'Everyone began to understand that it was more than just an HIV/AIDS fundraising event,' said Hopkins, who currently serves as senior advisor for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. To raise funds for those struggling during the epidemic and provide a social outing for the Black LGBTQ community, Black Pride became the first large-scale gathering of its kind. On Memorial Day Weekend in 1991, with many suffering the health and economic impacts of HIV/AIDS, Hopkins, Welmore Cook and Theodore Kirkland established the first Black Gay Pride in the nation's capital.
