21st Century Fox Sponsors American Foundation for AIDS Research Gala Honoring Ryan Murphy
21st Century Fox Social Impact
At its sixth annual Inspiration Gala Los Angeles at Milk Studios on October 29, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) honored television writer Ryan Murphy with its Award of Inspiration for his contributions to the fight against HIV and AIDS. Murphy, whose series include Glee and Scream Queens for FOX, as well as American Horror Story for FX, has consistently given voices to LGBT characters in his television and film projects. 21st Century Fox was a Platinum Sponsor of the event and served as Vice Chair, along with Fox Television Group and FX Networks.
"I don't believe marriage equality would have happened... without television and gay characters," Murphy said during his acceptance speech. "I have always known that if characters can come into your living rooms, they become real to you. They become like family members... And Glee and Modern Family are given a lot of credit for ushering in this constitutional gift."
Murphy also thanked the executives at Fox who helped produce his series and shepherd them to air, including Dana Walden and Gary Newman, who run both the Fox television studio and the FOX network as heads of Fox Television Group, as well as Peter Rice, Chairman and CEO of Fox Networks Group.
"The true heroes here are our allies who backed these shows and got them made," he said. "They believed in everyone's right to have a voice and to be equal in our world."
Murphy also pledged to serve as a "lifelong ambassador" for amfAR, which has invested more than $388 million and awarded more than 3,300 grants to scientist conducting AIDS research since its founding in 1985. The organization has helped lay the groundwork for major advances in the study and treatment of HIV/AIDS and aims to develop a cure for the disease by the year 2020.
The Inspiration Gala Los Angeles event, which featured a charity auction hosted by Andrew Fiuczynski and amfAR's Global Campaign Chair Sharon Stone, raised more than $3.1 million for the organization's work. In just the past six years, the Inspiration series has raised more than $20 million to benefit amfAR and has been held in cities such as New York, São Paulo, Paris, Toronto, and Miami.
Actress Julia Roberts, who presented Murphy with the Award of Inspiration, drew a comparison between Murphy and the organization's dedicated work. "amfAR and Ryan Murphy are a perfect pair because Ryan is as a person very much like this organization -- tireless in the pursuit of learning, healing, of correctness, connection and equality," she said. "Ryan Murphy is an inspiration."
