All language subtitles for Commitment.to.Life.2023.720p.PCOK.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.x264-CMRG

(slow tempo dramatic music)

(gentle music)

(brooding music)

- It's difficult
to remember a time

when it wasn't here.

Harder still to
recall when the word

finally permeated
your consciousness

and became real, and
frightening, and deadly.

It has infected everything,

not just the immune systems
of those whose lives it takes,

but all of us it leaves behind

to try to comprehend something

that is finally
incomprehensible.

We'll never know who we might
have been had it not happened,

and we can't know who
we'll be when it's over.

The only thing we know
is who we are right now,

and if we stand up,
if we find strength,

then we will bring
honor to all the love

that has stolen from our lives.

Because in the end, to
remember is simply not enough.

(suspenseful music)

(group vocalizing)

(group vocalizing)

(group vocalizing)

(group vocalizing)

(group vocalizing)

(group vocalizing)
(dramatic music)

(gentle upbeat music)

- Growing up, LA was a spot
that you wanted to come.

It was Hollywood,
it was movie stars,

and this is where you
come to get the life

that you were denied

in whatever small
town you were in.

(group chattering)

- People come to LA

because they want to
be part of the dream,

glamour, Hollywood, blondes.

And I was sitting in
Patterson, New Jersey

thinking this is
where I wanna be.

- [Group] Hey, hey, hey, hey!

We are proud, we are gay!

- If you're gay,

the main form of oppression
is ostracism the tribe.

(group clapping)

And so we built
alternative family.

We built community spaces.

Whether it's the
bars and bathhouses

in the gay men's community

or the lesbian
feminist bookstores,

we find each other.

That's what we do.

(car horn honks)

- West Hollywood
was a part of town

that was the gay part of town.

They called it Boystown.

And the hills above Sunset
were the Swish Alps.

(fast tempo upbeat music)
(group chattering)

- Everybody went
to West Hollywood

because they felt freer
to be who they were.

(group chattering)

- We could walk down the
street with another man

who was clearly our boyfriend

and see other people
who looked like us.

There was a community
and you felt supported

and you felt safe.

- It's wonderful
to be here today

celebrating gay pride
with all of you.

- LA was rip roaring.

I felt like I was part of a
movement to liberate ourselves

and to not live in the
fiction of the '50s.

- Me and my best friend,

we used to take the
bus to Hollywood

and come across all
kinds of LGBT folks

and I just never knew there
were so many people like me.

It was a lot of fun.

But being in West Hollywood,

there was always the
possibility of you being treated

a little different, especially
if you're a person of color.

But yet it still didn't
stop us from going.

- When I got to LA,

I didn't know where
the LGBT community was,

and I remember I took a
drive through West Hollywood

and it was nothing but
white boys with no shirts on

and I immediately felt
like, I'm not welcome here.

(glasses clanging)
(group chattering)

And luckily a friend
of mine was like,

girl, you're in the
wrong part of town.

(electricity buzzing)

You need to get
over to Catch One,

and literally my
life turned around.

(car horn honking)
(disco music)

- Jewel Thais-Williams opened
the legendary black gay club,

Catch One Discotheque,

and Catch One was
this black gay club

in the heart of black LA.

(group chattering)

- Catch was a community
for people of color

and the kids always
stayed fresh.

My customers, they would
come to the Catch One

because this was a place
where they could come and be

and I'm happy about that.

(group chattering)
(upbeat music)

Well, it was in the early '80s

when there was
first signs of it.

We had a drag show at my club

and the mistress
of ceremony, April

didn't show up for her
gig on the Thursday night

and it's like what?

Someone came in and said,

"Well, she had been ill all and
she had gone to the hospital

and they thought that
she had pneumonia."

But within a couple
weeks, April was dead.

(melancholic music)

- I remember it distinctly,
I read about it in Frontiers

and it was just that report

that the doctors reporting
some kind of virus

going on with gay men in town.

(insects chirping)

It caught people's
attention, caught mine.

- We're dealing with
what medical researchers

are now calling gay related
immunodeficiency diseases,

GRID, if you will.

(group chattering)

- It was still too early.

No one really knew
what was going on.

When it got real was
starting to have friends

who in fact were
getting sick and dying.

- We still have Yahrzeit,
which is a Jewish custom.

Yahrzeit candles
for a lot of people

because we remember them.

- It was known as
the gay cancer,

and we started seeing people
on the street with KS.

- Kaposi sarcoma
was a skin cancer,

purple or violet
patches on the skin,

sometimes on the face,
and very distressing.

And was an unknown in
terms of how to treat it.

- [Reporter] Tonight,
about 300 people

attended the first mass meeting

held within the gay community

to alert homosexuals
about the dangers

of kaposi sarcoma and
pneumocystis pneumonia,

two related diseases
that show up

almost exclusively in gay men.

- We published something
in the CDC's Journal,

Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report.

We were describing what
we now know as AIDS,

evidence of a new acquired
immune deficiency syndrome.

(brooding music)
(insects chirping)

- I've gone through
so many changes

since this whole thing began.

Lots of periods of
depression and terror

and just really again,
the sense of hopelessness.

- A long-term friend
of mine, Tom McQuoid

was a business partner
in the store that I had,

within a month after
we opened the store,

he came down with it.

He didn't have insurance and
they put him into county.

And I went to visit him,

and it was everything
you can imagine.

It was a hellhole.

He was in a room with
20 other patients.

At that point nobody knew
how it was transmitted

and so nurses
wouldn't go near him.

He was basically ignored.

- There were all these
guys that no one visited.

They were just
there by themselves

and there was no one fighting,
no one fighting for them.

- I'm very sad, very fearful,

and I feel very
lonely, you know?

I feel like I've been
dealt a bad hand here.

- Growing up in
the gay community,

we had sort of learned a lesson
by that point in our lives

and the lesson was that we knew

that we had to take
care of each other.

We looked at this
desperate situation

and felt that something
needed to be done.

(gentle music)

- AIDS Project Los Angeles
was the first agency

to be formed in Los Angeles
County to respond to AIDS.

- We just would have these
meetings in our living room

and that was how APLA all
started being organized.

- [Reporter] Nancy Cole is
on the board of directors

of the AIDS Project Los Angeles.

- I hate AIDS.

I hate the disease, I hate AIDS.

I hate the fact that no
one has been able to really

get a grip on what this
is and how to stop it.

- Nancy Cole, she was a
caring, compassionate person

and she would do anything
for anybody that needed help.

Nancy was very connected

in the gay community
in Los Angeles.

All of her best
friends were gay men.

- When we started APLA,
we first raised $7,000.

That was a lot of money in
1982 for a small charity.

At the very beginning we
rented a tiny little office

on Cole Avenue in Hollywood,

and we had two rooms,

most of which was taken
up by the hotline.

- AIDS hotline, may I help you?

- So we recruited volunteers
and we trained them

to answer phone
calls from people

with all the information
that we knew about HIV.

(phone ringing)

And everything we
could tell them

we could fit on the front
and back of a piece of paper.

So there was tremendous fear

coming from lack of information.

(brooding music)

- Hi, AIDS hotline.

This is John, can I help you?

- AIDS Hotline, Manuel speaking.

- There was so many
calls and so many people.

We had our share
of suicide calls.

- Do you feel
you've been exposed?

- We could help them
deal with their fears

and helping people deal
with their emotions

on the telephone, that was
a big chunk of what we did.

We had our share of family
calls where one family member,

many times the father
gets to find out

that not only is his son gay,

but he also has a disease
that from what we can tell

is it gonna kill him.

- [Interviewer] Does
your family know?

- Yeah.

- [Interviewer] What's
been their response?

- Well, my mother said,

"That God was punishing
me for my lifestyle."

- That era, it was the
ugliest part of human beings

and how they behave.

They blamed it on the person,

that their behavior
was causing this.

(brooding music)

- There was a lot of
stigma because back then

there was very little
education about AIDS

and so people were
just so cruel.

- [Reporter] This man Ford
Johnson, an architect,

died late yesterday afternoon.

He suffered from AIDS.

Johnson fell down these stairs

while ambulance
drivers looked on.

- The person said outright,
"I'm not touching him."

Just like that.

- We couldn't get people
into the hospitals.

Hospitals wouldn't take them.

(siren wailing)

Mortuaries wouldn't take bodies.

- Too many people
are dying too young.

They are dying horrible deaths,

frequently abandoned
by friends and family.

The reality of having
AIDS can be pretty awful.

I nearly killed
myself with alcohol

because I was very closeted

and very ashamed of being gay.

(birds chirping)
(keys clanging)

And I got into recovery
and I became a minister,

and I was the pastor

of the Metropolitan Community
Church in the Valley.

I had my first symptoms in '82

and I got sick with everything.

I had candidiasis, hepatitis,

mononucleosis, herpes, shingles.

I was horribly, horribly sick.

And they said, "That I
would not live to see 1985."

I was the first
member of the clergy

to be diagnosed with AIDS,

and when I became a client
of AIDS Project Los Angeles,

they immediately put me
in front of the cameras.

- We have an experience today

that really is touching to me.

