40th Anniversary From All Walks of Life
Our Strides For Action Fundraising Page
Special Thanks To
Our Strides For Action Fundraising Page
This year is the 40th anniversary, to the very day, of the first AIDS Walk – From All Walks of Life.
Forty years ago, AIDS was on the front page of The Boston Globe nearly every day. People were hysterical, families were torn apart, healthy gay men were dying quickly and mysteriously with no effective treatment in sight. Larry Kessler said “We must take action and do something big and bold.” Enter Liz Page and dedicated volunteer, Richard Giglio. In a little over 4 months, we produced the first Walk and to our tearful delight, 5,000 people poured on to Boston Common the morning of May 31, 1986 and made history.
Now, forty years later, AIDS is still a dark menace. Although education and medical breakthroughs have unlocked many mysteries of the disease, HIV diagnoses in Massachusetts jumped 34% from 2022 to 2024. We need to remain vigilant.
Now our enemy is a horrific political climate that wants to erase our LGBTQ+ community, isolate our trans youth and cut off critical funding that made so many of our advances possible.
Our fight for life continues on a different stage with different words and different players.
Will you please join us in supporting Strides for Action on Sunday, May 31, 2026? The Walk has matured from a cry for help into a statement of strength and visibility for our community.
Richard and I are asking for your financial support and to join us that morning to walk hand-in-hand and support Fenway Health, the medical home for each of us as we find our true selves, raise our families, protect our health and age with dignity.
Thank you so much.
xo
About Strides For Action
Fenway Health seeks to optimize the health and well-being for LGBTQIA+ communities and those living with and affected by HIV. Through cutting edge research, education and training, and an aggressive policy agenda, our vision is a world in which health equity is achieved for these communities and the HIV epidemic is history.
Strides for Action traces its roots back to 1986 when it began as From All Walks of Life —one of the first AIDS walks in the country and the first fundraising walk for AIDS Action. It later evolved into AIDS Walk Boston, bringing together tens of thousands of participants and raising millions to support HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and advocacy. Today, Strides for Action is the natural evolution of that legacy, expanding its mission to address broader health and social justice inequities for LGBTQIA+ and other minoritized communities, while remaining committed to ending new HIV/AIDS infections, deaths, and stigma. Since its inception, this movement has raised over $40 million—thank you for being part of this history and a future where health equity is a reality for all!
