As another World AIDS Day comes and goes, there are still powerful reasons why we must remain – or get – engaged in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

I know that this engagement is not easy. Our battles have expanded exponentially over the years, and the demands on our focus, energy and resources have not let up. Yet we must be responsive to the ever-growing numbers of people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world. The theme for the World AIDS Campaign, which is now responsible for World AIDS Day, is “Stop AIDS. Keep the promise.” Over the years, we’ve made our own promises and commitments – to ourselves, our partners, friends, family members and dying loved ones – about our work to end HIV and AIDS. This is a fight that still needs us to live up to those promises.

It is true that people with HIV/AIDS are living longer and that we are no longer losing our men at rates that compared to the worst combat zones. That level of loss slowed for us in 1996. We thought that the activism and dedication of so many people, both in the United States and abroad, finally provided us with the medicines and funds needed to stop the world’s greatest pandemic.

But in the last year, we see the virus expanding again – gradually, but increasing in its impact nonetheless. It’s capturing our community members of color in startling numbers, continuing to infect our youth and sweeping through women of color communities. Men in their 30s and 40s who have remained negative for more than a decade are becoming infected. Infection rates are rising at the same time that prevention dollars are shrinking. Prevention programs that were once commonplace in our community are invisible at best and completely hampered by regulations insisting on abstinence. In a community still denied the right to marry, a message of abstinence before marriage is meaningless.

As the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to spread, we can’t help but notice that this disease attacks viciously those groups most often marginalized in our global society. One of the saddest realities about social marginalization is that by treating any group of people badly – by ostracizing them, depriving them of their most basic human status, taking away their rights, making them the target of hate and ridicule – you can plant the seeds of their own self-destruction.

Many LGBT writers have commented on our community’s self-destructive behaviors, ranging from suicide to alcohol abuse and community infighting, crystal methamphetamine abuse and HIV/AIDS. To numb ourselves from the pain that continued social oppression inflicts, and out of a desperate desire to finally celebrate and belong, we engage in a set of behaviors that hold us back and continue to impact and infect some of our best and brightest.

It is true that changing sexual behaviors is among the most difficult behavioral health goals to achieve. Sexual behaviors are connected to our most intimate and powerful goals and desires, such as being loved, feeling attractive, wanted and appreciated, as well as celebrating who we are and our essential vitality. But just because it is difficult does not mean that we don’t try to give our community a fighting chance against an ever-growing disease.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about “HIV fatigue,” and I’ve felt it. For many of us, this fatigue is the cumulative effect of losing an entire generation of friends, colleagues and lovers. It’s being tired from fighting to stay alive. It’s fatigue around the fight to stay negative. And it’s been draining beyond description for so many members of our community to have their sexual intimacy connected with disease and death.

It is oftentimes difficult to develop and implement new strategies for prevention and treatment. We must continue to tap the best of our critical and practical thinking to develop new practices to stop the spread of HIV and effectively address this global public health issue. This may include working to develop best practices for truly effective prevention messages, name-based reporting, funding for research and better global access to life-saving medication.

On World AIDS Day, we should take time out to remember and reflect. But perhaps more importantly, we must renew our commitment to ending HIV and AIDS. Our HIV/AIDS work cannot be limited to showing up for candlelight vigils. There is still too much to do and we need all the thoughtful, compassionate and energetic people we can muster to continue to fight this pandemic – both here in San Diego and around the world.

As we watch HIV infection rates rise, let’s do more than watch. Let’s keep our promises.