Nancy Pelosi: “I rise to join the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), my colleague, in observing the 20-year anniversary of the…”

“I rise to join the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), my colleague, in observing the 20-year anniversary of the discovery of the HIV virus. This was a terrible time. In our community in San Francisco, at the University of California San Francisco, we were hearing rumors 20 years ago about illnesses that had not been seen since the Middle Ages, or read about or heard about; that immune systems were so devastated that people were susceptible to afflictions that were grotesque. It was frightening. We knew we had to do something about it. It never dawned on us then that 20 years later, projecting into the future 20 years, that we would be here still talking about funding for research, prevention, and care. A lot has been accomplished in the past 20 years, but a lot needs to be done. I want to associate myself with the comments that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) made about work of the caucuses in the Congress, in the House, the Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus and the work that they have done to recognize the changing face of AIDS. In the beginning, it started as a gay men's disease; now we know it permeates our society, and it is taking a very big bite out of the minority community. Just last week we were all saddened by the news that new HIV infections among young gay men, particularly among young, gay African American gay men, had risen dramatically.”