Ryan White
Ryan White was a young boy diagnosed with HIV at the age of thirteen in 1984, after receiving a contaminated blood product during surgery. His case drew national attention during a time when AIDS was heavily stigmatized and misunderstood, often associated with marginalized lifestyles. Following his diagnosis, Ryan faced significant discrimination, including expulsion from school due to fears surrounding his condition. Despite these challenges, he became a passionate advocate for the rights and dignity of those living with HIV/AIDS, speaking publicly to educate others and combat prejudice.
Ryan's activism garnered support from notable figures, including celebrities and politicians, which helped change public perceptions about the disease. He continued to advocate for compassion and understanding until his untimely death from pneumonia complications at the age of eighteen. His legacy includes the passage of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act in 1990, which significantly increased federal funding for AIDS research and support services. Today, his impact is remembered as a pivotal moment in the fight against HIV/AIDS, highlighting the need for ongoing awareness and education to combat stigma surrounding the disease.
Ryan White
Spokesperson
- Born: December 6, 1971
- Birthplace: Kokomo, Indiana
- Died: April 8, 1990
- Place of death: Indianapolis, Indiana
White, a teenage hemophiliac infected with HIV through a tainted blood transfusion, drew international attention to the treatment of AIDS patients at the height of widespread alarm over the new disease.
On December 17, 1984, Ryan White, then thirteen, was notified by doctors that he had contracted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through transfusion of a contaminated blood-clotting agent, Factor VIII, administered during a partial lung removal procedure as part of a treatment for his pneumonia. He was told that he had six months to live. At the time, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was widely associated with careless habits of so-called alternative lifestyles, including intravenous drug use, promiscuous sex, and homosexuality. Indeed, misconceptions about the disease’s transmission stirred community resistance to White’s continued attendance at school in his rural Indiana hometown. When the family resisted the school’s initial decision essentially to quarantine him by providing him separate bathroom facilities and disposable silverware and its subsequent decision that White be homeschooled, White was expelled. White found his case the center of a national outcry, led by AIDS activists who saw in this case manifest evidence of public ignorance. White himself became a leading advocate, appearing before congressional panels, in national magazines, and on network television, tirelessly explaining that casual contact did not transmit the disease and that its patients should be treated with compassion rather than ostracism.
When a district court ordered White reinstated, fear of violence against the boy led the family to relocate to nearby Cicero, Indiana, where White attended public school without incident. Although he often asserted that he wanted only to be healthy and go to school, he accepted the importance of his fame to educate people about the disease and the dangers of stigmatizing AIDS patients. Celebrities such as Michael Jackson (who bought the Whites their home in Cicero) and Elton John (who was at the hospital bedside when White died) and politicians such as President Ronald Reagan, who had consistently resisted AIDS funding, all rallied about the boy’s quiet determination and easy charisma. White’s celebrity, however, was not without controversy, as gay activists pointed out that opprobrium was still accorded those patients whose lifestyle suggested that they somehow “deserved” the virus.
Impact
In 1990, White, at age eighteen, died from complications of pneumonia. He had changed perceptions about AIDS by arguing that with commonsense precautions, patients could be treated with respect. The year he died, Congress voted to fund the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, an unprecedented government support of AIDS research, after stalling for years in the face of public unease fueled by ultraconservative activists. White’s heroic poise in the face of community prejudice and then ultimately in the face of death at a young age raised awareness about the disease at a critical moment in the epidemic, giving health agencies an unparalleled example of grace under pressure.
Following his death and the legislation bearing his name, scientists continued to experiment with drugs that have allowed patients with HIV and AIDS to live longer and more productive lives than during White's lifetime. Additionally, the number of people who became infected with the disease through blood supply was drastically reduced over the ensuing years. However, the disease still remains one of the top causes of death worldwide, with millions suffering at any given time. In fiscal year 2016, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, which had been created by the 1990 act, was funded at $2.32 billion. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of White's death and legislation, both celebrities and the media commemorated the impact that he had made on the fight against the disease and the related stigma while also acknowledging that further progress still needed to be made.
Bibliography
Berridge, Virginia, and Philip Strong, eds. AIDS and Contemporary History. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.
Cochrane, Michel. When AIDS Began. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Markel, Howard. "Remembering Ryan White, the Teen Who Fought against the Stigma of AIDS." PBS NewsHour. NewsHour Productions, 8 Apr. 2016. Web. 23 June 2016.
Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: St. Martin’s, 1987. Print.
White, Ryan, with Ann Marie Cunningham and Jeanne White. My Own Story. New York: Signet, 1997. Print.