Right here on my right,

I have a young man
named Steve Pieters

and I'd like to
introduce you to Steve.

- Tammy Faye Baker
wanted to interview

a person with AIDS
and so they called me.

- I know you must
feel lonely sometimes.

Have you found this to be true,

that people wanna stay away

and they're afraid to be
anywhere in in the same room

or breathe the same
air you breathe?

- Yes, Tammy, that happens.

When I was so very sick,

nobody wanted to come to my
house and maybe touch something

or breathe something that
was going to contaminate them

or get them sick with AIDS.

Dentists were terrified of
doing work on people with AIDS

and so it became very important

to have this dental
clinic that APLA started.

- [Dentist] How are
you doing today, Maury?

My private dentist
would no longer treat me

and then I called APLA.

As soon as I went
through the door,

it was very warm, and
accepting, and very comfortable.

You could feel it, the
spirit and the comfort

in the clinic just
opening up the door.

(group cheering)

And I think we have
to be very thankful

to the Project for
getting it going

and continuing it so that
people can be taken care of.

- For a lot of people with AIDS,

it was a bankrupting
kind of illness.

And so APLA started the
Necessities of Life Program.

People with AIDS could come
and get bags full of groceries.

- APLA keeps food on the table

and it's dignified
food on the table.

The people who provided
that food for you

did it out of love
because of what you are,

not because you're another
burden on the system.

There's a lot of fear about AIDS

and there's no
fear in this place.

- We created the
buddy system at APLA.

People volunteered to
adopt a person with AIDS

and be their buddy and they
would spend time with them.

- How you doing?
- Hey, how are you?

- Nice to see you.
- Yeah.

- They would have
lunch with them,

they would take him on errands.

They would arrange to
get 'em to the doctor.

- [Comedian] Lesbian.

(group laughing)

- Ours has been a building
of trust in the foundation

of a very strong friendship.

I can't change Billy's
medical situation.

There is nothing I can do
to make that different,

but I can be there when he
needs a shoulder to cry on

or just somebody to
listen to him ramble on

if that's what he needs to do.

- She's well beyond a buddy.

I mean our relationship has
gone much farther than that.

- The Florence
Nightingale in us came out

and I knew that they needed
someone to say, I love you

and would hold them
and touch them.

And we would come and
see about our friends

and hang out with them knowing
that they were really sick.

- In the early days, you could
help take care of people,

you could visit them, you
could be their friend,

but you couldn't save them.

You just couldn't.

(brooding music)

- At APLA every Thursday
afternoon at four o'clock

we had a memorial service

for everybody who
had died that week.

We had grieving counseling for
staff because it was so hard,

(group vocalizing)

but that's knowing that
about a third of the staff

died the first year I was there.

And, um, shit.

- All right, let me begin
with the latest figures

from Los Angeles County.

Today they show 56
new cases of AIDS

diagnosed here
locally last month.

That brings a national
total now to about 10,000.

(fast tempo brooding music)

- And while a lot of
theories were put out there

as to the cause of AIDS from
the earliest days though

we suspected that
this was a virus.

The fact that it was occurring
among gay men, hemophiliacs,

blood transfusion recipients,
and intravenous drug users

looked like bloodborne and
sexually transmitted infection.

- [Reporter] First and
foremost, we understand

that the basic cause
of this deadly syndrome

is a virus now labeled HIV or
human immunodeficiency virus.

- Currently, the riskiest
practice is to use a needle

which has been previously used
by somebody who is infected.

The next highest
risk is associated

with specific sexual activities.

Anal intercourse is the
highest risk activity

for transmission of the virus.

(glasses clanging)
(group chattering)

- I went to one
meeting and I said,

if you could stop gay men
from having anal intercourse,

we could overcome this and
I was booed off the stage.

(water splashing)
(brooding music)

Being gay is being sexual,
that's where your mind goes.

Even my mind goes, but
we'll leave that out.

To tell them they
couldn't do it anymore,

that wasn't as
easy as it sounds.

That took time and
a lot of effort.

- Our end objective is
to make every person

in LA County have it
second nature in their mind

that when they're having sex

they have to think
of having safe sex.

- We put out pamphlet after
pamphlet after pamphlet

about how it was transmitted
and what you needed to avoid.

- I don't think there
had ever been a campaign

to change people's
behavior regarding health

like we did with HIV and AIDS.

(gentle upbeat music)

And I have to say
our staff at APLA

did an incredible job
with Mother Cares.

- Well now Mother wants you

to be extra careful when
you play with your friends

'cause some of them
are getting very sick.

- Zelda Rubinstein
from the "Poltergeist",

she played Mother,

and its purpose was to
educate people at risk.

It was deliberately
done to show gay men

that they need to have safe sex

and this is how you can do it.

- [Group] Rubbers!

- In LA we early had clinics
within the bathhouses.

We didn't want people in
the alleys, in the streets

and we wanted places where
we could educate them.

(water splashing)

- One day I saw ads
for gay health clubs

and I called them up

and I asked if people
were friendly. (laughs)

And the queen on the other
end of the phone said,

"Well sweetheart, that
totally depends on you."

A few weeks later I went.

(group chattering)

And I went to sit in the lounge

where they were like
showing pornography

and down the stairs came this
guy and he sat down beside me.

He asked me to go
up to his room,

and I said, "Why do people
keep asking me that?"

And he just laughed and he said,

"Because that's where
people go to have sex."

And so we had sex in the
bathhouse that night.

It was my first sexual encounter

and about three months
later we moved in together.

We fell in love and
it was everything.

(group vocalizing)
(brooding music)

My process of kind of
understanding HIV personally

actually took a long time

because I, like
most other people,

believed the mischaracterization
of the epidemic

in the beginning that it
was a white gay disease.

But I was in a relationship
with a white man,

so it was something
that was on my mind.

- [Reporter] The disease
that was first perceived

by the black
community everywhere

as a white gay problem
is now threatening

the lives of black men,
women and children in LA.

- In the black community,
you can talk to people

and they can tell you someone

who's 20-years-old
or 30-years-old who died of pneumonia,

who had a cancer,
who had meningitis,

but it is not clicking that
this could possibly be AIDS.

- It was all over the news,

but it was about white folks
and white men in particular,

but actually more black
people got it per capita.

Black men mostly,

but there were some women
that that got it too.

- [Reporter] This Los
Angeles woman has AIDS.

She says when she found
out that her husband

was an IV drug user, she left
them, but it was too late.

- In many, many ways for
black and brown people

the way we responded to it
is to ignore it, dismiss it,

push it to the side and
pretend it doesn't exist.

(group vocalizing)

We had someone we knew that
used to be around an awful lot

and they stopped coming around.

And then a couple years later,

I remember he died and
it was like, that was it.

We're not gonna acknowledge
him or even say he was here,

okay, you just
don't talk about it.

(melancholic music)

- With regard to the federal
response, it's so important

who is in charge at
the time of a crisis.

That was Ronald Reagan.

He had just become
president in January of 1981

and the HIV epidemic came to
attention in June of 1981,

but it didn't catch the
attention of the president

or high ranking people in HHS

and people who knew
what the potential was.

- [Reporter] White House
officials confirmed

that the president
has never talked

with his surgeon
general about AIDS

or read the report Dr.
Koop sent him last October.

- I don't know what
Reagan was hearing.

He had been an
actor in Hollywood

and so he certainly knew gay
people from the business.

So what was going on
in this White House?

(dramatic music)

There was the sway of these
conservative Christians

who said, "Leave it alone."

"These are not
legitimate people."

"This is their own fault."

"Let them deal with it."

- If the American people
knew the filthy and bloody

sexual events that transpired
between homosexuals,

they would be a
national revulsion

unparalleled in this country.

- It was discrimination
that killed a lot of us

because we weren't
given credibility

that we are important enough

to do the research
and the treatment.

- [Reporter] At
the AIDS Project,

a support group for AIDS
patients in Los Angeles,

there is growing concern
about the AIDS epidemic.

- Well, the mission
of APLA was to try

to get more research done

and to figure out how to
provide aid and support

to people who were
infected and dying,

but all of it was volunteer,
all of it was donation.

We got at that point virtually
no help from the government

and so what we tried to do
was to force the government

to pay for research.

When that didn't work,

we organized fundraisers and
paid for the research ourself.

- The reason why
we're here tonight

is because we're here
to try to conquer

this horrible thing called AIDS.

(group cheering)

- We put on benefits for
service organizations like APLA.

- I'm standing in
for the Roxy Theater

where a special 10
o'clock performance

of a play called "Women Behind
Bars" is about to go on.

And the thing that
really makes it important

is that the first
theatrical performance

is really given as
a benefit for AIDS.

And I would like to talk
for a minute with Max Drew,

who is the man that
organized this whole thing.

Max, Max, why did you put
on this particular benefit?

- "Women Behind Bars"
seemed appropriate

for the fun of the event.

We were also trying
to stimulate interest

in the film community
for participation.

(camera snaps)
(gentle upbeat music)

- The reason I became a
celebrity spokesperson at all

was because I was Nellie Oleson

on "Little House
on the Prairie".

