PRIDE!Kent members remembered something many others forgot about yesterday.

It was World AIDS Day.

Last night, PRIDE!Kent members discussed HIV/AIDS awareness, or rather, the lack thereof.

“I talked about HIV/AIDS at work today,” Jae Lerer, PRIDE!Kent community affairs and financial liaison said. “Somebody actually thought they had a cure for it.”

Quoting an AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland press release, PRIDE!Kent president Christopher Taylor said 42 to 59 percent of people with HIV/AIDS in the United States do not receive regular HIV care. This year there have been five million new cases of HIV infection around the world. There were also more than three million deaths.

To combat the lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, Taylor said PRIDE!Kent and other student organizations will co-sponsor programs for HIV/AIDS Awareness Week April 9-15. He said co-sponsors will help people realize HIV/AIDS is not just a homosexual issue.

“It does not discriminate,” Taylor said. “People still can’t grasp that fact.”

He said during Awareness Week they will create a memorial with the names of 120,000 HIV/AIDS victims notecards on popsicle sticks and display it in the Centennial Courts.

– Bryan Wroten