Feb 23, 2007  |  By: KATHERINE VOLIN  | COMMENTS     

The early 1990s were tough years for AIDS activists. The life-prolonging protease inhibitor drugs still weren’t available, and the Washington Blade’s obituary pages were filled with photos of young men who’d died of AIDS complications.

“1993 was a particularly difficult time for me,” says long-time local AIDS activist Cheryl Spector. “I lost a lot of people between ’90 and ’96.”

But there were glimmers of hope as public opinion about the disease began to shift.

Iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor, who turns 75 on Feb. 27, had been speaking out about AIDS since her friend, actor Rock Hudson, died of the disease in 1985, and her compassion became apparent to those who witnessed her reaction to his death.

“She had a lot of love for Rock Hudson,” Spector says.

Her dedication to AIDS issues eventually won her a lasting honor in Washington, D.C. In 1993, the Whitman-Walker Clinic opened two medical centers. The first, in Southeast D.C., was named after Max Robinson, a local television journalist who died of AIDS. The second, in Northwest D.C., was named after Taylor.

Jim Graham, who was executive director of Whitman-Walker by the time the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center opened in November of 1993, already knew Taylor through various AIDS-related events and approached her about using her name for the center.

Taylor consented and even managed to be at the Center’s opening on Nov. 19, despite personal complications at the time.

“She made a truly heroic effort to be there at that dedication,” Graham says. “The date of the dedication was just very close to the initial disclosures involving Michael Jackson [and charges of molestation]. Michael Jackson and she had taken off for places unknown in Europe in order to avoid this torrent of interest … But she honored her commitment.”

Her decision to come to the dedication ceremony showed her devotion to the disease, Graham says.

“It really demonstrates in a way how seriously she takes her commitment to people with AIDS,” Graham says. “It was very easy for her to say ‘Look, I’m in some place in Europe, I can’t tell you where I am, but I have a dear friend I have to do this for.’ She did nothing of the sort. She came. Working with her was a real pleasure and honor.”



TAYLOR’S WORK WITH AIDS started in earnest when she became the founding national chair of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, which began in 1985.

“After Elizabeth Taylor gave her name to the AIDS crisis and amfAR and all that, it made it seem like there was less stigma to the disease,” Spector says.

Despite her commitment, some say the reaction to naming the clinic after Taylor was mixed.

“It was a big deal because she’s a world-famous person, but I remember there were some complaints,” says activist Michael Singerman. “She had no ties to the city, and I remember they were thinking there could have been somebody else, like an African American.”

Graham says he didn’t receive any complaints “whatsoever,” and longtime gay activist Phil Pannell says the tribute brought an aura of exhilaration.

“People were really excited,” Pannell says. “Elizabeth Taylor is Hollywood, is a great star. It was really important. It brought attention. It brought resources.”

Everyone else interviewed for this article agrees that Taylor’s name brought attention and recognition to a disease that still desperately needed it.

“Having a name lend itself like that, having her lend that prominence of a name … makes people feel like they’re not alone, that there’s someone that cares,” Spector says. “A name always makes it easier for people to remember. And you gotta remember, a lot of it’s PR, a lot of it’s smoke and mirrors, a lot of it’s getting the word out.”

“One hundred years from now people are going to know who Elizabeth Taylor was, but they’re not going to know who Max Robinson was,” Singerman says. “It’s kind of sad, but it’s the power of movies.”

Public relations concerns certainly played a significant role in the selection of Taylor’s name, especially given that she wasn’t the largest financial contributor to the clinic. A gay couple from Wisconsin, Frederick Hurdman and Duane Rath, donated $1.5 million toward establishing the center. The donation was the largest individual private donation the clinic had received, Graham told the Blade at the time.

Taylor has not returned to visit the center since the dedication ceremony, but the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS foundation has made contributions totaling $250,000 since the center opened, according to Kim Mills, Whitman-Walker’s communications director. She says the most recent contribution was made in 2000.