Coming right up!

I was really awful and
I enjoyed it enormously.

- Nellie, I have to talk to you.

- And then they decided
to marry her off.

I was so happy when
Steve Tracy showed up

'cause he was cute as a
bug, and he little freckles,

and the curly hair,

and was like the nicest
person in the world.

We stayed friends after the show

and people thought that
he and I were dating,

but I found out he
was gay early on.

And then in the
'80s he got sick,

and he called and told me
that in fact I have AIDS.

So suddenly my phone rang.

They were asking me
medical questions

and epidemiology questions.

If they're asking
an actress questions

about this very serious disease,

something is wrong
with this picture.

(phone ringing)

And so at AIDS
Project Los Angeles,

I signed up for the
Speaker's Bureau,

so I went everywhere and
talked about people with AIDS,

and I was able to
provide services.

Welcome to AIDS Vision.

I'm Allison Arngrim,
your volunteer host.

- We got celebrity
support where we could,

but there was so much stigma.

Stigma around HIV, but the
other risk was many celebrities

in Hollywood at the
time were not out.

And the common understanding
for a gay celebrity

was if you come out and
support an HIV cause

everyone's going to
assume that you're gay

and that will hurt your career.

- Well look me over.

(group laughing)

- My father managed Liberace,

which meant I went to
Liberace shows as a child.

My parents really did say,

"No one knows that
Liberace is gay."

And I said, "I'm eight,
I know he's gay."

- I want you to beat
my friend over there.

That's Scott Thorson.

(group clapping)

- Everything was so hush hush,

everything was so closeted,

(group chattering)

and you just didn't
advertise it.

In the late '70s, early '80s,

that started to
change culturally,

but definitely not in the
entertainment business.

It was very much a
tightly held secret.

(gentle music)

Well, I was really young

in the beginning of
the AIDS epidemic,

but I knew very early on that
something bad was happening.

The relationship between
her and the gay community

was always very strong.

- [Joan] You know how I know
who's gay and who's not gay?

Can we talk here?

(group laughing)
(group clapping)

- And so she did a big
AIDS fundraiser in LA.

- [Announcer] Ms. Joan Rivers.

- I remember it
being very crowded.

I remember it being
very outrageous.

It was very successful.

It raised money and
it opened doors.

I have to think that it
gave people some shelter

to be able then to speak out.

- Hi, my name is Sammy Davis Jr.

I know you've heard about AIDS,

that's acquired immune
deficiency syndrome.

- Each city had to use the
resources of that city.

New York had the Gay
Men's Health Crisis,

which was a very important,
very active organization.

San Francisco obviously had
a very vibrant gay community.

In Los Angeles we've
got star power.

- Do you feel that you or
anyone you know personally

are at risk of getting AIDS?

- In the early days,
we had a bad brand.

People didn't wanna
associate with it.

They want to say,
oh, those gay boys

are getting what they deserve
for their behavior, right?

And so that was one of our
goals was to change the brand

and we knew that getting
Hollywood involved

in getting that legitimacy
was gonna be key.

- Peter Scott was
our board chair

and he came up with the idea
of having a benefit dinner,

something called
Commitment to Life.

And remember this is an '85

when nobody was supporting
much of anything.

We put together some ideas,

who makes the most sense

for something called
Commitment to Life.

And there were three
draws at that time,

the Pope, Queen Elizabeth,
and Elizabeth Taylor.

And we said, "Well, we
can't get the first two,

but we could probably
get the third."

- Elizabeth Taylor was the
biggest movie star in the world.

(upbeat music)

She was the last great movie
star of the Golden Age.

Her escapades were notorious.

She was what every girl
in America wanted to be

and many of the boys.

- Where passion rules, how
weak does reason prove?

- She was working in
a creative business,

so she had gay people
around her her whole life.

- Thank you, my friends.

- In the '80s, Elizabeth
was making some TV movies

and kind of living her life.

AIDS was in the news.

She'd go to a cocktail party

and people were like whispering,

oh, there's this awful thing.

And Elizabeth was getting more

and more angry and frustrated,

like why is nothing happening?

- I was made so
aware of the silence,

this huge loud silence
regarding AIDS,

how no one wanted
to talk about it.

No one wanted to
become involved.

And it's so angered me that
I finally thought to myself,

bitch, do something yourself.

(upbeat music)

- [Tim] And Elizabeth
was well aware

of the fame that she had

and she realized she
was in a unique position

to be able to put
her face to AIDS.

- I became involved
when I was asked

to be general chairman
of the first dinner

given in America to
raise funds for AIDS.

(birds chirping)
(cameras snapping)

- We had a fundraising event,

the presale party for Commitment
to Life in West Hollywood

and she went.

- It's a desperate situation

and it needs
everybody's help now.

- [Bill] It was her
very first AIDS event.

- To put a dinner together,
it took seven months work.

Our industry seemed reluctant

to have anything to do with it.

It was a taboo subject.

And I won't tell you the
names of some of the people

that refused to have
their names identified

because it would blow
your mind. (chuckles)

I became so incensed and
personally frustrated

at the rejection I was receiving

by just trying to get
people's attention.

- And that was what it was like
until Rock Hudson got sick.

- [Reporter] Actor
Rock Hudson has AIDS,

acquired immune
deficiency syndrome.

- Rock Hudson was
completely in the closet,

but Elizabeth knew Rock was gay.

They were friends.

- [Narrator] Liz and Rock,
today's two most exciting stars

in the only picture big enough

to bring them together "Giant."

- In January of 1985,

she received the Cecil
B. DeMille Award.

- Ladies and gentlemen,
Ms. Elizabeth Taylor.

(group clapping)

(triumphant music)

- [Tim] She was with Rock
and he didn't look very well.

She asked him about it,
but he said it was cancer.

- Mr. Hudson is being
evaluated and treated

for complications of acquired
immune deficiency syndrome.

- Elizabeth found out
that Rock had AIDS

at the same time
as everybody else.

She got in touch
with Michael Gottlieb

and he took her to go see Rock

and so she had a
chance to say goodbye.

(gentle music)

- What we all have to do is
go out tonight, tomorrow,

grab our neighbors, our
friends, our acquaintances,

grab them by the
throats if necessary,

make them understand,
break the barrier.

- Rock Hudson put a face to
the disease for the world

and that was invaluable
in helping us move along

the idea that everybody needs
to be concerned about this.

(group cheering)
(group clapping)

When we were putting together

the first Commitment to Life
dinner after Rock Hudson,

the demand for tickets
to that event was crazy.

- Tonight in Los Angeles,

some of the biggest
names in show business

will host a widely
publicized benefit for AIDS.

- [Announcer] Ladies and
gentlemen, Ms. Elizabeth Taylor.

(group cheering)

- The emotions were so raw

because everybody was
personally affected by it.

- All we can do at this point

is help our friends
who have AIDS,

(group cheering)
(group clapping)

and the only way we can do that

is by doing what you
are doing by giving,

giving of support,
money, and love.

(group cheering)
(group clapping)

- That evening was amazing

because it was all of
these big famous people

coming together to
say, we see you.

That hadn't happened.

That was the first
time that happened.

- As a person with AIDS,
I wanna remind you,

I am still alive.

(group cheering)
(group clapping)

I had been so scared
of dying alone

and that was totally irrelevant

because I was
surrounded by love.

I am very hopeful
that the turnout

of stars and celebrities

will really help people
across the country realize

that there is nothing to fear

from being in the same room
with a person with AIDS,

from embracing a
person with AIDS,

from being present to
a person with AIDS.

(group cheering)
(upbeat music)

- When we first put this on,

we were targeting
maybe $400,000.

It is not someone
else's problem,

it is all of our problem.

Wound up raising $1.3 million.

- [Interviewer] If
you have one message

to get across to people about
why they should really care.

- Well, it's human beings' lives

and if you care about anything,

if you care about yourself,

you have to care what
happens to others.

- [Announcer] The following
program is a special

from Channel Five's
Eyewitness News.

It contains detailed information

about a sexually
transmitted disease.

- [Reporter] This is it, the
test everyone's talking about.

The AIDS antibody test.

- They developed this HIV test

and for a lot of
us, myself included,

we were adamant that people
shouldn't take the test

because there were
no treatments.

Getting tested without
treatment exacerbated stigma,

but also exacerbated
hopelessness.

(group chattering)

So we felt that a better
prevention strategy

was to assume that you had it

and we behaved
accordingly as a way

of trying to protect each other.

I decided that I
should take the test

because Chris was already
experiencing severe symptoms.

And so I went to get tested.

Two weeks later, I
went to get my results

and it turns out that
I was HIV positive

and everything started to spin.

And I began to cry

and I was completely overwhelmed

by the notion that
I was going to die.

The doctor said to me,

"You probably have six months
to live and you should go home

and get your affairs in order."

And I remember thinking,
I'm 20 something,

I don't have any
affairs to get in order.

- [Reporter] 37-year-old
Chris Brownlie

and 31-year-old Phill Wilson

have been a couple
for eight years.

