Elizabeth Taylor is a legend for a far more important reason than pretending to be someone else while being filmed.In the 1980’s, when this country and her own inner-circle of friends were beginning to see the harsh realities of AIDS and it’s unbearable stigma, she spoke out. Also, she never stopped caring about people whose lives had been shaken by HIV, even as others in Hollywood moved on to more fashionable causes in the late 1990’s.
No, Liz stuck by us.
As her own health was failing, she would attend fundraisers and give moving speeches about the issues of HIV/AIDS, such as discrimination and homophobia. If AIDS were a physical entity- and I think it’s helpful to think of it as such since HIV’s power is living in the silence of shadows- then it certainly picked a fight with the wrong person when it targeted Liz’s friend, Rock Hudson.
Ultimately, it was her honest and moving reaction to the moral backlash associated with a sexually transmitted infection such as HIV that made Liz a friend to all of us who are living with HIV. And we’re surely going to miss our beloved friend.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Click the image above to read her 1997 interview with Poz magazine. Check out Sean Strub’s memories of how that interview came to be.
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