Jamie Lee Curtis, who won an Oscar last year for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, recently graced the cover of the national LGBTQ publication The Advocate for a profile titled “A Mother’s Nature: Jamie Lee Curtis Is Our Advocate of the Year.”

The obvious reason for the accolade is that Curtis, 64, has been a vocal champion of her trans daughter, Ruby, and the transgender community. But read the interview and you’ll learn that Curtis has long supported the HIV and LGBTQ communities.

In fact, Curtis—the daughter of famed actors Janet Leigh (Psycho) and Tony Curtis (Some Like It Hot) and a film icon in her own right for roles in Halloween, Freaky Friday and other hits—is developing an AIDS-related film project.

When the Advocate’s John Casey asked Curtis which queer people have impacted her, she first mentioned tennis great Billie Jean King, who “told her truth in a hurricane, and that takes guts.” Then Curtis added:

“There’s someone I didn’t know, but who has been with me in spirit for the last 12 years or so. I’ve been attempting to tell the story of Glenn Burke who invented the High Five and began his baseball career playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970s.…

“He was a Black, closeted gay L.A. Dodger and was traded to the Oakland A’s, and
ultimately kicked out of baseball for being gay and ended up dying of HIV/AIDS in Oakland.

“I read the first book about him, Out at Home, by [Burke and] Erik Sherman, and bought the rights to the book. It’s been an incredibly long journey, but I started working with [Hollywood producer] Ryan Murphy and we just moved the project from Netflix to Disney before the strike, and Ryan and I are excited about getting the project up and going.”