National Zero HIV Stigma Day 2025 is using art and advocacy to challenge HIV stigma and inspire community action. Timothy Hampton, a playwright and the Director of Cultural Programs at the San Francisco LGBT Center, is leading a performance that blends research, resilience, and entertainment to honor this day. The event aims to highlight the science of “U=U” (undetectable equals untransmittable) while advocating for zero stigma, zero racism, and zero health barriers for people living with HIV.
Dr. Demesha Burns, who serves as the Policy and Advocacy Manager at Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Diseases (WORLD), follows TerMeer by playing the role of Mother Earth. Hampton wrote the part to explore the question: “How does the earth respond when her children are sick?”
Other performers include Vincent Crisostomo, a longtime advocate for people living with HIV/ AIDS, as “The Advocate,” and UCSF’s Dr. Patricia Defechereux in the role of “Cure to ZERO.”
While most scenes will be monologues, Defechereux’s involves a choreographed dance. With a three-piece band and six background singers on hand, other performers sing — including Hampton, in the role of a “Creative Long-Term Survivor.”
Like others in the cast, it’s not just a role. It’s Hampton’s life.
“I’m treatment as a prevention,” says Hampton, referring to his status as a person living with HIV. He explains that anyone living with HIV, who has suppressed their viral load to an undetectable state for at least six months and also takes antiviral therapy medication as prescribed, will not transmit HIV to sexual partners. It’s what’s commonly known as “U=U,” shorthand for “undetectable equals untransmittable.”
“I really want to highlight all of those different beautiful scientific biomedical advancements that we have created,” Hampton says, adding that his ultimate goal is to create empathy so that people, especially African American people, “can see one another… whether the HIV possible or HIV positive.”
He tells me that National Zero HIV Stigma Day, landing on Monday, July 21, encompasses more than just how people living with HIV are perceived. “Zero Stigma,” Hampton says, “can also mean zero racism, zero transphobia, zero health barriers.” (He adds: “And all of those things are possible if we try,” ad-libbing his own words in the melody of Sly Stone’s “You Can Make It If You Try.”)
As for Friday’s event? Hampton advises people to arrive early, and expect to see a performance that intertwines art with advocacy, research with resiliency, and education with entertainment.
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