Elizabeth Taylor: A Humanitarian and AIDS Activist Like No Other

By John Mitchell Posted Mar 23rd 2011 03:00PM

Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away today from congestive heart failure at the age of 79, was a Hollywood legend known as much for her tireless humanitarian work as for her legendary screen roles. When it came to her work with HIV/AIDS-related charities, including the American Foundation for AIDS Research, better known as amfAR, and her own Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation, the actress was an unstoppable force committed to doing all she could to see the public educated about the realities of the disease.

"Celebrity is not something that comes without responsibility," Taylor said. "I kept seeing all these news reports on this new disease and kept asking myself why no one was doing anything. And then I realized that I was just like them. I wasn't doing anything to help."

Taylor took a major personal risk in speaking out on the issue of HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s, long before then-President Ronald Reagan ever spoke on the issue and years before it became a fashionable cause to support.

"At a time when so many living with HIV/AIDS were invisible, Dame Taylor fearlessly raised her voice to speak out against injustice," GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said in a statement Wednesday. "Dame Taylor was an icon not only in Hollywood, but in the LGBT community, where she worked to ensure that everyone was treated with the respect and dignity we all deserve."

After her good friend Rock Hudson died from complications from AIDS, Taylor, alongside Dr. Michael S. Gottlieb, created the National AIDS Research Foundation in Los Angeles, which merged with the New York-based AIDS Medical Foundation in September 1985 to become amfAR, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to evidence-based AIDS-related public policy, securing and raising funds for HIV/AIDS research, expanding access to care and treatment for all AIDS patients and protecting the civil rights of those living with the disease.

At the time of its creation, Taylor was named Founding National Chairman of amfAR. The organization continues to be one of the world's leading organizations dedicated to fighting the AIDS epidemic, and has raised nearly $325 million to fund its multifaceted mission. Taylor herself is said to have raised over $50 million in funds for the cause.

"She was one of the first public voices to speak up about the AIDS crisis while many others stayed silent in the 1980s, and she helped raise millions of dollars to fight the disease," Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement today.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, through her foundation, Taylor commissioned a 37-foot "Care Van" equipped with examination tables and other medical equipment and dispatched it to New Orleans to care for residents of the city suffering from HIV/AIDS. She also donated $40,000 to the New Orleans Aids Task Force.

Taylor testified before Congress to ensure Senate support for the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990, which continues to be a primary source of federal funding for HIV/AIDS programs nationwide, and in 1991, started The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation to complement amfAR's work as well as provide more direct AIDS-related services.

"I have dedicated my efforts ... above all, to the men, women, and children throughout the world who have died of AIDS, or are currently fighting for their lives," Taylor once said. And today, as her fans deal with her passing, there are doubtlessly millions of people living with HIV/AIDS and countless others who have been spared the virus because of the awareness she raised and educational endeavors she supported who are thankful to have had such a fantastic champion in their corner.

►Fans React to Elizabeth Taylor's Death
►Liz Taylor: A Humanitarian and AIDS Activist Like No Other
►Legendary Actress Elizabeth Taylor Dies at 79

Tags: amfAR, Elizabeth Taylor

Comments

(64)

Wednesday 23 March

By dj1098

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On ABC news it was stated she was born with a "double set of lashes." I don't know what that means. Never heard of it before.

By Chuck

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Elizabeth Taylor was so beautiful, just watch "A Place in The Sun" to see her in her first adult role, what a face! My favorite movie of hers was "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"...can't count the times I've watched it. What a great and tireless voice she had, helping people with HIV/AIDS, when nobody else was doing this, and she continued with the cause right up until her last days. I'm living with AIDS for over 25 years, and I want to say thank you to Miss Taylor for helping those of us out there in the dark, when no one else cared. I was one of the people holding up a candle at that vigil in Washington DC, in the video. Elizabeth was a great lady, she will be missed!

Exactly right. It is strange that all states are enacting Anti-Bullying laws, but a so called "church" is exempt.

Thursday 24 March

By carol

My grandparents traveled to Rome when I was a child. My grandmother saw Elizabeth Taylor one day while she walking in Rome. She told me she was so beautiful and her eyes were truly violet She will be missed both for her physical beauty and her inner beauty

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