World AIDS Day

Out actor Chad Allen remembers the moment that transformed him into an activist.

"I saw Judith Light speaking at the first California AIDS Ride," he says. "I remember thinking, 'I want to be like her'!"

Light's source of inspiration, on the other hand, was Ryan White, the young man who became a national spokesperson for AIDS research in the ‘80s after he was expelled from school in Kokomo, Ind. when officials learned he was infected with the virus.

In 1988, the Emmy Award-winning actress, well known at the time for her role on the popular sitcom Who's the Boss?, signed on to portray White's mom, Jeanie, in The Ryan White Story. While on the set of the made-for-TV movie, she heard the teen tell a reporter that people often spit on him and called him a "fag".

"That's when I thought, ‘Something is going on that is not being talked about,'" says Light, who recalls telling manager Herb Hamsher (who, along with long-time partner Jonathan Stoller, has worked with both Light and her husband Robert Desiderio since the late '70s) early on that "being a celebrity is fantastic, but if I don't find a way to give back, it will be hollow for me".

When she saw how LGBT people were being treated during the height of the AIDS epidemic, "I thought this could be my way of giving back to the community I found so courageous and inspiring," says Light, who is currently starring as Claire Meade on TV's Ugly Betty.

Allen and Light aren't the first entertainers to involve themselves in issues important to the LGBT community, nor are they the latest. Elizabeth Taylor has been an AIDS activist and advocate since the early '80s, when she helped start both the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Many other actors and actresses have followed in her footsteps over the years, including Richard Gere , Ashley Judd and Sharon Stone .

What sets Allen and Light apart is that their involvement isn't limited to events involving that little red ribbon. Allen, for instance, is closely linked to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Soulforce and the Trevor Project. Go to Light's website and after a bit of searching you'll find an 11-page PDF detailing the hundreds of LGBT events she's participated in over the years.

Most of the events included on the list are speaking engagements—for GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and too many other LGBT rights organizations to mention. She's been doing them for so long, and has done them so frequently, she can't remember which was her first.

"I think it was for the Human Rights Campaign," she says after thinking for a bit. Regardless, she was obviously a hit, as evidenced by the number of requests she's fielded since.

Light says it's been easy to accept those invitations because "the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, to me, has shown so much courage and self-esteem. When they were given nothing—and I mean nothing—they didn't turn into these angry, vicious victims. They said, ‘We get it. You're not going to give us anything. So, we're going to take care of our own. We're to drive our friends to the hospital, we're going to change their IVs, we're going to find out what meds they should be on.'

"I wanted to tell them how much they've inspired me and guided me over the years," Light says of that first speaking engagement, whenever and wherever it occurred. "They have helped me achieve the level of courage and self-esteem I have long seen in them. They have helped me become the person I have always wanted to be."

Allen says he has known he was gay—and politically sensitive—for as long as he can remember.

"I was politically aware at a pretty young age," says the actor, who rose to fame while appearing on the Emmy Award-winning television drama Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman and, most recently, appeared in here! TV's Third Man Out and Shock to the System. "I remember caring about politics long before I could actually vote. I guess I've always been a ‘stand up, get involved' kind of guy."

Despite all of their hard work, neither Allen nor Light—who recently joined forces for Save Me, a film about two men who fall in love at an ‘ex-gay' facility that was co-written by Light's husband and produced by Allen's Mythgarden studios—call themselves activists.

"I know a lot of people who dedicate their lives to this work and are a lot more deserving of that title than I am," Allen says. "I have the good fortune of being able to show up here and there and hopefully help some people along the way."

Light offers up a similar answer when asked if she considers herself an activist. "I don't use the word to describe myself."

That said, she doesn't mind in the least when someone calls her an 'actor and activist."

"I don't know why anyone would mind being called an activist if they're doing something that matters to them. I'm definitely doing something that matters to me and has changed my life.

"They are both pieces of who I am," Light says of those two little words. "I take great pride in that."

For more on Chad Allen, visit www.ChadAllenOnline.com.

For more on Judith Light, visit www.JudithLight.com.

World AIDS Day is, Saturday, December 1st, 2007.