Whoopi Goldberg Speaks Candidly About HIV

The 2017 Global Citizen Festival brought in over 60,000 people to New York City’s Central Park. During the event, there were 29 commitments, 55 announcements and 13 calls to action, totaling $3.2 billion, which are set to affect the lives of 221 million people.

World and business leaders, non-profit organizations, and socially conscious artists united to further the world’s progress toward achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and ending extreme poverty by 2030. One of the artists that took the stage was Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award winner Whoopi Goldberg. 

"I wish you could see what I see because when I look out at all of this I think you can change the world," Goldberg said. "When I was younger a terrible epidemic hit us," she said. "It marked a generation of people, and people have fought hard and long to find a cure." 

Goldberg has been an HIV activist since the early days of the AIDS crisis, and works continuously with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. She went on to say that HIV-positive people need to find support from people who "will stand with them and say 'I love you, no matter what.'" 

In 2003, Goldberg became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS, and in 2016 she was honored with an Elizabeth Taylor Legacy Award for AIDS Activism. 

Following the announcement of Johnson & Johnson’s “global” HIV vaccine, which has shown to have a 100 percent success rate in treating all strains of HIV, Goldberg said: “This is how we change the world, one person at a time. I’m not going to take the BS anymore. We've been waiting for this for a long time, baby.”