Elizabeth Taylor’s GLAAD Vanguard Award

25 years ago, Elizabeth Taylor was honored with GLAAD’s Vanguard Award at their 11th annual GLAAD Media Awards. The Vanguard award is given to a member of the entertainment community who does not identify as LGBTQ+, but who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for LGBTQ+ people. At the time, Elizabeth was selective about her public charitable appearances, choosing to focus her attention on the fight against HIV/AIDS. However, she made an exception for another cause that was near and dear to her heart, and attended the ceremony to receive the award, presented to her by Carrie Fisher, daughter of her former husband Eddie Fisher, and to give a speech that shared her conviction in her fight for equality and her gratitude for the honor.

"There is no Gay agenda; it's a human agenda," Elizabeth said in her acceptance speech. "Why shouldn't Gay people be able to live as open and freely as everybody else? What it comes down to, ultimately, is love. How can anything bad come out of love? The bad stuff comes out of mistrust, misunderstanding, and, God knows, from hate and from ignorance."

Elizabeth took the public platform she had earned and used it as an opportunity to stand in solidarity as an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. Unafraid to speak her mind and show support for the community and the struggles they disproportionately faced, she became one of the earliest celebrities to bring awareness to the fight against HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, at a time when it was extremely stigmatized and long before it was recognized as an epidemic. She took the love and care she felt for friends like Rock Hudson, as well as the heartache she felt when he passed, and transmuted her powerful feelings into something remarkable: working towards life-saving change for others and equality for all. 

Today, Elizabeth’s legacy of advocacy and activism lives on through the continued work of the organizations she helped to establish and strengthen, as well as the enduringly true words she spoke during her Vanguard award acceptance speech.