Kenneth Cole, amfAR's current chairman and Dr. Mathilde Krim, amfAr's founding chairman

Monday night the temperature didn't go below 97F. Depending on how much concrete and little ventilation you had around you, there were parts of the city that were hovering well around the sweltering 100F. I can bet that one of those places was amfAR's "Honoring With Pride" event at the Hudson.

Kenneth Cole, Mario Cantone and others were at the Hudson to honor leaders in the LGTB community for their commitment to the fight against AIDS. There was a silent auction with some awesome offers -- unfortunately the David Barton membership didn't come with the guy. Fundraisers of this kind can seem all the same, so to me the successful ones are those that take care of little details like giving our hand fans to people in the middle of their mini heat wave.

I didn't stay until the end but was there for one of the most poignant moments I've seen in a political event, courtesy of Mario Cantone.

After Julie Davids had accepted her award and given a slew of statistics that prove that the crisis is not over, Mario took a moment to ponder on the significance of those numbers. And one of the most insightful things I've heard about the fight against AIDS is how after decades of gains in gay rights activism, the epidemic set back the community in such a way that it's just barely recovering from the impact.

The audio is not that great but his commentary is just priceless. Watch it!