Olive Street Park, located in Bankers Hill at 2772 Third Ave., opened on World AIDS Day, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. The .6-acre park features a first-of-its-kind memorial in the City honoring and remembering San Diegans who have lost their lives to AIDS. 

This $2.3 million project has transformed an empty lot into a community space that includes the AIDS memorial, a new playground for children of all ages, fitness equipment, an open lawn area, and ADA-compliant pathways to facilitate access for all users. There is also an overlook deck to enjoy the open space of Maple Canyon below. 

City staff coordinated the AIDS memorial component of this project under the vision of the San Diego AIDS Memorial Task Force. Memorial boulders and interpretive panels have been placed throughout the park, containing the history of the AIDS crisis in San Diego and honoring the many people and organizations who have served those living with AIDS. 

The idea of building an AIDS memorial in San Diego has been around since at least the late 1980s, and the creation of this memorial is the culmination of nearly 30 years of work and community activism. 

The History of AIDS in San Diego County

The HIV/AIDS epidemic found its way to San Diego in 1981 when two San Diegans were diagnosed with AIDS. Within five years, more than 700 residents had been diagnosed, and nearly 400 had died. 

As of 2023, the disease claimed the lives of more than 10,000 residents, including many children. The numbers are underestimated because AIDS was often not included on a death certificate due to stigma.

During the AIDS epidemic, especially in the 1980s, the LGBTQ community was further stigmatized as it became the focus and target of mass hysteria, many extreme acts of hate crimes, and calls for people with AIDS to be tattooed and even sent to isolated islands. San Diego was no different, with even local doctors and religious leaders refusing to have anything to do with people with AIDS.

Because of San Diego’s conservative political climate at the time, state and county financial aid was slow in coming. That meant that its LGBTQ community had to carry much of the burden, with a large portion of financial support coming from its gay bars, restaurants, bathhouse/spa owners, and the gay business community.

The community stepped up, creating dozens of nonprofit organizations that provided food, housing, counseling, wheelchairs and canes, cleaning and legal services, and even a “fluff and fold,” a free laundry service for people with AIDS.

Another way in which San Diego fell short was in its failure to appreciate the benefits of a needle exchange program, which took decades to receive approval. Advocates risked arrest to help IV drug users through these clandestine harm-reduction efforts. 

Mortuaries also held back, refusing to provide burial or cremation services for people who died of AIDS. At one point in the early 1990s, San Diego County was counting more newly diagnosed people with AIDS each month than San Francisco, where educational efforts had been more aggressive and effective. 

In the early years of the epidemic, many San Diegans refused to donate blood, thinking incorrectly that they could become infected at their blood bank, which was located in the heart of the gay community. That created a blood shortage, but groups of lesbian women, “blood sisters,” tried to fill the gap. It also prompted the creation of a second blood bank in North County.

Lesbian women showed up as volunteers in almost every aspect of AIDS care, from providing legal services to serving on boards and committees. The LGBTQ community will always be grateful for the many heterosexual allies and friends that stood with them during the early, dark years of AIDS.

The San Diego AIDS Memorial, located at Olive Street Park, is dedicated to the thousands of San Diegans we lost, to those who were on the front lines of medical care and activism, and to those who simply reached out to people living and dying of AIDS with acts of kindness and love.

Historia del VIH/SIDA en el condado de San Diego

La epidemia del VIH/SIDA llegó a San Diego en 1981 cuando se diagnosticó el SIDA en dos residentes de la ciudad. En un plazo de cinco años, más de 700 personas habían sido diagnosticadas y casi 400 habían fallecido.

En 2023, la enfermedad había cobrado la vida de más de 10.000 residentes. Las cifras están subestimadas porque frecuentemente el SIDA no se incluía en el certificado de defunción debido al estigma.

Durante la epidemia del SIDA, especialmente en la década de 1980, la comunidad LGBTQ+ se vio aún más estigmatizada, ya queue se convirtió en el enfoque y objetivo de la histeria colectiva, los crímenes de odio y los llamados para tatuajes y envío a islas aisladas para personas con SIDA.

San Diego no fue diferente, y hasta los médicos y líderes religiosos locales se negaban a tener algo que ver con los endermos de SIDA.

El doctor Hal Frank fundó la primera organización comunitaria de educación sobre el SIDA, el Proyecto SIDA de San Diego. Nicole Murray Ramírez fundó la primera organización de servicios directos para personas con SIDA, el Fondo de Asistencia contra el SIDA de San Diego. Susan Jester fundó la Marcha contra el SIDA de San Diego. Laurie Leonard y su madre fundaron Mama's Kitchen.

San Diego fue afectada por el SIDA de otra forma única: su proximidad a la frontera. Las autoridades sanitarias mexicanas negaban que la enfermedad estuviera afectando a la población de Baja California. Así que los recursos de San Diego y las organizaciones de lucha contra el SIDA se extendieron hasta Tijuana para ayudar a educar, realizar pruebas y tratar a los afectados.

Este espacio conmemorativo está dedicado a los miles de residentes de San Diego que perdimos, a aquellos que estuvieron en primera línea de la atención médica y el activismo, y a aquellos que simplemente tendieron la mano a las personas que vivían y morían de SIDA, y por sus actos de bondad y amor.