Honoring Legacy Through Action at AIDS Walk New York 2026

More than 10,000 people gather around the Naumburg Bandshell, coffee cups warming their hands and camaraderie lifting their spirits, united by a promise to care for one another and continue the pursuit of a cure.

For more than four decades, God’s Love We Deliver has stood among this congregation beneath the Bandshell’s shadow, through blistering sun and cool late-spring breezes alike, joining in the collective commitment to progress. Each year, it is both an honor and a joy to walk the more than six miles through Manhattan’s iconic park alongside friends, community partners, and banners carried proudly through moments of both reformist triumph and profound hardship.

As groups gather along the Literary Walk, joyful shouts ring out between friends reunited after years apart and volunteers sharing pastries and breakfast treats. God’s Love volunteers and supporters assemble beneath our sign, alphabetically positioned along the crowded pathway. Helen arrives with a tote bag stocked with enough snacks and wet wipes to sustain an army. Nick, usually a marathon runner, slows his pace for the day. Janet, a beacon of joy with an unforgettable nickname, joins the nearly 35 supporters gathered together beneath the God’s Love banner.

Gratitude radiates from the ground here. The scent of fresh pastries mingles with blooming spring flowers, while the voices of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus lift spirits and energize the crowd. We gather to honor the icons of our queer lineage and continue a conversation first begun by Ganga Stone, Jane Best, and their partners in 1985 — a conversation rooted in dignity, compassion, and action.

As a team, God’s Love We Deliver raised nearly $8,000 for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), God’s Love We Deliver, and dozens of other HIV/AIDS service organizations working to ensure people living with HIV/AIDS are connected to care and treatment. Their advocacy, outreach, and education have shaped lives in both monumental and deeply personal ways — from advancing safer sex education to helping establish federal funding pathways for research and care. Their mission remains deeply intertwined with our own.

A heartfelt thank you echoes from their communities, through the voice of God’s Love, and to every person who donated, participated, volunteered, and amplified the message of honoring not only the trailblazers who came before us, but also those continuing the work nearly five decades later on this seemingly ordinary Sunday morning in May.

It’s a fire that cannot be extinguished, a purpose that I saw behind the smiles, embraces, and stories shared throughout the morning and that I witness every day in privilege working with all of you.