Although Phill has
AIDS related complex,

he is still healthier than Chris

who was diagnosed as
having AIDS last February.

- We really went
into political mode

and then the Larouche
campaign happened.

- This is a disease which
is perfectly capable

of eliminating the human race.

- Lyndon Larouche
was a very marginal

right wing, crazy character,

but he did catch a moment
of lack of understanding

about HIV/AIDS.

- I'm afraid that I'm going
to get it from causal contact.

I don't care what they say,

you can get it from
casual contact.

- [Torie] Lyndon
Larouche was able

to put this ballot
measure Prop 64,

and it would've quarantined
people with AIDS.

- AIDS victims must be isolated

from general society
until a cure is found

so we don't catch that disease.

Am I right?
- Yeah!

- At that point,
60% of Californians

did not know how
AIDS was transmitted.

- If the only way to stop them
stop it is quarantine people

I don't think any there's
any way around it.

I think they're
gonna have to do it.

- In the early '80s,

gay people had just been
decriminalized 10 years earlier.

Then the American
Psychological Association says,

we're not insane.

We had come so far
to create a community

and all of a sudden they're
talking about rounding us all up

and putting us in camps.

- At a time when I am
facing the possibility

of my premature death,

I do not need the added
stress of being told

that I might possibly
be quarantined

or put away from people
who could help me.

- A lot of the queer
community was mobilized.

- [Group] No on 64.

- [Torie] For the Fighting
Against the Larouche Initiative.

We did a direct mail drive.

We got Keith Haring
to do the logo.

- [Group] AIDS education,
not determination.

- [Reporter] In
California opposition

to the initiative is building.

- When you had a
particular proposition

like 64, you defeat it.

- [Reporter] The
no on 64 campaign

it was a resounding victory.

But beneath the cheers and
celebration last night,

there were also sighs of relief.

- Voters of California
clearly made a choice

that they want
public health policy

to stay in the hands
of the professionals.

- It was roundly defeated

and it was a major
step in our community.

(group cheering)
(gentle music)

- The ethic that took
root in the LGBT community

was we are gonna
take responsibility

for stopping the
spread of this disease.

- Welcome to AIDS Walk.

- We put together the AIDS Walk.

An AIDS Walk is
where you get people

to volunteer not only to walk,

but to raise money from their
friends to support their walk.

- As you begin your walk,

I wanna wish you good luck

and I want you to remember

that with your
individual efforts today,

it takes us that much
closer to our goal.

- [David] It was
a spectacular day,

and Paramount Pictures
hosted it for years.

- Fundraisers hope they
can keep up this pace

Long after today's
walk, there'll still be a need for money.

Judging by today's turnout,
they're off to a good start.

- As far as I was
concerned in our work,

whether you were HIV positive
or not, in your mind you were.

It was only a matter of time.

And you were part of a community
that glued itself together.

And so it started making people

be activists instead
of just active.

(gentle upbeat music)

- [Reporter] West Hollywood,
a recently formed city

with a large gay and
lesbian community.

That community is protected
by a city council,

which considers gay
rights a priority.

- Because there was the first
gay majority in the nation,

West Hollywood was
the fertile ground

for an LGBT movement
to spring fourth.

HIV and AIDS brought up
all these medical issues,

but it also brought up
all these legal issues.

- I was diagnosed in April
and I was out of a job.

- People could lose their job,

or lose their apartment,

or lose their insurance
if they were HIV positive.

And so the city of
West Hollywood ended up passing a law,

no discrimination on
the basis of HIV status.

- It extends protections
to persons with AIDS

or persons who are
thought to have AIDS

and those persons are
protected by the city

because there is no
state or federal law

that protects them
at this point.

- Dealing from the point of view

of a discriminated
small minority,

you had to use your brain and
you had to control yourself

if you were gonna progress.

(gentle upbeat music)

No one offered us a
seat at the table,

so we did things like
established relationships

with politicians,
with respected people

in the non gay community.

We got to the point where
we could get admitted

to the mayor's office.

We were not shunned
and we were able

to accomplish a great deal.

(gavel banging)

- Meeting of the subcommittee
will come to order.

- Some members of Congress
were waking up to this.

Henry Waxman, he had a safe seat

and he was chairman
of the subcommittee,

the exact subcommittee
we had to deal with.

I sat in Waxman's office
and we talked about AIDS,

and he listened and he acted.

- This is not liberal
or conservative,

it is not a Democratic
or Republican position.

I believe that we have
crafted legislation

that can slow the
spread of AIDS.

- The bill has passed.

(gavel bangs)

- The federal government
provided some money, not enough,

but money was provided
and we struggled through.

- [Group] No on 64, no on 64.

- We defeated Prop 64
by a tremendous margin,

but the issues
around discrimination

and criminalizing HIV
continue to go on.

- The civil rights of the
uninfected American people

are as much entitled
to protection

as the civil rights
of the infected.

- There was a guy named
Dannemeyer from Orange County

who was a total creep.

- If you have the virus and
you engage in sexual activities

with another human,
you've committed a crime.

- [Phill] Bill Dannemeyer was
so active in putting forth

these irrational
discriminatory initiatives.

- They have failed
to take action

to protect the public health

by shutting down
these AIDS factories,

which we sometimes
call bathhouses.

- And there were lots of
victories for that side,

making it illegal to
transmit the virus,

making it illegal
if you're positive

to spit on a policeman,

making it illegal if you didn't
disclose your HIV status,

even if you did
not infect anyone.

And some of those laws
are on the books today.

- We are acting in the
best interest of the nation

by fighting AIDS and not
the people with AIDS.

- When I became chair of APLA,

I wanted money and I wanted
to kill anti AIDS bills.

That's just two things, but
those are big important things.

AIDS Action Council was the
AIDS lobbying organization.

APLA and the main
AIDS organizations

in the country were members

and they were there
to secure financing

from the government.

- I did go to Washington
and I lobbied several times.

One day our older
son Brett said,

"I've got something
to talk to you about."

And he said, "I've got AIDS."

And then a year
later, our second son,

Michael called and told us
he had just been diagnosed.

I was with each of my
sons when they died.

It was pretty raw.

I finally pulled myself together

and I joined mother
support groups,

but I had to do more than that.

(brooding music)

- I've never heard
once in this chamber

anybody say to the homosexuals,
stop what you are doing.

Do you realize that if they
would stop what they're doing,

there would not be one
additional case of AIDS

in the United States of America?

- We went to the Senate.

Jesse Helms walked over to us

and when we told him
why we were here,

he pulled his hand back.

He didn't want to have
anything to do with us.

(cameras snapping)

- Elizabeth became the
spokesperson for amfAR,

(gentle upbeat music)

which was the National
AIDS Research Foundation.

I traveled with her
to Washington and we met with senators.

She wanted them to know

that they had to be
supportive of funding.

- It is my hope that
history will show

that the American
people and our leaders

met the challenge
of AIDS rationally

and with all the resources
of their disposal.

- She was willing to
do whatever it took

to get the politicians to get
their heads out of the sand.

- Many of us have lost
a dear friend to AIDS,

don't wait until
someone you care for

is touched by this
horrifying illness.

(group chattering)
(cameras snapping)

- We did a fundraiser
in Washington for amfAR

and Reagan had not yet
said the word AIDS.

(group clapping)

Elizabeth met with him
and said, "Do it for me."

("Hail to the Chief")

And Reagan spoke and
uttered the word AIDS

for the first time.

- Spending on AIDS has been one

of the fastest growing
parts of the budget.

And ladies and gentlemen,
it deserves to be.

(group clapping)

- Just the fact
that he was there

after so much silence
was very important.

He signs bills,

I mean, he's the president
of the United States.

The speech was going along fine

until he mentioned
mandatory testing.

- I've also asked HHS
to add the AIDS virus

to the list of
contagious diseases

for which immigrants and aliens
seeking permanent residence

in the United States
can be denied entry.

(group booing)

- The President had never
been booed, I am sure.

(dramatic music)

But I can assure you that
me and many of my friends

blame him for many, many deaths.

- Americans working together
can beat any problem

that comes our way and
that goes for AIDS too.

- It had taken Reagan,

his entire presidency
to even say the words,

and there was still
unbelievable homophobia and bias

coming out of the Congress.

And so we had to multitask.

And we are a part
of this community

and it belongs to us as much
as it belongs to anyone else.

(siren wailing)

And then we began to look at
the impact of HIV and AIDS

along racial lines.

- AIDS is an equal
opportunity disease,

but we can all fight and
win if we hang together.

(group chattering)

- At the time there was not
really any sort of consideration

around bisexual people
or trans people.

Of course, trans
people should have been

a part of the conversation,
but they were not.

- From the very beginning
of the epidemic,

trans people were not included
and many communities of color

were left behind unfortunately.

And so the challenges for me
as someone who is HIV positive

and as someone who was
trying to access healthcare,

there was specific to my
needs there wasn't any.

(gentle music)

(group vocalizing)

- Los Angeles, it has
a huge Asian community.

We had a good mix of Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese.

We had a very big Thai
community here in Los Angeles

and our big thing in Los Angeles

was that we need to get
Asian people tested.

