SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — It may just be the quietest spot in San Francisco.
Aside from the ever-present chirping of Golden Gate Park’s many birds and the wind rushing through the towering redwoods above, one of the few sounds you may encounter at the National AIDS Memorial Grove is the sound of head groundskeeper Travis Mathews, tending to the very intentionally landscaped corner of the park.
“You move in and out of spaces of darkness and light, you go into the redwoods and it’s a darker space and then you come out into this meadow into the light,” said Mathews.
The National Aids Memorial is a place of meaning to so many, but especially to those in the LGBT community who gather here for remembrance and healing.
“I had a partner who died from AIDS in 1993 before the life-saving medications came along,” said Steve Sagaser, senior manager of the National AIDS Memorial. “This job was perfect for me because through my work I’m able to help honor all of those lives that were lost to AIDS and all the lives impacted by AIDS.”
It may be an incredibly beautiful sanctuary, but the story begins during one of the LGBT community’s most painful chapters, the AIDS pandemic, which took the lives of thousands in San Francisco alone. For a community that was oftentimes ostracized, AIDS only added to the stigma that so many faced.
“At that time … the gay community and people with HIV and AIDS were being ignored and hated and demonized,” said Sagaser.
The memorial has truly been a beacon of love to the LGBT community, but its impact has been expanding more and more. Just up the hill from the National AIDS Memorial, with a view as far as Sutro Tower, construction is about to start on a brand-new beacon of love, explained Daniel Montes with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.
“This is the circle of friends, what many people consider to be the center of the National AIDS Memorial Grove,” said Montes, a spokesperson for SF Rec and Parks. “In here are the names of some people who passed away from AIDS, but also those who donated to set this place aside. The circle also serves as the inspiration for one of the park’s newest memorials.”
“This memorial is going to be the first permanent memorial in the US for breast cancer,” Montes added.
“Rec and Park is partnering with Bay Area Young Survivors which is a group that helps and provides support for people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Montes.
The Bay Area Young Survivors Breast Cancer Memorial Garden will feature a similar circular gathering space.
“So people can look down at the words and then up at the view in this section, correct and there’s also going to be a metal plaque for people to look at,” Montes said.
Ground for the new memorial is being broken this fall and will transform the hillside much as the AIDS Memorial Grove did a quiet grove of redwoods.
“What’s really exciting is that this is the first memorial to come to Golden Gate Park since the AIDS Memorial Grove which was ’96, so that’s over two decades,” said Montes.
KRON4’s Pride Special will air at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 26.
