Dame Elizabeth Taylor: Gay Icon

[wiccan]

The last public sighting of Dame Elizabeth Taylor in a gay bar was on Thursday 11 September 2008, at The Abbey in West Hollywood. The screen icon, who had been dubbed 'The Joan of Arc of AIDS' in the early 80s, drank a martini and held court with four friends while staff looked after her maltese dog, Daisy. Rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses were positioned on her head by another assistant before she was wheeled back through the hushed crowd to a waiting, blacked-out sedan.

Perhaps the most astonishing detail of this sighting was that a straight woman of 76 still had a favourite gay bar. Perhaps not. It was Taylor, after all. The details of her special relationship with the gay population, right up until her death, are crucial.

During the Reagan presidency she was the first and most prominent star to align herself with Aids fundraising. The traction her star wattage lent Aids charities turned Taylor from a woman who naturally empathised with both the fragility and duality of gay men's political status in the US to a notable force in reversing them. At the 8th International Aids Conference in 1991, she said of the first President Bush: "I'm not even sure if he knows how to spell Aids." Her public pronouncements on the subject were bluff, profound and affecting. She raised millions.

The actress said at the time: “I am on a crusade against AIDS and I’ll battle forever even after a cure is found.

“Making people aware of the disease, and comforting and embracing sufferers, has been my greatest role off screen.”

For the last 25 years of her life, the fight against Aids became a vocation for Taylor. "I hope with all of my heart that in some way I have made a difference in the lives of people with Aids," she said. "I want that to be my legacy. Better that than for the mole on my cheek." And still some people wonder why Taylor is held in such deep and unique affection by gay population.
........
Wednesday 23 March 2011 ("The Guardian")



(A private family funeral will be held for the actress later this week. Her family have asked that, instead of flowers, contributions should be made to the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation.)




[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucOXUmd1rtE[/youtube]




"I shall remember her as a woman whose heart and soul were as beautiful as her classic face and majestic eyes."

R.I.P.

[Capt. Kirk]

Bila mi je nevjerojatno lijepa u filmu 'Suddenly, Last Summer'.

[LittleRedRidingHood]

R.I.P.

[tamara3]

...i jedan mali hommage od nas:

http://www.crol.hr/portal/kultura/film- ... tarka.html

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElSCFzpYWrc[/youtube]

[alice]

a mica.... ja nju baš volim! :/