Birmingham World AIDS Day tributes vandalised after candlelit vigil

Following a vigil held at Birmingham’s AIDS & HIV Memorial (Ribbons) on World AIDS Day, lanterns, candles, wreathes and flowers left as tributes were vandalised. The World AIDS Day remembrance ceremony was held on December 1 at Hippodrome Square where the city’s memorial – which was unveiled exactly a year ago – is located. The candlelit vigil featured speeches, music and a minute’s silence, and those joining were encouraged to leave their own wreathes and flowers on the memorial if they wished to.

When artist Garry Jones returned to the memorial the morning after, however, he found that the lanterns had been smashed and the flowers ripped and vandalised. In a post, Garry Jones said: “The stigma, prejudice and hate [is] still there with the disrespect shown to the lanterns and flowers left on the Ribbons Birmingham AIDS & HIV Memorial… This behaviour is not acceptable… We will never forget and we will prevail. Love over Hate!”

This is not the first time that wreathes and flowers lain on the AIDS & HIV Memorial in Birmingham have been vandalised or stolen. On several occasions over the past year, similar behaviour has occurred, leaving those living with HIV in Birmingham acutely aware of the ongoing stigma. Activists like Garry Jones, however, continue using their voices to breakdown that prejudice.

Speaking previously to Scene magazine about being one of the faces of this year’s National AIDS Trust Rock the Ribbon campaign, Garry Jones explained: “Up until designing The Ribbons, Birmingham’s AIDS & HIV Memorial, I’d always been very secretive about being HIV positive which, looking back, only added to the stigma, prejudice, self-loathing and blame. I’ve come to realise that HIV is only a virus that anyone can get, so why should I feel ashamed?”