Dionne Warwick Is Honored for AIDS-Research Funds

Singer Dionne Warwick, whose 1986 collaborative song, “That’s What Friends Are For,” raised about $2 million for AIDS research, was honored Saturday night by a national gay and lesbian support group.

The group, Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG, chose Warwick as the ninth recipient of the organization’s Humanitarian Award because of her continuing work for those stricken with AIDS through the Warwick Foundation, spokesman David Fuller said.

“She essentially is trying to reach every level that can be affected by the AIDS issue, which is essentially every level of our society,” Fuller said.

The award was accepted on her behalf by AIDS awareness activist the Rev. Carl Bean at PFLAG’s ninth annual convention at the Hyatt Regency Alicante, Fuller said.

Warwick has also sponsored educational programs, including publication of comic books for children, and sponsored a writing contest on how to help a person with AIDS, Fuller said.

Warwick was chosen for her “courage, compassion, passion and leadership in educating the public about the human side of AIDS,” Fuller said. “(Her) support of our gay children and their families is a shining example to others. That’s what friends are for.”

The Warwick Foundation is a community service organization dedicated to “assuring the delivery of health-care service programs to populations for whom current programs are insufficient or ineffectual,” Fuller said.

Her relationship with Bean, who is pastor of Los Angeles-based Unity Fellowship Church, has helped raise AIDS awareness in minority communities. Bean is founder of the Minority AIDS Project and the Minority AIDS Council and is a member of the AIDS in the Black Community group.

In 1986, Warwick recorded the hit song, “That’s What Friends Are For,” with Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight. The money raised was donated for laboratory work in fighting the disease, which attacks the body’s immune system.

PFLAG, with a reported 200 chapters around the country, is a support group for relatives and friends of gays and lesbians. In the group, Fuller said, “they find out how to accept and express their love and offer the support (the gay or lesbian person) needs.”

“These people find out their child is gay,” Fuller said. “They can’t understand it, but they want to help.”