Elizabeth Taylor left a legacy of advocating for people with HIV and AIDS, and Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation officer Quinn Tivey, 35, writes about carrying on that legacy. The grandson of Elizabeth Taylor is Quinn Taylor.
“Thirty years ago, my grandmother founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation to provide aid to people with HIV and AIDS and those who were living with them. Although the fight against HIV/AIDS is ongoing, I’m proud to see ETAF continue her legacy by educating policymakers, raising public awareness, dispelling myths, and lowering stigma and fear. Grandma would undoubtedly appreciate the effort as well. “.
Currently, the “HIV Is Not A Crime” program of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, in association with Gilead Sciences, focuses on modernizing criminal laws and punishments that currently target people with HIV. Old laws that were enacted decades ago out of fear and stigmatization of HIV-positive people have not been updated to take into account modern science.
By encouraging stigma and discrimination, these unjust laws act as barriers to advancement. Viral levels can be undetectable with the right medications, making HIV-positive people non-transmittable.
Despite this, people with HIV are accused of crimes and treated like criminals in more than 30 states. Additionally, if there is no proof of transmission or malicious intent in these states’ majority of HIV-related proceedings, a conviction is not necessary.
Criminal HIV laws disproportionately affect low-income communities, women, including transgender women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color), sex workers, and migrants. Half of all new HIV infections are among black men, who are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men.
Grandma would have been ecstatic about the work being done through the “HIV Is Not A Crime” project. Grandma lived a courageous and daring life, standing up for what she believed in.
If something didn’t feel right, she would never submit to pressure or accept the status quo.
