ABOUT AIDS WALK NY

AIDS Walk New York is the world’s largest and most visible HIV/AIDS fundraising event.

40th Annual AIDS Walk New York: We Won’t Stop!

Join us on Sunday, May 18, 2025 for the 40th Annual AIDS Walk New York. Rain or shine, thousands of people will gather in Central Park, united by the common cause of sustaining GMHC’s lifesaving services for New Yorkers living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

In 2024, our community came together to raise almost $1.9 million for GMHC. We’re aiming to top that this year, as we mark the 40th Annual AIDS Walk New York. We walk for the 132,000 people in New York City living with HIV. We walk for the over 1,600 New Yorkers diagnosed with HIV each year. The HIV and AIDS epidemic is not over – and we won’t stop walking until it is.

AIDS Walk New York is an expression of our forward-moving action, as we stride together toward a future where everyone has access to HIV testing, treatment, and care services. It’s a demonstration of solidarity against HIV and AIDS stigma. It’s a gathering in remembrance of those we’ve lost – and it’s an affirmation of our ongoing care for each other through good times and bad, no matter the weather.

It’s also fun! In the past, we’ve had Broadway stars, fabulous drag queens, and more! AIDS Walk New York is a day to rejoice in our community as we rally to change the world.

We Won’t Stop

As we look forward to our 40th walk, we celebrate how far we’ve come and recognize the work ahead. In the face of public stigma and government silence about the devastating disease, Craig R. Miller started AIDS Walk New York in 1986 to raise money for GMHC to help people who were dying of AIDS-related complications – and to lobby the government for research and treatment. Miller realized that it was up to our community to take action on our own behalf – just as GMHC’s six founders did when they launched Gay Men’s Health Crisis in 1982.

Born out of the anguish of gay men in neighborhoods from Greenwich Village to Harlem, New York’s diverse communities of art, culture, and commerce that were ravaged by the early HIV and AIDS epidemic joined together to make change. In the years since, AIDS Walk New York has been steeled by activists who knew that ending HIV and AIDS would require more than fighting the virus. It would also require confronting the social ills that fuel it including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and poverty.

That first year, over 4,500 walkers joined us to raise $710,000 for GMHC. Since then, AIDS Walk New York has raised $170 million for dozens of HIV and AIDS service organizations in the tri-state area – and its main beneficiary is still GMHC.

Hundreds of AIDS Walks have formed worldwide since then, creating a powerful movement that has increased awareness and decreased stigma around HIV and AIDS – but there’s only one in Central Park.

The Road Ahead

When the Walk started, there was no medication to manage and prevent HIV and AIDS – and no cure. We also faced AIDS denialism about the reality of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. While there is still no cure for HIV, we now have effective medications, so people can live long, healthy lives.

But the nature of the HIV and AIDS epidemic has changed. It’s under-resourced communities who are most affected now, because they face barriers to accessing lifesaving HIV testing and medications, as well as housing, health care and other services that GMHC delivers. What’s more, HIV and AIDS disproportionately affect people of color: Almost 77% of New Yorkers living with HIV are Black or Latinx.

And in a fraught political climate, we’re facing new threats – both to HIV and AIDS funding and to the well-being of people living with HIV and AIDS.

We’ve been here before – and we won’t stop.

We walk to remember those we’ve lost.
We walk to help those living with HIV and AIDS to thrive.
We walk to meet new needs for the growing number of long-term survivors.
We walk in solidarity with everyone affected by the epidemic.
We walk to fight stigma and AIDS denialism.
We walk to resist new political challenges.
We walk to celebrate all who keep up the fight.