40 Years Since
In a Jacksonville High School in late October of 2019, Gaby Diaz watched Larry Kramer’s “How to Survive a Plague” and it radically opened her eyes. This moment led her to organize the 40 Years Since event in February, which united artists to raise money for AIDS.
Diaz became passionate about activism during her freshman year following the Parkland shooting. Her own school had a shooting a few years before so this struck a personal chord. “I just felt this really powerful connection and something in me just really kind of ignited this fire,” she said. Diaz organized a pen pal exchange with the Parkland students, in which there was 17 minutes of silence while students composed their letters.
Diaz says that she wasn’t very educated on LGBTQ history prior to watching Larry Kramer’s “How to Survive a Plague”. However, the experience had a profound impact on her and “gave [her] goosebumps”. It opened her eyes and she began noticing discrimination all around her. “I saw things in a new light. I realized that a lot of people are extremely ignorant to these sensitive subjects. I would walk my school hallways and at least, you know, three out of the five days of school that I'd hear someone mention the LGBTQ community or AIDS as the subject of a pejorative joke. And it just made me realize, there's this generational ignorance where Generation Z doesn't really realize the gravity and the sensitivity that was really propelled by this entire movement of people who are suffering from ostracization from both society and the medical field,” she said.
“As an ally, learning about AIDS was so heartbreaking,” Diaz said, “I just couldn't really fathom someone standing there watching people brutally die, all because of who they love. AIDS impacted everyone, whether you contracted it or not, you knew someone who had it.”
So out of this “explosion of passion”, Diaz organized 40 Years Since, a fundraiser for AIDS. It was not only a moment to honor the past but also “celebrating the future that is within 10 years of a vaccine and also all the societal progress that we have made, even though it's not perfect”. Diaz is passionate about the arts and knew that she wanted to incorporate them into her event. “I think art are just so unique and such a personal way to express your own narrative,” she said. 40 Years Since featured artists of every medium performing and selling their work as well as AIDS activists sharing their story. Over 300 people attended. All of the ticket revue and raffle item revue went to the Elton John's AIDS Awareness Foundation and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Diaz said that the event itself was an “indescribable moment”.
So what now? Diaz is planning to continue to uplift artistic voices, particularly those in connection to the AIDS crisis. She plans to create a podcast to help them get their work out there during the current pandemic as well as to organize another event in December for World AIDS Awareness Month.