For First Time Since 1988, U.S. Did Not Commemorate World AIDS Day

A Commentary From New Journal and Guide
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Every year since 1988, December 1 has been an international  day of quiet remembrance, awareness  and resolve surrounding HIV/AIDS. World AIDS Day was established by the World Health Organization in 1988, and the U.S. government, through presidents and public-health agencies, each year have acknowledged the day – a moment to honor lives lost to HIV/AIDS, reflect on the ongoing epidemic, and reaffirm commitment to global and domestic AIDS-relief efforts. This year’s theme was “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response.”

But on the morning of December 1, 2025, the annual U.S. government-sanctioned commemoration was missing from the federal government’s calendar. Staff at the U.S. State Department, which oversees the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) among other initiatives, received a terse directive: do not publicly commemorate World AIDS Day this year – and do not spend U.S. government funds on events or messaging around the day.

The email instructed that employees and grantees must “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day … through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging.” Personnel reportedly could still quietly attend external, community-led events.

They could still discuss ongoing HIV and AIDS programs  –  but only in the context of public health work, not as part of a formal commemoration.

To many longtime advocates of the fight against HIV/AIDS, that decision must feel  less like a bureaucratic change and more like a turning of a page. Once seen as a solemn tradition  –  a public reaffirmation of support for those lost and those still living with HIV  –  World AIDS Day had become part of the U.S. government’s moral and strategic commitment to global health. For decades, it helped frame not only remembrance, but also concrete health-policy announcements.

Now, under the leadership of Donald J. Trump, that public ritual was cancelled. A State Department spokesperson defended the shift bluntly: “An awareness day is not a strategy.” The focus, they argued, would instead be on direct engagement  –  working “with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden-sharing.”

But for many living with HIV, for survivors, for public-health workers  –  and for countless communities worldwide  –  the absence of a day of recognition is more than symbolic. It feels like a loss. A silence. A refusal  –  by the world’s most powerful government  –  to say, on record, that AIDS remains a crisis worth remembering.

And so this December 1, while countries around the world continued the tradition, marking the day with proclamations, public health campaigns and commemorative ceremonies, the empty corridors of U.S. federal buildings  –  absent the red ribbons, the memorials, the speeches  –  stood as a quiet testament: sometimes what is omitted says as much as what is declared.

For those who care to remember and reflect on the ongoing AIDS/HIV epidemic around the world, including in America, we say what our government didn’t say this year:

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We remember. We honor. We continue the fight.