And at the time, Filipino
men were the most infected.

And so being a gay Filipino man,

I had a personal investment.

I started doing AIDS work

and I found out that there
were a lot of communities

of color who did not
want to be identified

as a person living with AIDS.

(melancholic music)

- So was the shame that they
have contracted the disease

that they didn't want to go out.

Some of them when their
families found out

that they were HIV positive
turned their back on.

- I used to volunteered over
in APLA and some of the guys,

they wouldn't come
to the food bank

knowing that I was there.

This is how deeply the shame
cut into the hearts and souls

of a lot of those guys.

(group chattering)

I'd like anyone who has had
a friend, lover, relative

who has passed from AIDS

to yell out their name as
the song is being played.

- Leo.
- Bob.

- [Man] Lucci.

- [Woman] Larizo Bob.

- [Man 2] Keith Bass.

- Chris.
- Wayne.

- Dudley Jones!
- Roger Deccan.

- Dan Rice.
- Al!

- [Woman 2] Michelle Vincent.

(melancholic music)

- [Interviewer] Did you
see a lot of people pass?

- Oh, too many to even mention.

From doctors, to teachers,
to principals of schools,

to business folk, to
bankers, to preachers.

Some good folks died.

I knew guys were being put out

and they would come to
the club off the streets,

and so we used to have
a buffet at happy hour.

Sometimes this was all
that the folks had to eat.

(group vocalizing)

- Jewel saw these young
black men get sick,

and these were her patrons,
and these were her staff,

and these were her friends.

She was a black woman running
the largest black gay club

west of the Mississippi.

And so when AID hit she saw
it up close and personal.

(group cheering)
(gentle music)

- We started the
Minority AIDS Project.

Our mission was to help out
and bring services to the hood.

(gentle music)

- [Phill] The
Minority AIDS Project

was the first organization
in Los Angeles County

that focused exclusively
on people of color

to make sure that
folks didn't die alone

and that there was someone who
visited them in the hospital.

- When you talk AIDS
in my community,

you talk AIDS in poverty,

and so you have to deal
with it from that angle.

We see men, we see
women, we see kids,

but the model that the
white gay community has

would not and cannot
work in our community.

We have to deal with people
basic surviving, eating,

sleeping, a roof
over their head.

- [Jewel] We got a home for
the homeless, Dignity House.

And then we opened Ruth's House,

was a place for women
and children with AIDS.

- Black folks
stepped up and said,

we're gonna take
care of our own.

People of color,
going to churches,

going to places where
black families were

to say, love your children
who may have AIDS.

(man speaking in
foreign language)

- If you were poor and Latino

you live in the Echo
Park Silver Lake area.

(siren wailing)
(brooding music)

If you were positive in
the Latino community,

not only you have to deal
with the LAPD harassing you,

but you have to also
deal with gang members

that will just beat you
up for being who you are.

Oscar De La O, that
was in his blood

to be involved in the community

to try to make life
better for others.

So he started Bienestar.

(gentle upbeat music)

Bienestar means wellbeing,

and it's a space were you
can come and be yourself.

We created our baseball team
and we play in a gay league.

We were the first
ones to do a gay prom.

We used to call it Amore
Prohibido, Forbidden love.

We had many clients
that were transgender

who would come in
dressed as a boy

and they would go
into the restroom

and come back as a woman

because that was the only space

that they felt that it was safe

where they can be themselves.

- My name is Chris Brownlie.

I believe people with AIDS

and their loved ones
deserve the very best care.

- [Michael] Myself
and Chris Brownlie,

we were very, very close friends

and we were talking about
what should we do now.

Here in LA people really,

when they started
that steep slope down,

people really had
no place to go.

The least we could do is
give them a dignified death,

and that's what led ultimately
to the founding of AHF

as the AIDS Hospice Foundation.

- The person with
AIDS has been treated

with neglect and disrespect
by our society in general.

In Los Angeles County
opening this facility today

says that that era is over.

(birds chirping)

- We got ahold of this
old tuberculosis hospital

right by Dodger Stadium

and we built the Chris
Brownlie Hospice.

The plan was that
it would be a place

that Chris could go in the end.

For the longest time,
we literally did not allow ourselves

to think about him dying,

but when it became clear
that the time was short,

he and I were in the room alone

and I told him that it was okay,

that it was okay for him to go.

Chris took a breath, and
then he took another breath,

and then he took another breath,

and then he didn't
take another breath,

and I laid there with
my head on his shoulder.

They came to take him away.

And I remember thinking, why
are they in such a hurry?

Don't they know
what just happened?

(brooding music)
(group chattering)

- We marched on Washington
on October the 11th, 1987,

and I know it's that
date because I was there.

- I'm at the Capitol Mall where
the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt

is to be unveiled.

Each panel of this huge
two city block quilt

bears the name of someone
who has died of AIDS.

There are over 2000 names
on this quilt here today.

And what a graphic and
loving tribute to our family.

- It had to be all
flown to Washington DC

and it's because this
was our cemetery.

We were laying our dead

before President Reagan
and the Congress.

(dramatic drum music)

This is something we
all had in common.

And out of that came a
whole new level of activism.

- There just comes
a breaking point

where people are just fed
up with not being seen,

not being heard, not being
honored as human beings.

And AIDS was one of the great
catalysts of just saying,

we've had it and I
know a lot of you

just want us to go away,

but we're gonna be even
more in your face now

because we're fighting
for our lives.

- [Group] Act Up,
fight back, fight AIDS!

- Act Up was started by
Larry Kramer in New York.

Out of that came Act Up
chapters all over the country.

- [Group] Silence equals death!

- We're not here to please
anyone, to make friends.

We're here to save our lives

and the lives of
the people with HIV.

- [Group] We're not a red
tape, we're not a red tape!

- I feel an urgency
as a person with AIDS,

and if it hadn't
been for Act UP,

I'm not sure that we
would have the AZT

that is helping us
stay alive longer.

Because ACT UP was instrumental

in getting the FDA to speed
up approval of these drugs.

- The government today
approved the sale

of the first drug for
the treatment of AIDS.

The drug AZT is not a cure

because it doesn't
kill the AIDS virus,

but trials last year showed
that it prolongs life

for AIDS sufferers.

- AZT was very
toxic, however AZT

showed that you
could develop a drug

that would treat HIV.

(group chattering)

- In a world where the Desert
Storm has taken our attention

away from a winter storm
that has attacked America now

for 10 years, killing more
people than the Vietnam War.

Tonight we take a moment
to think about this.

I have to tell you that just
three hours ago, Randy Stewart,

an employee for six years
of AIDS Project Los Angeles

died of AIDS.

I had to spend, of course,

half of my time
out raising money.

I mean it was cocktails
and funerals in most days.

- APLA was barely solvent.

And so every way we
could possibly think

about raising money,
we raised money.

(upbeat music)

Everything from haircutathons,

to cocktail parties,
to tribute dinners,

(cameras clicking)

APLA was able to get
celebrities to step forward.

- We have the wonderful,
talented Estelle Getty.

We're here with Heather Thomas.

It's nice for you to
come out tonight Zsa Zsa.

- [Craig] There was another
event called Summer Party.

(disco music)

Summer Party
attracted 5,000 people

and it was
entertainment and food

on the back lot of Universal.

- AIDS Dance A Thon,

I somehow think Jesse
Helms won't be there,

but hey, he's invited.

Come on down, I dare ya.

- And it was a star speckled
evening in Universal City.

The Call Celeb, a fashion
show for AIDS research.

- [Craig] There was an
annual fashion gala,

which was put together
by a group of volunteers

from within the
fashion industry.

And every year featured
a particular designer.

- We ran APLA like a business.

I said, give me that cure,

I'll shut this
organization down faster

than you can believe.

That wasn't appreciated
by my staff.

(dramatic music)

Barry Diller was a top executive

in the entertainment
industry and still is.

So I called Barry Diller
and asked for a meeting.

And they said, "Mr. Diller
invites you to dinner

at his home on Saturday night."

I show up and there is
Barry Diller, David Geffen,

and Sandy Gallin, was
one of the top agents.

They were all moguls in
the entertainment industry

and rich, which was nice.

And at the end of the meeting,
I was politely dismissed

and two days later, the
treasurer called me and said,

"We just got the big check

from Diller, and
Geffen, and Gallin,"

and fundraising became easier.

- When the first
person I knew died,

I couldn't bring myself to
throw his Rolodex card away,

so I saved it.

I now have a rubber
band around 341 cards.

- David was such a powerful,
influential force of nature

in the creative community.

David is the one who
introduced me to APLA.

I was always
influenced in the world

in which it was the
obligation of people that have

to take care of
people that have not.

I felt given the positions
of influence that I had,

that it made it safe
for other people

in our community to show up.

(group chattering)

- The first Commitment
to Life was the success.

And then the second one raised
just under a million dollars.

Commitment to Life grew and
it became an annual event.

(upbeat music)

(suspenseful music)

(group cheering)
(group clapping)

* I feel pretty, oh, so pretty *

* I feel witty, and
pretty, and bright *

* And I pity any girl
who isn't me tonight *

* I feel charming *

As it went on Commitment to Life

was the flagship event of APLA.

