Morgan Fairchild, Bruce Vilanch and Joseph Leahy honored during a moving anniversary celebration at the Los Angeles Athletic Club
Photos: THT
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 9/12/26 – Being Alive Los Angeles marked four decades of lifesaving service Saturday afternoon with an emotional and uplifting anniversary celebration at the historic Los Angeles Athletic Club.
The Hollywood Times proudly served as a media partner for the September 12 event, with Publisher and Senior Editor Valerie Milano and videographer Jason Thompson on hand to document the milestone celebration.
Held in the club’s elegant Victory Ballroom, 40 Years of Being Alive brought together longtime advocates, community leaders, volunteers, healthcare professionals, supporters and people whose lives have been directly touched by the organization.
The afternoon balanced remembrance with celebration, honoring those lost during the darkest years of the AIDS epidemic while recognizing the activists, caregivers and organizations that refused to abandon the community.
Emmy Award-winning journalist and HIV activist Karl Schmid served as master of ceremonies, bringing warmth, humor and a personal understanding of why Being Alive’s mission remains essential.
Being Alive Board President Jason Frazier welcomed the packed room and reflected on the determination required to sustain a community-based organization for four decades.
“Forty years is a long time for any organization to survive,” Frazier said. “It’s not lost on me that we’re only here today, all of us together, because so many people decided over and over again that this community was worth fighting for.”
He thanked the organization’s board, professional staff, volunteers, providers, community partners and sponsors, including Gilead Sciences, Kaiser Permanente, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Capitol Drugs and the David Geffen Foundation.
Frazier reminded guests that donations support Being Alive’s mental-health, wellness and harm-reduction services, including care for people who might otherwise have nowhere to turn.
“It has never been a job to me,” he said of his leadership. “It has been service.”
Executive Director Jamie Baker continued that spirit of gratitude, recognizing Being Alive’s staff, volunteers, therapists, healthcare providers and nearly 100 community partners.
Baker also thanked members of the press for helping share Being Alive’s story, personally acknowledging Valerie Milano and The Hollywood Times for its media partnership, advance coverage and recent Zoom interview.
One of the afternoon’s most powerful moments came when Baker remembered Ron, the first person he knew who lived with AIDS. He recalled watching Ron endure experimental treatments, pneumonia, Kaposi sarcoma and dementia at a time when effective treatment did not exist.
Baker remembered Ron sitting beside a Palm Desert swimming pool in a heavy winter coat because he could never get warm. More than the illness, however, Baker remembered his kindness, love and infectious high-pitched laugh.
He then invited those in the ballroom to speak aloud the names of people they had lost. Names rose from around the room as guests honored friends, partners, relatives and community members whose memories remain very much alive.
“We are not innocent bystanders,” Baker declared. “We are warriors.”
Client and longtime supporter Barry Weiss offered a deeply personal account of being diagnosed with HIV while living in Munich 37 years ago. At the time, a doctor told him he had approximately 10 years before he would become sick and die.
After moving to Los Angeles, frightened and believing his life carried an expiration date, Weiss discovered Being Alive’s Silver Lake office. Before he could finish telling the person at the front desk that he had tested positive, the man placed an arm around his shoulder.
“What he gave me in that moment was something I didn’t know I was allowed to have,” Weiss recalled.
Being Alive subsequently provided him with support groups, counseling, treatment information and a community of people who understood his fears without requiring an explanation.
“I know exactly what an arm around the shoulder is worth,” Weiss said. “For me, it wasn’t just about getting anymore. I get to give back so Being Alive can put its arms around others, so they too can be alive.”
The awards portion of the program honored three individuals whose advocacy has helped advance HIV awareness, treatment, dignity and care.
HIV therapeutic specialist Joseph Leahy received the Russell Ybarra Community Spirit of Hope Award for more than four decades of education, activism and service.
Leahy remembered friends Clay Howell and Shane Salway, who died before combination therapy created new hope for people living with HIV.
“I cannot stand in front of you without saying their names because I carry them with me in my heart every day when I go to work,” Leahy said.
He also spoke about his longstanding connection to Being Alive and the organization’s importance in developing future HIV educators and advocates.
“It’s an organization committed to doing lifesaving work,” Leahy said. “When people walk through the door, they may have one need, but they leave with resources and many other things beyond what they were looking for.”
Writer, comedian and longtime activist Bruce Vilanch received the 2026 Being Alive Spirit of Hope Award for decades of fundraising, advocacy and public service.
Vilanch recalled the early years of the AIDS crisis, when friends began disappearing and families sometimes removed their belongings and erased the lives they had built in Los Angeles.
“The government wasn’t going to do anything for us, and so we had to do it ourselves,” he said.
He paid tribute to the women who stepped forward during the epidemic, including Nell Carter, Joan Rivers, Bette Midler and Madonna, as well as the nurses, caregivers and grassroots organizations that touched and cared for people when others would not.
Vilanch also remembered how people living with AIDS faced eviction, rejection and crushing isolation.
“Nobody I know has ever been kicked out of their apartment because they had breast cancer,” he said. “But I know a lot of people who were kicked out because they had AIDS.”
With his signature humor, Vilanch kept the audience laughing even while recounting painful history. He emphasized that although treatment has transformed HIV, organizations such as Being Alive remain indispensable.
“Even if they didn’t save a life, they made a life easier to live just by being supportive,” he said. “It’s an incredible gift.”
Actress and advocate Morgan Fairchild also received the 2026 Being Alive Spirit of Hope Award.
Long before it was common or professionally safe for a Hollywood celebrity to speak publicly about AIDS, Fairchild used her visibility to challenge misinformation, advocate for research funding and fight the stigma directed at people living with HIV.
Fairchild described following the earliest reports of unusual clusters of Kaposi sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia. As the scale of the crisis became clearer, she faced a personal decision.
“Are you going to keep your head down and go to work or are you going to step up and do something that you feel matters?” she asked. “For me, that was trying to save lives and create a community.”
Fairchild recalled appearing on national television, testifying before Congress and working alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to promote accurate medical information and secure funding for AIDS research.
She also shared poignant memories of visiting hospices and embracing people who had been abandoned or avoided because others feared physical contact.
“You guys are warriors, but we’re also a community,” Fairchild told the audience.
The afternoon concluded on a joyful Broadway note with a special performance from Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now, featuring Tony Award winner Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Award nominees Kerry Butler and Laura Bell Bundy.
The three performers, who originated the roles of Tracy, Penny and Amber in Broadway’s Hairspray, filled the ballroom with music, humor and the unmistakable chemistry of a friendship spanning more than two decades.
It was a fitting conclusion to an afternoon dedicated not only to survival, but also to friendship, laughter, remembrance and the determination to keep moving forward.
Four decades after its founding, Being Alive remains what it was created to be: a place where people affected by HIV can be seen, supported and reminded that they are never alone.
As the anniversary program declared, “Here’s to forty years, and to what’s next.”
Video interviews conducted by The Hollywood Times’ Jason Thompson are forthcoming on THT/LIVE.
By Valerie Milano & Jason Thompson
The Hollywood Times
