3rd Annual Butterfly Awards and Benefit Auction
by Robert Urban, May 27, 2005

The Butterfly Awards are bestowed upon NYC organizations, community leaders and youth who help raise HIV/AIDS awareness. The awards are the creation of the Living Beyond Belief organization, whose mission is to save lives by fostering HIV/AIDS prevention education. Living Beyond Belief strives to motivate NYC public high school students to be HIV/AIDS peer educators, activists and advocates by providing them with college grants and recognition for their life-saving work.

The big room at BB Kings was crowded and bustling for this charitable organization’s worthy affair. Mixed among the attendees was a fair sprinkling of mini-celebs, rising stars and behind-the-scenes networkers, all eagerly posing for wandering paparazzi’s cameras. We managed to squeeze into a banquet and cozy up with drag icon Flotilla DeBarge and writer Edwin John Wintle (author of the new gay novel Breakfast with Tiffany). Throughout the evening, the two provided our table with a healthy dose of both highbrow repartee and high camp amusement.

Before the Butterfly Awards presentation began, a silent benefit auction was held. The very unsilent auctioneers were cast members from the long running, raucous hit show Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding. Their bawdy, Brooklynesque barking-out of the auction items imparted a certain Sopranos charm to the proceedings. Among the must-have delectables offered were a Patty Smith Gift Basket; a first edition Bill Clinton autographed book; a dog spa gift certificate; and a Vermont Getaway package for two. We bid on a dinner for two at the world-renowned Hatsuhanna Shushi, but alas, were outbid in the auction’s hectic closing moments.

Guest host of the awards presentations was comedienne Kim Cea (2003 MAC award winner for best female stand up comedy and star of Smokey Joe’s). Kim presided over the event with true star power, holding the crowd’s attention with her own special brand of rough, sparkling charm and edgy humor.

The guest speakers for the awards presentations were mostly drawn from TV land’s currently ubiquitous talent gene pool of “reality” entertainment. They included Jai Rodriguez of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Will Wikle of Big Brother 5 and Wes Culwell of Boy Meets Boy. Also on hand to speak were the multi-talented John Tartaglia of Avenue Q, gay attorney Brian Ellner (candidate for Manhattan Borough President 2006) and Living Beyond Belief president and executive director Bari Zahn.

Special mention must be made of the Butterfly Award Teen Grant recipients Constance Barry, Whitney Brown, Kawanny Cato, Alexandra Friedman and Dionne Toussaint. These five NYC public high school seniors were honored with college grants for making a difference in their communities as HIV/AIDS peer educators, advocates or activists. Upon accepting their awards, each teen spoke simply and with moving elegance of their life experience and work regarding the AIDS crisis. Several of them even had close relatives who perished from AIDS. In listening to their acceptance speeches, one could sense the exceptional human qualities and leadership potential in these fine young Americans.

Living Beyond Belief was founded in memory of Wayne David Fischer, the impassioned, dynamic and eloquent HIV/AIDS activist, who in 1990 was the first NYC schoolteacher to publicly acknowledge his HIV status. In the face of his own personal struggle with the disease he courageously encouraged NYC youth to protect themselves and those they love from the heartbreak he and his family endured. Through his activism he was instrumental in creating the first age-appropriate HIV/AIDS program to be instituted in all NYC public high schools.

Mr. Fischer conducted student workshops and used the media to raise AIDS consciousness and awareness, most notably in articles in New York Newsday and on his weekly NY1 cable segment, AIDS: A Journal of Hope. In all these efforts, he taught high school students that they must take responsibility for themselves, their families and for all human kind.

In memory of Mr. Fischer, Living Beyond Belief carries on his legacy by continuing to educate youth about protecting themselves against this deadly disease. The Centers for Disease Control states that two Americans between ages 13 and 24 are infected with HIV every hour. In light of such vulnerability to infection, it is critical that schools deliver HIV/AIDS education. With approximately 1.1 million students attending its schools, the public school system is a natural and logical venue for reaching youth in this city.

Due to the ballooning number of HIV infections among Youth, especially young people in metropolitan areas, such as the New York-Tri State region, Living Beyond Belief is committed to saving lives by assisting schools and community based organizations to train and effectively develop youth to educate their peers on HIV/AIDS prevention, to provide upon request, HIV/AIDS peer educators to such schools and community-based organizations in the metropolitan and to encourage NYC public high school students to become HIV/AIDS peer educators, advocates and activists by providing them with college grants and recognition for their life-saving work.

Get more info at livingbeyondbelief.org