This spring's annual Season of Concern Larry Sloan Awards marked a special theatrical occasion with a star-studded reading of the classic film All About Eve, but for one Chicagoan the evening was even more touching. "It was a great event, we had a great venue and an even better turn-out," said Barry Taylor, the winner of the Larry Sloan Heritage Award for his dedication to the organization.
Taylor has helped with Season of Concern, which helps area theater professionals, since getting involved in 1994 while doing some community theatre in the suburbs with former Season of Concern board president, Cathy Davis.
Together with others, Davis and Taylor helped produce a benefit called A Time to Act to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in the suburbs and raise critical funds for Season of Concern. Since then, Taylor has helped produce seven other benefits for Season of Concern with his goal being, "to raise money for AIDS service organizations and provide direct care for theater professionals living with HIV/AIDS."
Taylor was the Season of Concern board president from 2001 to 2005. He spent two more years on the board as vice president until 2007. Taylor's job as board president was to decide the overall mission for the organization, which included the delegation of grants to various HIV/AIDS direct-care charities.
Taylor is a Chicago lawyer who works as the legal advocacy director for Equip for Equality, a non-profit organization designed to ensure the Protection and Advocacy ( P&M ) Systems in Illinois. Since graduating from law school at the University of Illinois in 1988, Taylor's legal interests have shifted toward a desire to help with civil-rights issues.
He left his job as a litigation attorney at a private firm in the 1990s and worked as the AIDS Project Attorney for Lambda Legal, the largest LGBT legal organization in the country. Lambda Legal's Midwestern regional office is in Chicago and during his time there Taylor represented clients with HIV/AIDS. He also worked on HIV policy issues and educated people with HIV about their rights. One controversial case handled by Taylor while at Lambda Legal was on behalf of a Chicago Public School teacher who was outed as HIV+ after truthfully answering an application question.
"Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, asking HIV status on a job application is illegal by federal law," Taylor said. "After this teacher had disclosed his status the Chicago Public School board gave him a second questionnaire with even more intrusive questions having to do with his lifestyle and how he contracted the virus. Since this case, no one applying with the Chicago Public Schools has to go through this kind of questionnaire. Through my work with Lambda Legal, I have seen first-hand how people with HIV/AIDS are frequently subjected to discrimination and harassment simply because of their HIV-positive status.
"In the past 10 years federal laws have been amended to make it easier for HIV patients to protect their rights. It's becoming an easier thing to enforce as the federal disabilities act evolves," said Taylor.
A love for theater and a drive to help people living with HIV/AIDS has prompted Taylor to devote a lot of time and effort to Season of Concern. The organization, based on a similar group in New York, was started in the 1980s by people working in the Chicago theater community to raise money for the care of their colleagues with HIV/AIDS.
Around the time Taylor got involved with the organization, Larry Sloan was the executive board president. "I didn't know him terribly well but I got to see him on stage, and then I met him at a benefit. He really inspired me to get involved with Season of Concern," Taylor said.
Sloan passed away due to AIDS complications, but his mission is no less clear today. The organization has expanded to help more than actors and theater people with HIV/AIDS but anybody involved in Chicago theater living with a catastrophic illness or injury. When Season of Concern was originally conceived, the antiretroviral AIDS/HIV drugs were years away. The group's goal in the early years "was mostly to help those in the later stages of life, but now we're dealing with more long-term care goals such as housing and medications." said Taylor.
Though May's Season of Concern All About Eve event was handled exceptionally by The Mayne Stage, years past have not been as easy for Season of Concern. "At all our benefits we've tried to make as much money as possible for the organization without having to spend much. One year though, the theater we were holding our event at was unwilling to wave the theater rental fee so we were thinking we would have to use money we had raised, to pay the theater. The event happened to be on the night of my birthday and my partner [ Marv Pollack ] , as a gift to me, gave Season of Concern the rental cost, it was a really great birthday present," said Taylor.
This year's benefit was also special for Taylor as he was awarded the Larry Sloan Heritage Award. "Receiving the Larry Sloan Heritage Award was especially meaningful because I had a great deal of respect and admiration for Larry Sloan," Taylor said.
Though Taylor is a father of two and has been with his long-term partner since 1995, he has personally felt the effect of HIV/AIDS.
"Recently, Will Kight, my dance partner from the A Time To Act benefits, passed away of HIV related illnesses, which has only motivated me more to continue to support the work of Season of Concern," Taylor said. "I love that Season of Concern relies upon the generosity of the theater community and its audiences for most of its funding. The theater community was hit hard by HIV/AIDS and Season of Concern filled an important need for those who were in desperate need for medication, housing and nutritional support."