GMHC Spring Gala Honors Bradbury, Fisher and Black

On Monday, March 21, GMHC will present the 2016 Spring Gala and honor Louis Bradbury, former GMHC Board President; Mary Fisher, activist, artist and author; and Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter, director, producer and activist.

Proceeds will benefit GMHC's services for thousands of New Yorkers living with and affected by HIV and AIDS, HIV testing and prevention programs and public policy advocacy. The gala will include live and silent auctions, awards presentations and a performance from Broadway actor, singer and dancer, Nick Adams.

"We are privileged to celebrate the work of these three remarkable activists," said GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie. "From volunteering during the early years of the plague�and advocating for HIV testing,�to speaking at the Republican National Convention and sounding the alarm about the epidemic, to fighting for the rights of LGBT people through film, our honorees' contributions are vital to GMHC and those we serve. Activism comes in different forms which collectively propel GMHC forward to help end AIDS at epidemic levels."

Honorees include Louis Bradbury, former GMHC Board President; Mary Fisher, activist, artist and author; Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter, director, producer and activist. Also in attendance will be Nick Adams, Broadway actor, singer and dancer; GMHC and local leadership; Major donors and supporters; long-term AIDS and LGBT activists and others.

Louis Bradbury has given his time, resources and talent to numerous organizations that provide critical services to our community over the last 25 years. From 1990-1997, Bradbury served as a member of the board of GMHC and as its president from 1993-1997. As President of GMHC, he oversaw a $26 million annual budget, spearheaded a $15 million capital campaign, which resulted in the state-of-the-art Geffen Testing Center and a medical partnership with Weil Cornell Medical Center to provide a unique combination of medical and social services for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Under his guidance, GMHC received a grant of $2.5 million from the David Geffen Foundation to create The David Geffen Testing Center, which GMHC staff designed and developed to incorporate the highest standards of testing protocols and confidentiality.

More recently, Bradbury served as a member of the Board of the Empire State Pride Agenda, and was its Co-Chair from 2011 through March of 2014. Under his tenure, the Pride Agenda helped secure passage of the Dignity for All Students Act and the Marriage Equality Act.� For the past decade, he has served as the President of the Calamus Foundation, which has granted over $20 million to support important initiatives of many LGBT organizations, among which are SAGE, the Ali Forney Center, The LGBT Community Center, The Long Island GLBT Community Center, Freedom to Marry and The Transgender Legal Defense Fund.
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Author, artist, advocate, and social entrepreneur Mary Fisher is a global leader in the arena of social change through positive thought and action. Her early experience first in public and commercial broadcast media, then in high-profile positions -- she was the first female "advance man" in the history of the American presidency -- equipped her to urge transformation in healthcare, revise perceptions and responses to AIDS, enable women's global empowerment through and inspire others to seek fulfilling, joyful lives.

A renaissance woman, Fisher landed on every front page with her stunning keynote address speaking truth to power at the 1992 Republican National Convention, a speech since ranked among "the best 100 American speeches of the 20th�Century" (Oxford University Press). She was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and breast cancer in 2012. She has addressed governments and audiences around the world, authored six books including her current best-selling memoir, "Messenger," and is currently launching the latest expression of her creative philosophy, The 100 Good Deeds Bracelet sold in partnership with "America's Department Store" on macys.com.

Dustin Lance Black is a screenwriter, filmmaker and social activist. He has won the Academy Award� and two WGA Awards for Best Original Screenplay for "Milk," the biopic of the late civil rights activist Harvey Milk starring Sean Penn. He is also a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which successfully led the federal cases for marriage equality in California and Virginia with lawyers David Boise and Ted Olson, putting an end to California's discriminatory Proposition 8.

In 2012 Black merged his creative and civil rights work with "8," a play based on the Federal Proposition 8 trial. "8's" LA cast included George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly. The play was broadcast live, has been staged in eight countries and all fifty states and continues to break viewership records online.

Black is currently developing "The Barefoot Bandit" for FOX, based on the true story of Colton Harris-Moore. He is also adapting Jon Krakauer's acclaimed "Under the Banner of Heaven" for director Ron Howard, and has created the miniseries "When We Rise" for ABC about the modern LGBT Rights Movement in America.

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The GMHC 2016 Spring Gala will be held from 6:30-9:30 p.m. on Monday, March 21 at Cipriani 42 Street, 110 East 42nd Street in NYC

To purchase tickets, visit http://www.gmhc.org/content/gmhc-spring-gala-2016