AHF's Tribute To Elizabeth Taylor At Rose Parade

I unfortunately missed the Rose Parade New Years Day, it was one of the first times I had missed it in YEARS. I know, I would have beyond a doubt, been in absolute tears if I had seen this float moving down the avenue .  The AIDS Health Foundation did a float in tribute to their long time advocate, Elizabeth Taylor.   Absolutely gorgeous and a winner of The Queens Trophy for 'Most Effective Use & Display of Roses In Concept, Design & Presentation.  She was a true queen.!!  One announcer said "I wish she were here to see it".  Many people wish that as well.  She is greatly missed.

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Tribute to Dame Elizabeth Taylor

Margie Phelps vs. Elizabeth Taylor

The Westboro Baptist Church is once again picketing a funeral, this time late actress Elizabeth Taylor’s.  The Kansas-based organization is behind the “God Hates Fags” signs and have picketed many U.S. soldiers’ funerals including blocking their burials. Most people don’t make their version of Heaven’s guest list, and they were even at Elizabeth Edwards’ funeral last year.

Margie Phelps, the daughter of Westboro leader Fred Phelps, had some not-so-nice things to say about the acting legend after she died Wednesday of congestive heart failure.

“No RIP Elizabeth Taylor who spent her life in adultery and enabling proud fags. They cuss her in hell today. #Westboro will picket funeral!” she tweeted.

Taylor had seven husbands and was married eight times (twice to Richard Burton). She was also one of the first celebrities to help victims of AIDS, and set up the successful Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
A statement released by Taylor’s family says that a private funeral will be today.

Since this is my blog and my space to speak my mind I am going to.  I have been reading Paul Monette for over a month now, four books total for a report I am going to do in my GLBTQ Literature class and a long the way I forgot how angry I really am about the whole AIDS Crisis.  Paul wrote angrily nearly 20 years ago  how so very little was being done. That the same hateful Nazi spewing vile bigot Fred Phelps is and now psychopath lunatic bitch daughter is also speaking nonstop.  These people need to shut the fuck up once and for all!  Period!  No questions asked! I have had my fill of it over the last twenty years.

Picketing Matthew Shepard's trial and funeral, picketing rallies and speeches for equality, picketing AIDS funerals and soldier's funerals, protesting Elizabeth Edward's funeral and now Elizabeth Taylor's funeral is to much to bear.  These people are vile, evil, hatemongers plain and simple and you know something those of us who are the loudest, bravest, biggest faggots, drag queens, leather men, dykes on bikes, Soldier Widow's and anyone else affected by this vile group should picket and protest as loud as we can for the next 100 years till these people fade away!

Freedom of  speech, my ass--- these people aren't even christian in my opinion.  These people would picket Christ's funeral in all honesty because lets face it his best friend was a whore, he hung out with lepers, he healed people on Sunday's, he hung out with 12 guys all the time, threw out money monger's out of the temple along with I am sure a slew of other things they would disagree with.  ENOUGH ALREADY!

Lets set the example that this behavior once and for all is NOT NOW OR EVER acceptable!  That we have a voice, we will be heard, we will shut their their doors and we will no longer be silent.  Thirty years of AIDS and there is still no cure, people are still dying and the sad thing is that the majority of the public who believe that this is a manageable disease is sick of hearing about it.

Well let me tell you something, it has been my god damn life that they are talking about a life I have been very blessed to have lived the last twenty years. All of my friends in their twenties when we were diagnosed are all FUCKING dead every single one of them before they hit even 35.  I can count six people counting myself that I know who have lived twenty years or more and let me tell it is not manageable by any long shot.

$7,000 a month in medications, $5,000 blood test every ninety days, $200 per doctor visit, the $60,000 I have had in radiation treatments for AIDS Related cancer, the over 600 friends, co-workers, acquantances I have buried because of AIDS, the four hospital satys I have had in the last four years and I could go on and yet it is manageable.  Am I mad, your damn right I mad and I am tired of not saying anything about it, doing anything about it and so should you!  It beyond time to once again to take to the streets and ACT UP, Fight Back and FIGHT AIDS!

