Dr. Anthony Fauci received the International Role Model Award last Sunday from the LGBTQ+ history organization, Equality Forum, for his work during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
In his acceptance speech, Fauci gushed about the connection he has built with the LGBTQ+ community through this work.
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“Over these many decades I have not simply admired the community — I have genuinely enjoyed being part of the conversation with it,” he said, as reported by the Washington Blade. “I’ve enjoyed the arguments, debates, disagreements, the humor, the friendship, and above all the extraordinary commitment to alleviate suffering and prevent premature death for persons living with HIV.”
“I am grateful to the Equality Forum for this award. I am grateful to the LGBTQ community for allowing me throughout these many years to become part of your struggle, and I am deeply honored to be part of your history.”
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HIV/AIDS activist Peter Staley presented Fauci with the award and recalled Fauci’s perseverance through backlash against his work.
Before he led the United States response to the COVID-19 pandemic as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci helped lead researchers during the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s, one of his formative experiences as a medical researcher in a powerful government position.
While he endured an onslaught of criticism when the epidemic began, he worked directly with members of the LGBTQ+ community to hear their concerns and work toward effective treatments together.
PEPFAR, which was established in 2003 and which Fauci helped design, has invested over $100 billion in the global fight against HIV/AIDS and has saved millions of lives. The program now hangs in the balance due to cuts made by the current administration.
Fauci also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush for his role in fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In a 2021 sit-down with NPR’s Terry Gross for the Fresh Air podcast, Dr. Fauci talked in-depth about his handling of both HIV and COVID-19 during his tenure from the 1980s to today. In the 1980s, he said he visited gay bathhouses and clubs so he could see them with his own eyes to become a better immunologist.
Gross asked Dr. Fauci if the president at the time, Republican Ronald Reagan, made his job harder.
“Reagan was supported by the religious right that had a very anti-gay agenda,” Gross noted, “and that was kind of very central to their political agenda. Do you think that that interfered with the kind of funding you needed for research into AIDS?”
“You know, I think it did to some extent,” Dr. Fauci answered.
Fauci also compared the people who protested his work on COVID-19 to his work on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, saying that AIDS protestors were “on the right of history” and were “not threatening” in the same way that he felt threatened by those protesting against the COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Fauci expressed that he learned two major things from dealing with the AIDS epidemic: “One of them is the importance of getting the community involved and dealing with the community and their special needs… if you look at the incidence of infection and the incidence of serious disease, including hospitalization and deaths, brown and Black people suffer disproportionately more than whites.”
“We also learned the importance of fundamental basic science in getting solutions,” he explained. “Back in the early days, getting infected with HIV was a virtual death sentence for the overwhelming majority… it was the fundamental basic science of targeted drug development that allowed us to develop combinations of drugs… that ultimately completely transformed the lives of people living with HIV.”
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