Anthony Fauci honoured as 31 new LGBT History Month icons are revealed

Dr Anthony Fauci is set to receive a major LGBTQ+ honour as part of this year’s LGBT History Month celebrations, recognising his decades of work during the HIV/AIDS crisis and his wider contribution to public health.

Equality Forum announced on September 21 that the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will receive its 31st annual International Role Model Award at a special LGBT History Month launch in Philadelphia on September 27. The award is the organisation’s longest-running recognition for activists and allies who have helped advance LGBTQ+ civil rights.

Fauci’s connection with the LGBTQ+ community stretches back decades. During the HIV/AIDS crisis, his relationship with activists was sometimes confrontational, but he later worked closely with campaigners as efforts to improve HIV research, treatment and access developed. Equality Forum credits him with making significant contributions to understanding how HIV attacks the immune system and helping advance effective treatments and prevention research.

Fittingly, the award will be presented by pioneering AIDS activist Peter Staley. The pair’s relationship developed from adversaries during the early years of the AIDS epidemic into a long-running collaboration and friendship, with Staley later contributing to the 2021 documentary Fauci.

The Philadelphia celebration will also reveal 31 new LGBT History Month Icons, with this year’s names including Abraham Lincoln, King James I, author Patricia Highsmith, businessman Barry Diller and ballet director Robert Joffrey. The complete collection now contains more than 650 people, with a different icon celebrated each day throughout October using biographies, videos and educational resources.

LGBT History Month is now entering its 21st year, and its growing archive is designed to make LGBTQ+ history freely accessible while highlighting people whose stories have helped shape culture, science, politics, literature and wider society.

Fauci will receive his award at Philadelphia’s Independence Visitor Center on September 27, just days before the month-long celebration begins on October 1.