Billy Porter to Be Honored by Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation

The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation will honor actor and activist Billy Porter at this year’s Elizabeth Taylor Ball to End AIDS fundraiser and gala September 17.

Porter, who earned an Emmy for playing Pray Tell on the FX drama Pose, will be recognized along with previously announced honorees Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden; international nonprofit organization amfAR; and Sandra Thurman, director of Emory University’s Joseph W. Blount Center for Health and Human Rights.

The four will receive the Elizabeth Taylor Commitment to End AIDS award, according to Variety.

The actor appears in the new film Cinderella from Amazon Studios, playing the fairy godmother. His Emmy for Pose made him the first out gay Black man to win in a leading acting category.

Porter came out as a person living with HIV in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in May. At the Cinderella premiere on Monday, he spoke to Variety about coming out with his diagnosis.

“I hope it has done something good for somebody, for people. My hope is that we can all come together as a community, as a society, and heal,” Porter said.

Porter is making his first film as a director. What If? is a coming-of-age tale written by Alvaro García Lecuona, according to Variety.  

The Elizabeth Taylor Ball to End AIDS will include a dinner for 350 guests featuring an auction in partnership with Christie’s. The auction will have artworks and luxury experiences up for grabs.

Guests will also be shown items from the Elizabeth Taylor Archive that include artifacts from her personal life and film career, according to the foundation's website. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

The host committee, according to the organization's website, includes Dr. Gabriel and Christine Chiu, Colin Farrell, Aileen Getty, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Ireland, Earvin “Magic” and Cookie Johnson, Daniel O’Day, Elizabeth Segerstrom, and Barbra Streisand.

The benefit committee for the ball includes Wallis Annenberg, Angela Bassett, Carole Bayer Sager, Kate Burton, Alexandra Daddario, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Danai Gurira, Paris Jackson, Christian Lacroix, Judith Light, Catherine Opie and Julie Burleigh, Zac Posen, Zachary Quinto, Lorraine Schwartz, Omar Sharif Jr., Kerry Brown and Stacey Sher, Darren Star, Kimberly Steward, Lauren and Benedikt Taschen, and Vanessa Williams.