Elizabeth Taylor Has DIED!!!

Oscar winning actress Elizabeth Taylor passed away today at Los Angeles, Calif.'s Cedars-Sinai Hospital at the age of 79.

Elizabeth Taylor's Las Vegas Birthday"She was surrounded by her children- Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton," Taylor's publicist, Sally Morrison, said in a statement.  In addition to her children, Taylor is survived by 10 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

Taylor had been hospitalized six weeks ago with congestive heart failure. Though she had recently suffered a number of complications, her condition had stabilized and it was hoped that she would be able to return home.

Taylor, a two-time Academy Award-winning actress who in later life became notorious for her seven marriages and sometimes eccentric behavior, had reported health problems in recent years and appeared frail in public appearances.

Taylor reported in October 2009 that she was having a heart procedure done. Via Twitter, she said it was "very new and involves repairing my leaky valve using a clip device, without open heart surgery so that my heart will function better."

Taylor's past health setbacks included a fall from a horse during one of her early film shoots, bouts with pneumonia and skin cancer, a tracheotomy, treatment for alcohol and painkiller addictions, and lung, hip, brain and heart surgeries. She has had anywhere from 30 to 40 surgeries, according to biographers.

In addition, she has seen her dramatic life frequently covered by gossip magazines, which have documented evident fluctuations in her weight over the years.

But she's iconic for being one of the most popular actresses of Hollywood's golden age. Born in London in 1932 to American parents who returned to the U.S. with WWII looming, Taylor bounded into the spotlight at age 12 after starring in the 1944 box office sensation "National Velvet." She won acclaim as an adult with 1951's "A Place In The Sun" and went on to score best actress Oscar nominations for "Raintree County," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and "Suddenly, Last Summer."

In 1963, she memorably starred in "Cleopatra." She later won Oscars for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Butterfield 8."

Beyond acting, Taylor is credited with bringing the world's attention to AIDS with her fund-raising and activism. In 1985, when Taylor's lifelong friend Rock Hudson died of AIDS, she brought national attention to the growing disease. It satisfying to her to use her celebrity for good - she raised and donated millions to the cause, founding the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

"I don't think President Bush is doing anything at all about AIDS. In fact, I'm not sure he even knows how to spell AIDS," Taylor said once, frustrated with President Bush's slow-moving efforts to address the crisis.
She was also an entrepreneur, spearheading a successful line of perfume and multiple jewelry lines. In 1999, Taylor was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.  Taylor's last major interview appeared in the March issue of Harper's Bazaar. In it, she dished to reality TV star Kim Kardashian about her love life, her iconic roles and her jewels.

"I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," Taylor said. "I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course, I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things."  Taylor also mused about one of her former husbands, actor Richard Burton.  "It was inevitable that we would be married again, but it's not up for discussion," she said.

Elizabeth Taylor Hospitalized

Dame Elizabeth Taylor is being treated in a Los Angeles hospital for symptoms related to congestive heart failure, a condition she reported publicly back in 2004.

The 78-year-old acting legend and AIDS activist has been at Cedars-Sinai hospital for at least a few days and it's not clear how long she will remain because she is under observation.

Of course many in the know all to well remember all of the marriages, some of the scandels, some of the health problems she has had on and off.  For me she alone stands at the very for front of what the AIDS epidemic was, has been, is and will be.  Without Dame Elizabeth Taylor the AIDS arena would not be what it is today.

I had the distinct honor of meeting Elizabeth Taylor at Parma Town Mall at Higbee's for a White Diamonds promotion twenty years ago when I was first diagnosed with HIV.  I had a chance to talk with her publicly, and thank her on behalf of all of us living with AIDS for what she was doing for all of us.  I was the only decent comment or question she go that day from the crowd.

I'll never forget it, Elizabeth came off the stage walk right over to me--hugged me and kissed my left cheek, tears in her eyes and said "Thank you for knowing I really care", I cried as well and said "Ms. Taylor we love you for it".  Please join me in praying for Dame Liz and I will try to keep you all posted.