The diva who stood up against AIDS

On 27 February 1932, Elizabeth Taylor was born in London. Her parents were American, and shortly before the war the family moved to Los Angeles. There the girl with the striking eyes quickly became a child star and later one of Hollywood's greatest divas. Two Oscars, eight marriages, legendary jewellery: her life was constantly being written about anyway.

But Taylor's most important role was played away from the screen. In the mid-eighties, AIDS spread, and with the disease came fear. Those affected, above all gay men, were shunned and excluded. Politicians looked away for a long time. President Ronald Reagan, himself a former actor, was strikingly silent on the subject for a long time.

Taylor did the opposite. In 1985 it became known that her close friend Rock Hudson, her co-star in "Giant", had AIDS. He died that same year. Taylor used her fame to raise money and attention. She was one of the founders of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, amfAR, and became its first chair. She testified before a US Senate committee, organised benefit galas and stood publicly by the sick at a time when many would not even shake their hands.

At the time, her commitment was considered a real risk to her own career. Taylor was undeterred. In 1991 she also founded her own foundation, which supports people with HIV directly and still exists today.

For her work she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar, and Queen Elizabeth II later made her a Dame. Elizabeth Taylor died in Los Angeles in March 2011. As a film icon she remains unforgettable. But for many in the queer community, her real legacy is something else: she looked when others looked away.