Bill Lauch accepts the Academy Award for Best Original Song on behalf of his partner, Howard Ashman, Los Angeles, California, March 30, 1992. . On March 30, 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented the 64th Academy Awards. . With negative portrayals of the queer community on display in films like “Silence of the Lambs,” “JFK,” and the upcoming “Basic Instinct,” queer activists—most notably, members of Queer Nation—protested outside the event, and some tried with little success to gain access to the ceremony. . During the ceremony, songwriting team Alan Menken (music) and Howard Ashman (lyrics) won their second Best Original Song award; their first, in 1989, was for “Under the Sea” from “Little Mermaid” (when he accepted his 1989 Oscar, Ashman made history by thanking, among other people, his partner, Bill Lauch), and the second was for the title song from “Beauty and the Beast.” . After Menken thanked the audience on his own behalf, he introduced Bill Lauch to accept the award on behalf of Ashman, who had died of AIDS-related illness in March 1991. . “Howard and I shared a home and a life together,” he said, “and I’m very happy and very proud to accept this for him. But it is bittersweet; this is the first Academy Award given to someone we’ve lost to AIDS. . In working on ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ Howard faced incredible personal challenges but always gave his best, and what made that possible was an atmosphere of understanding, love, and support. That’s something everyone facing AIDS not only needs, but deserves. . There’s an inscription at Howard’s grave in Baltimore, it reads: ‘Oh that he had one more song to sing.’ We’ll never hear that song, but I’m deeply grateful for this tribute you’ve given to what he left behind. . For Howard, I thank you.” . Howard Ashman was not the first openly gay Oscar winner—Sir John Gielgud and John Schlesinger, for example, preceded him—but he was among the first to thank his partner, and his partner was the first to accept an award on behalf of an artist lost to AIDS. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #HowardAshman #BillLauch #StephanDupuis (at Los Angeles, California)
