Los Angeles, CA
May 27, 2014 - A group of AIDS/LifeCycle riders are launching a project, featuring an international Compassion Relay and new mobile app, to raise the consciousness of global LGBT equality, dignity and HIV/AIDS support, along with Stonewall Veterans, LGBT community leaders in Africa, and numerous organizations and businesses.

The AIDS/LifeCycle Team Titanium, led by AIDS/LifeCycle Ride Leader veteran Tommy Gaebel, has been formed to spearhead the project, including Alfred Cheung, president of San Francisco-based Tekmeca and GoodMojo, John Boswell with LA-based non-profit GetaVision, and several other team members, along with first-time riders in Tanzania.

Following the AIDS/LifeCycle arrival in Los Angeles on June 7, a three-man Tanzania-based Team Titanium will begin riding from the town of Kibaha to the country’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, in solidarity with AIDS/LifeCycle riders and to share in the spirit of extraordinary compassionate action.

James Ouma, leader of the Tanzania riders, is founder of the non-profit LGBT VOICE Tanzania, and was selected as one of the 2014 GOOD 100 Global Citizens. He is also spearheading a Compassionate City program for the city of Dar es Salaam with the International Campaign for Compassionate Cities.

Dedicated, in part, to this 45th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion in NYC, the project is being kicked off by two of the few living Stonewall Veterans, Erica Kay-Webster and David Bermudez, as part this global Compassion Relay where they will be “passing the torch" from the Stonewall Veterans to the AIDS/LifeCycle Team Titanium for the week-long bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which will then be passed to the Tanzania team, then on to Botswana, which has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world and is the first country to sign on as a "Compassionate Country."

The Compassion Relay will continue to promote various types of LGBT community compassionate action until it returns to San Francisco for the Opening Day of the International Compassion Games, being held from September 11 - 21, 2014. The newly released mobile app, Compassion Today!, is highlighting and supporting the event and provides a powerful compassion resource platform, currently with more than 1000 users in 42 countries.

Along the 7-day California ride, Team Titanium will be distributing thousands of bandanas with the "HERO's Creed" and GoodMojo designs to riders and roadies, which will direct them to a website where they can learn more about reaching out in the global HIV/AIDS challenges faced by millions of people worldwide. And it will highlight the global outreach of the Los Angeles LGBT Center (formerly the LA Gay & Lesbian Center), the world’s largest LGBT organization and producer of the annual AIDS/LifeCycle event, and encourage ongoing participation and support for AIDS/LifeCycle.

With sponsorship by WeVideo, the Mountain View, CA- and Norway-based cloud computing video technology company, an online video collaboration project will also be launched to raise the visibility of global LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues, enabling individuals and organizations throughout the world to contribute to dynamic interactive video creation. Among the first contributors are leading Africa-focused St. Paul's Foundation for International Reconciliation and the groundbreaking website 76Crimes.com.

In partnership with the Charter for Compassion, founded through the 2008 TED Prize, and with other international partners, San Francisco-based GoodMojo will be seeking to build a mosaic of video stories from people throughout the world sharing their personal journeys, insight, solutions, hopes and dreams. And in partnering with numerous faith-based organizations, a primary objective is to include the global faith community, which holds one of the keys to ending both HIV/AIDS and the escalating homophobia-inspired violence, intolerance and legislation in a growing number of countries.

Sponsored by San Francisco-based GoodMojo, the AIDS/LifeCycle team members will wear Team Titanium jerseys and carry the specially made AIDS/LifeCycle bandanas, as part of GoodMojo’s Billion Lights of Kindness campaign created to encourage active engagement in social causes.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

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