- The Commitment to Life award.

And I had to come to
the Valley to get it.

(group laughing)

- From that moment
on Commitment to Life

became something special
and extraordinary.

They stood as amazing
fundraising events

because they raised
millions of dollars

and they were great
entertainment.

They were great fun.

* A kiss on the hand may
be quite continental *

* But diamonds are
girl's best friend *

(group cheering)

Even though you're at
a big AIDS fundraiser,

people wanted to have
a really good time

and celebrate the people
they love and lost.

* I had some friends
but they're gone *

* Something came
and took them away *

* And from the dusk
till the dawn *

* Here is where I stay *

(group clapping)

The generosity of the
audience and the performers,

the spirit that was in the room,

you could put all the pain aside

and escape to a
really great show.

(group cheering)
(group clapping)

- You knew that you were in
a moment, at least for us,

you were in our moment.

(R&B music)

* And when I go *

* Please carry on *

(group clapping)

- We all know that all these
beautiful Hollywood women,

they have a gaggle of
LGBTQ people behind them

who build their confidence

and make sure that they
look good from head to toe.

(camera snapping)
(upbeat pop music)

(camera snaps)

* And you can dance *

- I wasn't really paying
attention to like movie stars,

but I was paying
attention to Madonna.

- Number one is because I really
believe in AIDS Project LA.

(group cheering)

- Madonna was one who stepped
up for the LGBTQ community.

- If you do have
sex, use a condom.

It may be the most
important thing you ever do.

- When the AIDS crisis happened,

people who were
part of her circle

were people who were HIV
positive or have AIDS,

and that's why it
was important for her

to make sure that
she advocated for us.

* Come on, come on *

- Madonna was very
involved early on,

and so we decided that we
were gonna honor Madonna

for Commitment to Life.

Vince Patterson, who did
a lot of her choreography

directed the show.

They had done the MTV
Awards the night before.

Madonna paid for
bringing the whole set

and her whole crew
over the next night.

(group chattering)

And nobody in the audience
knew she was gonna perform.

I'm getting chills just
thinking about the moments

that curtain went up
and the music started.

(dramatic pop music)
(fingers snapping)

(group cheering)

- I attended every
Commitment to Life.

It was festive occasion

and if you were
involved in the trenches

to escape from that
for an evening,

which was a very good thing.

But to be completely honest,

it was a healthy reminder of
the work that I needed to do.

* Somehow *

* Someday *

* Someway *

- We'll raise $4
million tonight,

which will feed and
take care of and clothe

a great many people
who are in great need.

And so it's really
wonderful night.

(group chattering)

David was fierce.

(group clapping)

He cared about this issue.

He would go after people.

He would call 'em up and say,

"You gave a hundred thousand
dollars, that's it."

"What is a matter
with you people?"

"Do you really expect us
to accept this as a gift?"

- AIDS makes your responsibility
more urgent to be positive

about our lifestyles and
nurture and protect young gays

who look up to us for hope

that they too can lead a life

uninhibited by fear
and guilt and shame.

(group clapping)

As a gay man, I've come a
long way to be here tonight.

(group cheering)

- This is one of the
leading people in Hollywood

who everyone in the
community knew was gay,

but had never publicly
acknowledged that fact,

which now has
become sort of like,

oh yeah, I'm gay, get over it.

But that was not the
case in those days.

(group chattering)
(brooding music)

- It was one thing to go to
a big star studded banquet,

it was another thing to work

with people with
AIDS on the set.

- [Reporter] For many in
Hollywood with the virus,

it's a secret, one they
feel they have to keep

or risk losing their career.

- [Interviewee] I have
to remain anonymous

because I don't
want to be subjected

to the discrimination
that is out there.

So I don't tell
people that I'm gay,

and I certainly don't tell
them that I'm HIV positive.

- I got calls from a
number of different actors

who were diagnosed with AIDS,

who were terrified that they
were never gonna work again.

And a lot of times,
actors who were well known

who died of AIDS,

their obituary said they
died of something else.

(door clicks)

(audience laughing)
(brooding music)

- I knew in 1985 that
I was HIV positive.

I never told anyone.

And I had such fear, I
was so governed by fear

that this was going
to get out in my life.

My condition is something
often found in young men

in the prime of their lives.

But I don't feel that
it impacted my work.

But now that I was
in the public eye,

you did not want that shit out.

- People with AIDS describe

how Hollywood's
fear of the virus

is forcing them
into the shadows.

- [Director] All right, very
quiet please, this is picture.

Hold the talk.

- It was really
about discrimination.

Discrimination about
people who were suffering

from HIV and AIDS,

but were healthy enough to work

and in fact, were working
all the time around them.

My husband was Brad Davis
and he was an actor.

He identified as heterosexual,

but he never had any
problem playing gay.

As an actor he felt that it
was his job to take risks.

(gentle music)

He was working, but the
truth was that by that point,

he was actually HIV positive.

In LA if somebody
was even rumored,

these were the kinds of things
that could lose you a career,

and so you didn't talk about it.

Never any of our friends,
never any of our family,

no one knew, so he
suffered a lot alone.

I knew that Brad was
going to die very shortly.

And just before Brad died,

he said he felt it was
important to come forward

and tell the truth
about how he died.

(gentle music)

Brad was working in your shows,

he was working in your movies,

he was doing this work
and he was HIV positive,

and that was Brad's intent,

to shock the community

into awareness and let
them take it from there.

- Whatever the rules
are today in Hollywood,

they must be changed so
that people like Brad

can come forward
before they die.

(group clapping)

- I think that was the thing
that triggered Mr. Diller.

When he discovered
people who had AIDS

couldn't get a job
that angered him.

And he went to a friend of
his named Sidney Sheinberg,

who was CEO of MCA Universal.

He called him up, he said,

"We gotta do
something about this."

- Hollywood Supports
has been established

by leading figures in the
entertainment industry.

And it is using the services
of AIDS Project Los Angeles

in providing education and
counseling to the industry

to counter AIDS
phobia and homophobia.

What Hollywood Supports is
about is no more Brad Davis's.

- Hollywood Supports,
it sent a message

not just to Hollywood,

but to the rest of
the business world,

that this is the new standard

of how you're
gonna treat people.

And we may not have our rights

guaranteed in the
Constitution or by the laws,

but we are going to give it
to you on the corporate level.

- There's a quilt being
unfolded in our meadow.

A quilt dedicated to all the
people that have died of AIDS.

- Television has tremendous
power to open people's minds

and to give them some empathy

towards people they
might not know.

(gentle music)

"The Real World" is about seven
individuals coming together

from different backgrounds,

and so we had a wonderful
opportunity to explore things

that were going on in America.

- I am a person living with
AIDS and I am a gay man.

- On "The Real World" Pedro
wanted to help educate

other young people about AIDS.

Pedro put out a very positive
but honest representation

of what it's like
to be HIV positive.

Pedro taught America that
people live with HIV.

They go on living until
their last breath.

(patient gasping)

- Let go.

(patient gasps)

All the pain,

(patient gasping)

let it all go.

- I remember "Longtime
Companion", which was very moving.

- I know I'm losing it.

Can barely remember half
the things I wanna say.

- There had been this history

of movies taking on these themes

but they were smaller,
independent movies,

playing mostly to
arthouse movie audiences.

We admired those
movies very much,

but somewhere the challenge
came to make the movie

that you could show at the mall
cinema on a Saturday night.

Why don't we try to reach the
biggest audience possible?

(melancholic music)

- Tom Hanks at that point

was certainly the biggest
movie star in the world,

and for the tens of millions
of people who saw that movie,

even though it was
a fictional story,

it helped people understand.

And Tom Hanks won the best
actor Oscar for Philadelphia.

- I know that my work and this
case is magnified by the fact

that the streets of heaven
are too crowded with angels.

As the calendar continues
to make our world

a lesser and lonelier place,

grace, it seems springs
from many sources.

It is a sense of goodwill,
of mercy, of beauty.

I'm inspired once again by
your Commitment to Life.

It is part and parcel to
AIDS Project Los Angeles.

- We had outgrown our building

and there really was only
one of the size we needed.

It was a record studio on Vine,
two blocks south of Sunset.

It was perfect for us,

but we didn't have the
money for a building.

So I called up Mr. Geffen
and after a few pleasantries,

he said, "All right,
what do you want?"

I said, "A million dollars,

I need a building,
it's a down payment."

He gave it to me and
we got the building.

(gentle music)

- When APLA bought that
building in the early '90s,

almost everybody
who got AIDS died.

So those first few years were
really, really, really bleak

and we had no
effective treatment.

So what was needed in that era

is this place where they
can be where they could come

and if they wanted
to hang out all day,

a place of community,

a place where they could get
all the services they need

in our community service
center, and that was the model.

- They bought that huge
building to be a one-stop shop

for all sorts of AIDs
services, and it was,

but then there became a tension

between the one-stop shop idea
and then the proximity idea.

- People of color
were coming to us

from neighborhoods all
over Los Angeles County.

