Levi’s head, leather group honored on World AIDS Day

During Tuesday’s ceremony, the World AIDS Day National Leadership Recognition Award was given to Haas, Levi’s former chief executive and now chairman emeritus, and the leather community received the Thom Weyand Unsung Hero Award, named after a former executive director of the Grove.

The day of remembrance was started in 1988 by the World Health Organization to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.

The Grove has partnered with the HIV Story Project to capture “surviving voices,” a virtual quilt of stories that will be told throughout 2016 in videos by those touched by the epidemic.

Haas received the honor for his commitment in the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic to helping to reduce stigma in the workplace and support employees and their families.

[...] he described the leadership demonstrated by many, including physicians, activists and political leaders, as being willing to fight against ignorance.

The leather community received its honor for being willing to be on the front lines of the crisis by establishing charitable groups that helped people suffering from AIDS and HIV with the basics such as food, rent and utilities.

[...] considered “sexual outsiders,” group members described themselves as well positioned to take on that role.