I was 13 years old when the AIDS epidemic exploded. For me, it meant coming out in the shadow of fear, grief, silence, and uncertainty at a time when the world seemed determined to look away from so much suffering. I watched as the lives of people around me were forever changed, as friends, loved ones, and members of our community became ill, as loss arrived far too soon, and as the devastating weight of stigma and discrimination compounded the pain of an already unimaginable epidemic.

My Team is running in honor of The Pink Angels Anti-Violence Project, better known as the Pink Angels. The Angels were an all-volunteer group in Chicago whose mission was to prevent and report anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes which were out of control in the early nineties. I would see them frequently on the CTA Blue Line northbound in Chicago on my way home from Boystown. The team came together as a response to increased LGBTQ+ and homophobic hate crimes in the city and the inaction of police and other authorities to address the issues. The Pink Angels taught self-defense tactics to their volunteers, as well as training them how to identify and report hate crimes. I would see them on the busses and trains, outside bars and restaurants. They were unarmed volunteers, and guardians of the streets on weekends, wearing black berets, where they intervened in a variety of violent situations - regardless of sexual orientation, navigating sexual assaults and race-related hate crimes. The Angel's "predawn pink patrol" worked from midnight to 5 am. They had both LGBTQ+ and straight members, who came from a variety backgrounds. They were truly the guardians of the streets, and I always felt a little safer when they were around. We celebrate them.