Bridgehampton Students Observe World AIDS Day, View Quilts From National AIDS Memorial

BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY — Bridgehampton students learned about the devastating impacts of AIDS during a field trip Monday.

Ten Bridgehampton high school students went to LTV on December 1, World AIDS Day, to view 40 quilts from the National AIDS Memorial on display during the annual Hamptons Pride observance, teacher Tom House, who is also president and founder of the organization, said.

The students toured the studio and watched and discussed the Oscar-winning 1993 film "Philadelphia." House reflected: "The students conducted themselves throughout the day with such admirable respect, open-mindedness, and empathy; we could not have been more proud."

Co-teacher Allison Shafer and a representative from the Edie Windsor Healthcare Center also participated and helped facilitate the after-film discussion.

"700,000 people in the US have died of AIDS. That number soars to over 40 million worldwide. There are close to 40 million more living with HIV, including children and teenagers. This one day a year, December 1, is so very important to observe," House said.

He added: "Many of my generation complain that young people are not aware of the AIDS pandemic — its history and its continued impact. That can no longer be said of 10 of our students."

Hamptons Pride, in promotional partnership with LTV Studios, continued its popular film series this year with "Philadelphia," directed by Jonathan Demme. The Oscar-winning film features performances by Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas, Mary Steenburgen, and Joanne Woodward.

"Philadelphia" was presented in tandem with Hamptons Pride’s second annual World AIDS Day observance, with the quilts on display.

On World AIDS Day, students from area high schools were invited in the morning and early afternoon to a guided viewing and discussion of the history of the quilts and of the AIDS crisis.

"Lovingly made by friends and family, the quilts are intimate stories told in textiles, honoring individuals who died from AIDS," organizers said.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is the largest community arts project in history, benefiting from thousands of hours of volunteer service, and they are viewed around the world at events. Each individual quilt measures 3 feet by 6 feet, part of a larger tapestry weighing 54 tons and representing more than 110,000 individuals — still just a fraction of those who have died of AIDS nationally and globally.

The National AIDS Memorial, since the project began in 1985, has collected nearly 50,000 quilts, House said; donated quilts are sewn together into blocks, each 12 x 12-foot block consisting of eight quilts.

While the AIDS crisis devastated families and communities in the 1980s, HIV is still a very real issue in the United States, experts say: According to HIV.gov, approximately 1.2 million people in the United States have HIV. About 13 percent of them don’t know it and need testing. HIV continues to have a disproportionate impact on certain populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities and gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, HIV.gov said.

In 2022, an estimated 31,800 people acquired HIV in the U.S. Estimated new HIV infections decreased 12 percent from 36,300 in 2018 to 31,800 in 2022. In 2022, 37,981 people ages 13 and older received an HIV diagnosis in the U.S. and six territories and freely associated states, HIV.gov said.

And, the organization added, "HIV diagnoses are not evenly distributed across states and regions. The highest rates of new diagnoses continue to occur in the South."

House discussed why raising awareness remains critical.

"I, like everyone who came of age in the 80s and 90s, lived under the specter of HIV — for a long time, a diagnosis was an almost certain death sentence — and I knew many people who perished from HIV/AIDS. For me, it was friends, men and women, and many co-workers or people who frequented the Swamp when I tended bar there through the 90s. There were people who were hit much harder — especially those 10 or 20 years ahead of me who lost a staggering number of partners and friends and colleagues. In total, it became for many a lost generation."

It's important, House said, for people to realize that as a society, AIDS and HIV are still very real.

"The United States has lost over 700,000 people to HIV/AIDS. And the epidemic isn't over — certainly not in a global sense," he said, adding that according to the World Health Organization, globally, 39.9 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2023.

Hamptons Pride is a not-for-profit that celebrates and commemorates the LGBTQ+ people and their allies on the East End of Long Island.

"The organization's founding goal is the creation of an historical marker and outdoor social area on the footprint of The Swamp — the last and longest-running gay club in the Hamptons— in what is now Wainscott Green," House said.