for a Peter Lisagor Award, which will be awarded this week by the Chicago Headline Club.
[ UPDATE May 4, 2011: "AIDS @ 30" series honored with Lisagor Award. Read more at www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/AIDS-30-series-honored-with-Lisagor-Award/37725.html ]
We will be collecting the best of the more timeless pieces for a book out later this year. The past articles are also online at www.windycitymediagroup.com/aids.php .
The purpose of this series was to look back at three decades of the impact of HIV and AIDS in Chicago and worldwide. Another purpose was to look at the more personal devastation of this disease, as well as the hope and support that thousands of people have felt in the city. The real heroes of the AIDS movement are the volunteers, healthcare providers, friends and family who stand by people living with HIV/AIDS, who protest for funding and medical treatments, and who continue to march and run and fight for a cure.
AIDS is not over, but the goal of an "AIDS-Free Generation" is admirable and attainable. It will take both personal and community responsibility to get there. That means a personal choice to be safe when having sex or sharing needles, and a community responsibility to fight for a cure and to stand by those who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
We at Windy City Times have been honored to share the stories of so many people part of the AIDS movement locally and nationally. We are thankful to those who allowed us to share their storiesand to those who are no longer with usfor their fight for justice and equal treatment.
Tracy Baim, Publisher