It wasn't convenient for them.

And so there were
criticisms lodged at APLA.

(group chattering)

What's the role of organizations

that were founded
by white folks,

but now are organizations

that serve a majority
of people of color?

- At that time, we were
on different pages.

The overall purpose
of all of this

is is to make this
black community, the black gay community,

a very viable one that
will be recognized

all over the world
for sticking together

to love one another
and being present.

Thank you very much.

God bless you.

The Minority AIDS Project
had the same purpose as APLA,

but our little agency didn't
have the money and the prestige

that APLA had.

And so we had to go to
the ancestors sometimes

to pull it together.

Like doing a barbecue

instead of a Commitment
to Life. (laughs)

Start having the Divas Simply
Singing with Sheryl Ralph.

It was a show featuring
the divas of the time,

so we were just winging it
and adding our flavor to it.

(group cheering)

- Jewel was a black
lesbian woman with a voice.

She was running a
hot club in town.

She had access to an audience,

and our issue was trying to
get to certain audiences.

- I was asked to be on
the board of directors

by Stephen Bennett.

He called me and he said,

"Nobody else has what you
have to bring to the table."

"We gotta talk."

And I told him I was
not gonna be the token.

That I would do it as long as it

would bring some resources
to the minority communities.

So I went to the board
and the benefit for me

was to be on that board

and to see how things
operated from the inside out.

- When Jewel joined
the APLA board,

she made a impact
eventually leading

to bringing more people
of color on the board

and diversifying the
staff at all levels.

- [Reporter] AIDS
Project Los Angeles

has a new executive director.

- Now, don't get me
wrong, I'm not naive.

I do clearly understand
that there are tensions.

Folks come to the table
with whatever they have

and we try to share it.

If you've got bread and
I got peanut butter,

we got a sandwich.

- And over time it was
repositioning the organization

vis-a-vis what was really
happening in the community.

Quite honestly, one of the
challenges was the gay money.

(group chattering)

Gay money came
from white gay men.

And so we had to make sure
that our donors understood

what we were doing and why.

It wasn't to save just
your boyfriend or you,

it was to save others.

- The money you have raised
tonight is $3,914,000.

- The dichotomy that
existed at APLA at the time

was that many of the supporters

were these unimaginably
uber rich folks.

And so it was
interesting to spend time

in South Central Los
Angeles in the daytime

and then go to an event
at David Geffen's house.

- Oh yeah, (laughs)

I was on the board
with someone those.

They were big
time, big business,

and they had
influence in politics.

One time, two of
the board members

helicoptered in for lunch.

I said, okay.

You know, it makes you
feel a little different,

but I got along with everybody.

(upbeat music)
(group cheering)

- [Announcer] He's
in the back court,

the pass great
game, four on four,

Magic all the way, throws it
up, down it goes, he's scores!

- Magic Johnson NBA
player extraordinaire.

(group cheering)

He was an amazing athlete

and I grew up as a
kid watching him play.

I remember the press conference.

- First of all, let me say
good, good after late afternoon.

Because of the HIV virus
that I have attained,

I will have to retire
from the Lakers today.

- Magic, he was this iconic man

who my family absolutely
loved and adored,

and so it, it was almost
like a family member.

(cameras snapping)

- You know, sometimes you're
a little naive about it

and you think it could
never happen to you,

and it has happened,

but I'm gonna deal with
it and my life will go on.

- I do think it built
an awareness definitely.

There was much more
conversations amongst youth, for sure.

* Let's talk about sex, baby *

* Let's talk about you and me *

* Let's talk about
all the good things *

* And the bad
things that may be *

* Yo, let's talk about AIDS *

* To the uninformed *

* You think you can't get it *

* Well, you're dead wrong *

Then TLC came in

and Left Eye had the
condom in her glasses.

- Condoms represent safe sex.

Protection is a priority,
so we stand by strongly.

- [Traci] And so it
became a little more like,

let's talk about it.

Let's test.

Let's build some awareness
in the community.

- I'm really scared about AIDS.

- God, I can't believe
we're talking about this.

- I think these people
need a little education

about the HIV virus.

- This AIDS business is serious
and it's not going away.

- I don't know a
whole lot about AIDS,

but I wanna introduce you
to a couple of guys who do.

(static hissing)

- People saw it, they heard it,

whether they did something
about it was different.

I remember in my generation
it was more like a threat.

Like you better wrap it up.

You saw what happened to Eazy.

- Rap Singer Eazy-E
has lost his battle

with AIDS just 10 days

after revealing that
he had the disease.

(melancholic music)

- Eazy, he knew his status
three months before he passed.

Imagine what would've
happened to a Eazy E

had he had education,
knowledge, and testing.

He would've probably
lived longer.

He would've been able to
help people understand more,

but we don't know.

Part of it is the shame,
stigma, and silence.

It's something that we
are still grappling with,

and it's something that if
we don't grapple with it,

it's gonna hurt us in the end.

(dramatic music)

- You have very generous
in coming out tonight,

but I'm gonna ask
for one more favor

from each and every one of you.

I want you to do it for APLA,

and for yourselves,
and for your country.

I want you to make sure that
you're registered to vote

and I want you to vote.

(group clapping)

If we can elect leaders who
care more about other people

than they do about themselves,
we can beat this disease.

(group clapping)

- [Group] George
Bush, you can't hide!

We charge you with genocide!

George Bush-
- Mr. President, yesterday,

10s of thousands of people
paraded past the White House

to demonstrate their concern
about the disease AIDS.

- I am very much
concerned about AIDS.

We've got to care.

We've got to continue
everything we can,

and all of us are in
this fight together.

All of us care.

Do not go to the extreme.

- [Group] 150,000
dead, where was George?

- I don't think President Bush

is doing anything
about AIDS either.

I'm not even sure he
knows how to spell AIDS.

- Most of us have
preferred to believe AIDS

is not our problem,
but the truth is,

it is everybody's problem.

We don't have a person
to waste in our country,

and viruses do not discriminate.

I know how it hurts.

I've got friends
who died of AIDS,

and that's why I'm
running for president

to do something about it.

(group chattering)

I feel your pain.

- When Clinton became president
things started to change.

There was more talk in
government about the issues.

- Every person who's
living with AIDS

deserves not only our
compassion but our respect.

- Bill Clinton said something
which he probably didn't mean,

but it didn't matter,
we needed to hear it.

He said, "If I had a magic wand
and I could get rid of AIDS,

I would give all this up."

We had been waiting
for a president

to say something like
that to us for years.

- We are part of
the American family.

We are not a special
interest group.

We are men and women.

We are old and young.

We are gay and straight,
we are Americans,

and we want an end
to this epidemic.

- Yeah, I think your
time will be soon.

What do you think?

- I hope.

- You hope so.
- He hopes.

- I think your hope is
gonna be realized real soon.

(birds chirping)

- HIV came into our
understanding in the early '80s

and from the early '80s to 1995,

we did not have
effective treatments.

All we had was hope.

(gentle music)

- I don't feel like I'm dying.

If anybody stands a chance
of surviving this thing,

I think I do.

Maybe I'm overly optimistic,

but I would much
rather be hopeful

in the face of hopelessness

and continue to believe
in my life today.

- The next big
breakthrough on drugs

came through in 1995 with
the protease inhibitors.

Dr. Ho, who became Time
Magazine Man of the Year,

and others showed that
using three drugs together

from the get-go, the viral
load went to undetectable.

- It has been a long, tiring,
and often uphill struggle,

but I have to tell you,
we have made progress.

- I was at the International
Conference on AIDS in Vancouver

that summer where
it was announced

that they had found that
the cocktail treatment,

the combination of protease
inhibitors and antiretrovirals

were actually
helping people live.

- I look upon this
as another step

in the direction of trying

to completely suppress
or get rid of the virus.

- It was just the
most amazing thing,

and I wept for joy that it
was going to change now.

- In 1996, I got very sick

and my doctors thought that
I was not going to survive.

I was an intensive care with
less than 24 hours to live.

Protease inhibitors
had been discovered,

but they weren't
widely distributed.

All the calls went out and
I was able to get my meds.

I nearly died,

but I was on the new cocktails
and I was getting better,

and in fact, I was feeling
better than I had ever felt

at any time in the
previous 10 years probably.

- One of the great
good news stories

in the last couple of years
has been the dramatic reduction

in AIDS related deaths.

Thanks to a new
generation of drugs,

AIDS deaths dropped by
nearly half last year.

- How you feeling?

- Oh, much better today.

- For the vast
majority of people,

as we put them on these
drugs, their health got better

pretty quickly and
pretty dramatically.

And when you started
seeing the death rates drop

in '96, and '97, and '98,
the world changed on us.

- The drug regimens themselves
are very complicated.

These are the medications
I take in an average day,

nine of these a day
three with meals,

one of these twice a day,

one of these once a day,

and you can't take a drug
holiday from this routine.

If you stop even a few times

over the course of
a couple of days,

the drugs might lose
their effectiveness.

And then you're
back to square one.

- People would have their
pill carrier with a timer,

and you'd go to
dinner with people

and the buzzer would go off,

and it was time for them
to take all of these pills.

