AIDS Walk Los Angeles turned 25 on Sunday, as more than 30,000 people made their way through the streets of West Hollywood and Los Angeles and raised money to fight the disease.

West Hollywood Mayor Abbe Land was one of the first to address the crowd of marchers as they waited at the starting line near West Hollywood
Park just before the two-hour, 6.2-mile trek began at 10 a.m.

She was joined by other politicians and dozens of celebrities and said that while it is a wonderful thing to have so many people come together, she looks forward to the day when there will no longer be a need for an AIDS Walk.

She reflected on how far the event has come since the first walk, in 1985, when 4,500 people took the streets.

“Twenty-five years later, we have made great headway, but there is so much more to do,” she said. “You will give hope to thousands and thousands of people that more will be done and that we will find a cure.”

Since 1985, the walk has raised $63 million for HIV/AIDS programs and services throughout Los Angeles County, according to a press release from AIDS Walk Los Angeles.

This year’s walk, organized by AIDS Project Los Angeles, raised about $3.15 million, said Colin Weil, chief operating officer of AIDS Walk Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also helped kick off the event, noting that 60,000 people living in Los Angeles — enough to fill Dodger Stadium to capacity — are infected with HIV.

“We’re walking for every one of them,” he said.

With about $85 million in HIV/AIDS services on the chopping block in Sacramento, Villaraigosa said there is no more important time than now to have an event like AIDS Walk.

“We’re walking to say that the state has to stand up and do what they’ve done for years, and that is provide the care those 60,000 and more in need throughout the state,” he said.

Hollywood resident Frank Valenti had his own reason for participating on Sunday: his friend’s brother succumbed to AIDS a few years ago.

For Valenti, seeing younger and younger faces walking each year is a reminder that people are not forgetting about the battle.  

“I love to see the youth here,” he said.

Actor George Takei, who married his longtime partner Brad Altman in California last year, said this year’s march was also aimed at promoting marriage equality in the state.

“I’m proud to stand before you as a happily gay married man,” he said. “As we march to fight AIDS, we also fight for the right for all of us to enjoy the happiness that Brad and I are enjoying today.”

Takei added that pension rights, insurance rights and health-care benefits must also be won for LGBTs.

“So we are walking today for a larger cause, to fight AIDS and to find a cure, but to fight for equality, the great struggle for equality,” he said.

La Toya Jackson told a group of reporters than when it comes to preventing further HIV infections, “education is the key to everything.”

Other celebrities who walked included singer Aaron Carter and actors Wilson Cruz, Pauley Perette and Mary Louise Parker.

“Desperate Housewives” cast member Felicity Huffman told The Independent that she supports events like the AIDS Walk because it is important to go through challenges together.

“I think the more occasions we can come together and be a community and be a part of the healing and a positive motion forward, the better we all are,” she said.

A reception following AIDS Walk was held across the street from the finish line at the Pacific Design Center, attended by actress Teri Hatcher and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom, who is vying to become the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor in 2010, said there are more HIV infections in his city than when the epidemic began in the 1980s.

“A lot of folks have sort of moved on, and think that things are no longer challenging or acute as they once were,” he said, adding that minorities and women are more heavily impacted by the disease than ever. “It’s incumbent upon us not to forget that, to focus on prevention, to focus on education and to focus on relating strategies to address this disease,” he said.