Cameron Diaz Talks Her Early AIDS Activism and Cousin’s Death From Disease at LA LGBT Center Event
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Cameron Diaz says she jumped into helping people with HIV/AIDS after watching a family member die from the disease. “My dad’s cousin, in the early 80s, died of AIDS.
He was one of the first. He lived in San Francisco and I remember my parents going up to San Francisco because he was dying,” the actor recalled during an Instagram Live appearance with the Los Angeles LGBT Center for Giving Tuesday. “It was in the very, very beginning.
There was no treatment. Everybody was scared and my dad wanted to go be there for him.” Diaz went onto to become an early supporter of AIDS Project Los Angeles. “I’ve always felt so heavily supported by the LGBTQ community just because, by nature, there’s this connectivity to creativity,” she said. “So I’ve been a part of that community since I was very, very young.
Growing up in the 80’s, it was a time that was pivotal for the community to start to really find their voice and demand to be seen.