- When I thought I was dying,

I didn't have to worry
about the future.

And so when suddenly
you're gonna live,

what do I do now that my
credit card is maxed out

and I don't have a job
to pay it off with?

And so there was
a lot of, oh boy,

I'm gonna live as well as,
oh God, I'm gonna live.

- We also didn't know
if these treatments

were gonna last forever,

so we couldn't dismantle
what we had built,

but we eliminated
our buddy program.

It wasn't needed anymore.

We changed our Necessities
of Life program.

Our goal is to get you in
and out of an APLA NLP site

in 30 minutes or less.

We wanted them to get
on with their lives.

(gentle upbeat music)

- As this disease
turns another corner

from life killing
to life sustaining,

tonight, maybe this last night

that we do Commitment to Life.

- This evening is dedicated
to the millions of beings

who we have lost.

And to those
millions who continue

to demonstrate awe
inspiring courage

in their valiant
struggles to survive,

we cannot let them down.

We will not let them down.

(group cheering)

From the bottom of my heart,

I thank you tonight for
your commitment to life.

- [Barack] Good
morning, everybody.

- Good morning.

- It has been
nearly three decades

since this virus
first became known,

but for years we refused to
recognize it for what it was.

It was coined a gay disease.

A number of events have
broadened our understanding

of this cruel illness.

One of them came in 1984
when a 13-year-old boy

from central Indiana contracted
HIV/AIDS from a transfusion.

- I became known
as the AIDS boy.

- It would've been easy
for Ryan and his family

to stay quiet and to fight
the illness in private.

But what Ryan showed was the
same courage and strength

that so many HIV
positive activists

have shown over the years.

And because he did in 1990,
the year Ryan passed away,

Congress came together
and introduced

the Comprehensive AIDS
Resources Emergency Act,

the CARE Act, which was
later named after Ryan.

And over the past 19 years,

this legislation has evolved
from an emergency response

into a comprehensive
national program

for the care and support of
Americans living with HIV/AIDS.

It's often the only option

for the uninsured
and the underinsured,

and it provides life-saving
medical services

to more than half a million
Americans every year

in every corner of the country.

But let me be clear,

this is a battle
that's far from over

and it's a battle that all of us

need to do our part to join.

What we can do is keep
fighting each and every day

until we eliminate this disease
from the face of the earth.

So with that, let
me sign this bill.

(group clapping)

- In 2010 and with Obamacare,

Medicaid was expanded
from a program

that served primarily
women and children

to a program that
served everyone

as long as your
income was low enough.

So that meant for AIDS
Project Los Angeles,

we realized that we could
expand into healthcare

and begin by enrolling
many of our clients

into our own services.

(upbeat music)
(group cheering)

- And so in 2016,
APLA Health was born.

It's a federally qualified
healthcare center

with locations
across Los Angeles.

Our mission is to provide care

to underserved LGBTQ populations

and to people living with HIV.

But we serve patients
with all diagnoses.

Of course, there are cure
strategies in the works,

and there're interesting
case studies of people

who have been cured of HIV.

- I'm cured of HIV.

I had had HIV, but
I don't anymore.

(machine whirring)

- However, the idea
of having medicines

that will be globally available

to cure people who have HIV
is a bit of a pipe dream.

(brooding music)

Fortunately, this
evolution of therapy

has been fine tuned
to be compact.

We have single pill regimens

and of course people with HIV
would rather live without it.

But the point is that they
can live well with it.

- I'm a long-term survivor.

I am undetectable and I
surpass the life expectancy

of a trans woman.

Because of the treatment,
I had the opportunity

to leave the world
of drugs behind

and dedicate myself to
support those communities

who have been left behind.

And so I felt that
I had a purpose.

- The goal of putting
somebody on medications

is to reduce the amount
of virus in a CC of blood

to an undetectable level,

which then allows the
immune system to recover.

As we know now, if you have
an undetectable viral load,

the likelihood of
transmitting to somebody else

is as close to zero as possible.

How far have we come,

and what a great testament
to the people that died,

that we live our lives as
fully as we possibly can.

It's a great blessing.

But I really want to make
sure that we don't forget

that the treatments
we have today

came on the backs of the lives

of 10s of thousands
of people before them.

- The core of the embracing
of marriage equality,

it was really a legacy
of losing your partner

in life to AIDS.

And we all knew
that there's no way

we're ever gonna be equal

if our relationships
are not seen as equal.

- In one of the most momentous
civil rights decisions

in its history, the Supreme
Court of the United States

found that gay and
lesbian Americans

have a constitutional
right to marry.

- I believe that marriage
equality is the phoenix

that grew from the ashes of HIV.

There's no question about it.

- There are a lot of things

that as a result of
the AIDS pandemic,

that I am grateful
that they exist today.

But I'm not sure there's one
of them that I wouldn't trade

for getting all my friends back.

(melancholic music)
(group vocalizing)

Chris died in November of 1989.

That was over 30 years ago now.

Wow.

The way I dealt with the
worst days of the pandemic

when Chris was actually dying

was to decide that
I had to focus

on the next thing
that needed to be done

and that I would get
back to this grief later.

And I am discovering
that that grief

actually doesn't go away,

and that there is always
a day of reckoning.

And I think for a lot of
us over the last few years,

that day of reckoning
has started to happen.

(leaves rustling)

- My name is Ty Gaffney-Smith.

I am a outreach coordinator
here at APLA Health.

I work in our Baldwin
Hills location

in the prevention department.

(door clicks)

Steven.

I love talking to people
about their HIV status,

their STD status, their
knowledge about PrEP and PEP.

(upbeat music)
(graphic whooshing)

These are the tools
that we have now.

PrEP, P-R-E is
pre so beforehand.

Say you're going out tonight

and you know you might engage
in some risky activity.

You might get laid.

You want to take your PrEP

and make sure that you are
on your PrEP continuously

to protect you from
getting an HIV diagnosis.

What happens if I, you know,

slip up and have sex
without a condom?

That's where PEP comes in.

This is a tool for
us to make sure

that we are protecting ourselves

from anything that
could possibly happen.

(camera snapping)

- I noticed the ad that if
you have been undetectable,

it's safe to have
sex, unprotected sex.

That blew my mind when
I heard the first time,

just thinking where we came
from to where we're at.

- In this era of PrEP,

it changed so much
that nobody remembers.

Folks that take PrEP, they
take it to prevent a disease,

but they don't realize what
is actually preventing.

They weren't around
during this time

so they can't picture AIDS.

It's lost somewhere.

And then you have
folks that do remember.

I still cry. (chuckles)

I still cry because I remember.

(slow tempo piano music)

- Gay Men's Chorus
of Los Angeles

are the angels of our community

because we sang at so many
funerals and memorial services

for people throughout
the epidemic.

* There is a light *

* In the darkness *

Probably 150 of this
chorus died of AIDS

in the worst of the AIDS years.

* There's a light *

* Burning bright *

* Showing me the way *

* But I know where I've been *

(group cheering)

- [Reporter] Over 30,000
people turned out today

to walk the six miles
through Los Angeles.

The first AIDS walk in the world

started here in Los
Angeles in 1985.

The fight for a cure is
more urgent than ever.

(woman vocalizing)

- For me, it starts with
honoring the people who died.

* A light *

I won't ever quit grieving that.

I learned lessons that
have changed my life

and been a blessing.

* There's a road we've
been travellin' *

* Lost so many on the way *

* But the riches
will be plenty *

* Worth the price *

- In the past four decades an
estimated 36 million people

have died of AIDS
related illness.

And today, as we look
back in the past 40 years,

we once more raised two
story tall red ribbon

on North Portico,
the White House

to remember how far we've come.

We're gathered today
with hope in our hearts

and for the future
that's within our grasp

as we recommit ourselves
to finishing the fight

to end the HIV epidemic

and support all people
living with HIV.

* I've been *

- I'm so grateful to be alive

and to have survived
all of that.

And you know, none of
us have any guarantees

about being here tomorrow.

All any of us have is right now,

and in this moment,
I feel alive.

* There's a road *

* We must travel,
we must travel *

- The generation that lived
through it never gave up.

* We must make *

This fight has to continue

and there's so much
more work to be done.

I wanna be a part of that.

We still want to
bring an end to this

and I don't want
that fight to die.

* And the chances we take *

- This is our time!

This is our deciding moment!

Together, we are
greater than AIDS!

* Struggle *

- There's still people that
are suffering with AIDS

and still those that
are contracting AIDS,

but I think we're as
close as we've ever been.

* Lift us up *

I would love for it to
happen in our lifetime.

* To sit still would be a sin *

All they have to do is wait,
survive, stay in the moment.

And as Martin Luther King said,

"I might not be
here to witness it,

but I kind of feel that maybe,

maybe we'll get to
the mountaintop"

* Where I've been *

* Know where I've been *

* I'll give thanks to my God *

* 'Cause I know
where I've been *

(gentle upbeat music)

(fast tempo upbeat music)

(gentle music)

(upbeat music)

(gentle music)

(gentle dramatic music)