PHOTO ESSAY BY DONNA ACETO | The annual Spring Gala of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, held March 21 at Cipriani 42nd Street, honored screenwriter and director Dustin Lance Black and advocate Mary Fisher, along with the group’s former board chair Louis Bradbury.
Black won the Academy Award in screenwriting for the 2008 “Milk,” and was a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which successfully challenged California’s Proposition 8 in federal court. Based on the trial transcript from the Prop 8 case, he wrote “8,” which was broadcast live with a cast that included George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, and John C. Reilly.
Fisher, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1991, came to national attention with her address to the 1992 Republican Convention. Since then, Fisher, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, has remained active in the fight against AIDS and on issues of global women’s empowerment.
Bradbury served on GMHC’s board from 1990 through 1997, four years of which he was president. During that time, the agency established the David Geffen Testing Center as well as a medical partnership with Weill Cornell Medical Center. Bradbury was co-chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda from 2011 through 2014, during which time the group helped win the victory on marriage equality in New York.
Emcee Judy Gold. | DONNA ACETO
