A new PSA from GLAAD and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

A new public service announcement begins with Elizabeth Taylor speaking about AIDS at a 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute concert, followed by celebrities like BeBe Neuwirth, Meredith Vieira and Titus Burgess, who continue the conversation, saying: “We now have the tools to end the epidemic, so why aren’t we talking about AIDS—let’s finish what we started.”

The PSA is a joint effort of LGBT media advocacy group GLAAD and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF), according to MSNBC.com.

Joel Goldman, managing director of ETAF, pointed out that back in the ’80s, when AIDS first struck, people were talking about the epidemic all the time, although there was little understanding of the science behind the virus.

“Today, it’s the opposite,” Goldman said. “Conversation about HIV and AIDS is barely discussed in individual circles and has comparatively fallen out of the news cycle. This is despite the fact that the U.S. has not seen a decrease in new infection rates in nearly two decades.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, slightly over 1 million people are living with HIV in the United States, and one in four new infections occurs in youth ages 13 to 24. What’s more, infections among young gay and bisexual men increased 22 percent between 2008 and 2010.

ETAF UNAIDS
Colin Farrell, Joel Goldman and Annie Lennox at the ’Grit and Glamour’ exhibit.

In other ETAF news, the organization joined forced with STOPAIDS and other groups to fight the epidemic in the Mulanje District of Malawi, where the prevalence of HIV is 17 percent of the adult population.

The unified effort aims to reach the UNAIDS 90-90-90 goal by 2020 in the district: 90 percent of people with HIV diagnosed, 90 percent of those people on treatment, and 90 percent of those people maintaining viral suppression.

The collaboration was announced in London at the Elizabeth Taylor Grit and Glamour photo exhibition, featuring images of Taylor’s career as an activist and actress. Speakers at the event included singer and advocate Annie Lennox, actor Colin Farrell and UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.

Stateside, ETAF has partnered with Greater Than AIDS, the Kaiser Family Foundation and others to launch a campaign titled “Empowered: Women, HIV and Intimate Partner Violence.”

The campaign spotlights the connection between a woman’s HIV status and her risk of experiencing domestic partner violence.

For more information, click here, and look for the hashtag #WeAreEmpowered on social media. Friday, October 23, marks the National Day of Action to End Violence Against Women With HIV (for more on that, click here).