The State - News from May 27, 1986

Children in baseball jackets and men in three-piece suits were among the thousands who held candles aloft in San Francisco’s third annual AIDS vigil to remember those who suffer or have died from the disease. At the start of the vigil, about 4,000 people strolled down Market Street toward City Hall carrying cups with foot-high candles. A cable car near the front of the procession carried those who were too ill to make it on foot. Paul Boneberg, the national coordinator of Mobilization Against AIDS, said that at least 69 other U.S. cities and 10 countries were holding AIDS vigils over the Memorial Day weekend. The march ended at the City Hall steps, where several speakers addressed the crowd. A number of related issues, such as the discrimination faced by those suffering from AIDS and the need for increased federal funding for research into the disease, were discussed only briefly before the procession broke up.