STEVE TISCH
2011 VISIONARY AWARD HONOREE
REMARKS OF NOVEMBER 14, 2011

As grateful as I am to be standing here, I must admit that I feel about the Entertainment AIDS Alliance the way I feel about the Rick Perry campaign: mostly, I regret that it’s still in business…which is why this high honor is tinged bittersweet. Having fought this war on an insidious disease for more than twenty years, I can still remember the dream that brought this cause into existence: to fight and win the war against AIDS, to end the scourge it creates, put up a real “Mission Accomplished” banner and call it a day.

From the beginning, the idea was always to make AIDS the next polio, by which I mean a thing of the past. And so as we stand here today, I know no sadder fact about our world than this: in 1989 -- the year I signed on with AIDS Project Los Angeles -- 8 million people on this planet had HIV/AIDS. Today, that number is 33 million. In 2011, most Americans would be shockingly surprised to learn this fact.

Because miracle drugs are comparatively easy to access in the US, here at home AIDS went from a death sentence to something more akin to a chronic condition. It goes without saying that this transformation is a miracle of its own, and we thank God for the friends and family who are alive and well today who might have otherwise perished. But on a global scale, this way of understanding AIDS is a luxury that only a small fraction of the world can afford. In Africa and other developing continents and countries, the ravages of HIV/AIDS are not only unabated but also accelerating.

We see this all over Africa especially, where HIV-Positive mothers routinely transmit the virus to their children when they breastfeed. The mothers, untreated, almost inevitably go on to die, leaving behind a generation of HIV-Positive orphans.

All of which is to say that incredible research means nothing when you can’t get help to the people whose lives depend on it.  Scientists are now saying that if we combined all of our preventative techniques -- condom-use, circumcision, microbicides, anti-retroviral therapies -- we could see a 60% drop in transmission rates.  But if the end is in sight, why are we taking our eyes off it?   

The friends I lost in the 80s and 90s would not be happy to learn that right now the biggest challenge we face in the war against AIDS is not the science, but the ordinary complacency.

We can all remember a time when AIDS was both an urgent national priority and the cause celeb.

But as we have seen what happens everyday on the mean streets of Hollywood, “celeb” status is a ticking clock. Who will ever forget those days in the 80‘s and 90‘s, when the fight against HIV/AIDS strode atop the A-list of worthy causes?

Today, the cause celeb of AIDS has lost some of its cachet. Let’s face it: if all the diseases and worthy causes in Hollywood were trying to get into, say the Vanity Fair Oscar party, it wouldn’t be nearly as easy as it once was to get on the other side of the velvet rope. I mean, can’t you just envision it?

“Oh -- Breast cancer, come right this way!”

“Autism, follow me -- I have the champagne chilling at your regular table.”

“Pancreatic cancer, why don’t you come in through the side entrance so the paparazzi won’t see you?”

“Parkinson’s, I just saw that episode with you and Michael J. Fox on Curb. Can you help me get a cameo?”

“Colon Cancer, we are honored to have you! And may I say -- you smell terrific!

…..Talk about ass-kissing!

But if you’re AIDS these days, well -- let’s just say that the guy at that door clutching that clipboard certainly recognizes you, but the answer is something like, “Just stand over there for a few minutes and let me see if there is anything I can do for you.” The next thing you know, AIDS is lost in the crowd holding a gizmo that will buzz if-and-when it is ever called.

You see where I’m going with this. Our job is to return our cause back to its rightful place at the top of the list of issues that matter, and make it top of mind once more with the people who matter most.

Back in 1983, around the time when the world was still trying to figure out what this terrible new disease was and just assigned it the name of “AIDS,” there was an informal nickname for those who were its victims: they called it the “4-H Club”, meaning Haitians, Hemophiliacs, Homosexuals, and Heroin users. In so many ways, this served to reinforce the marginalization of the disease as something other than a quote, unquote “mainstream” concern. Then came along a young boy named Ryan White and not long after, an NBA superstar named Magic Johnson and – for better and for worse – HIV and AIDS took on a whole new urgency in the popular culture here and around the world. I say “for better and for worse” because this heightened concern helped the cause immeasurably but also exposed the reality that the world had collectively declined to get too worked up over a disease that preyed on homosexuals.

The greatest victory we’ve had to date on this war on HIV/AIDS is that we have now effectively added a fifth H to the “4-H Club” – Humans. The world has come a long way toward the realization that HIV/AIDS is everybody’s problem. Here in Los Angeles, no one has worked harder – or more effectively – than the Entertainment AIDS Alliance to wage this war that is now in its third decade – by providing grants for urgent social services for those who are still suffering from an unusually cruel disease, by raising awareness in an industry that is uniquely well-positioned to bring this disease to the attention of the world and to raise the money necessary to fight and win the war on HIV/AIDS. Tonight, the EAA revitalizes the call to action that so many of us first heard decades ago: that as responsible members of the global community, and as compassionate human beings, we must rededicate ourselves to ending HIV/AIDS once and for all.

Thank you for this award that serves as a reminder to me to fortify my commitment and keep searching for new ways to do more.

www.entertainmentAIDSalliance.org

Mr. Tisch and Entertainment AIDS Alliance (EAA) grant blanket permission to philanthropic organizations, healthcare institutions & advocacies and/or media outlets to reprint or publish excerpts of Mr. Tisch's address with proper attribution to the author: Steve Tisch and EAA's website: www.entertainmentAIDSalliance.org.

© 2011 Entertainment AIDS Alliance