GMHC’s Top Pride Moments: A Historical Retrospective
June 24, 2026
As we mark our 45th anniversary and gear up for Pride celebrations, we’re looking back at some of GMHC’s most memorable moments across the decades.
As we mark our 45th anniversary and gear up for Pride celebrations, we’re looking back at some of GMHC’s most memorable moments across the decades.
“A lot of what I do is storytelling so that people better understand our work and the HIV and AIDS epidemic,” says Krishna Stone, GMHC’s Community Relations Director. “Sometimes these moments happen serendipitously and sometimes it’s me out doing the work. I love to network!”
With Chef Tiffany Williams in the kitchen, GMHC’s lunch attendance has doubled over the past year – a testament to how much clients love her food.
When GMHC’s senior management team saw that the government shutdown would cut off SNAP benefits to over 1,000 clients on Nov. 1, the agency quickly responded to keep them fed.
For Meals and Wellness Program Coordinator Nick Byrne, the Monday through Thursday lunch service in GMHC’s dining rooms is a place of community for both clients and volunteers – and a nucleus for connection to additional services.
Long-term HIV survivors dealing with health issues and the loss of loved ones can often feel lonely and isolated. That is why Durell Knights facilitates the Barbershop for GMHC’s male and transmasculine clients over 50 living with HIV – one of the agency’s oldest and most popular support groups.
Enrollment has more than tripled since GMHC began offering person-centered substance use services last year to New Yorkers wanting help with substance use, thanks to a five-year grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and three-year funding from Elevance Health.
For Bobby Matoney, changing careers from musical theater to therapist felt like a natural progression, since both are spaces that foster visibility and belonging.
GMHC’s 36th annual Latex Ball generated incandescent energy on June 21, attracting a capacity crowd of about 2,500 ball goers to Terminal 5 in Manhattan for one of the New York Ballroom scene’s most anticipated Pride Month events. It’s both a celebration of the House and Ball community and, just as essentially, a sexual health fair focused on HIV prevention.
When HIV activist and author Victoria Noe couldn’t find a single book that told the stories of straight women fighting the AIDS epidemic, she decided to write it herself. That led her to GMHC Community Relations Director Krishna Stone, who started working for the agency in the epidemic’s early days, when gay white men were leading the charge.
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