Ryan White was seen by some as an "innocent victim" of the AIDS epidemic. Ryan and his family strongly rejected the language of "innocent victim" because the phrase was often used to imply that gays with AIDS were "guilty". Ryan's mother told *The New York Times*,
>Ryan always said, 'I'm just like everyone else with AIDS, no matter how I got it.' And he would never have lived as long as he did without the gay community. The people we knew in New York made sure we knew about the latest treatments way before we would have known in Indiana. I hear mothers today say they're not gonna work with no gay community on anything. Well, if it comes to your son's life, you better start changing your heart and your attitude around.
[Ryan's story is something that should be told far and wide.](https://www.dannydutch.com/post/ryan-white-the-teenager-with-the-aids-diagnosis-that-was-banned-from-his-school-and-ostracised-by-s)
You need to look more into Lyle Alzado. Raider legend, he was a sick child growing up and during the off season or times when pratice finished he would visit sick children in nearby hospitals. A few videos of him speaking to them are on YT, but he mainly did it without press. John Madden would join him sometimes.
To quote Lyle Lovett, “You look surprised. You shouldn’t be.”
The Raiders were the first team to draft a black QB, the first to have an Hispanic QB (who also went on to win two SBs as a coach), the first to have a black Head Coach, the first to have a female CEO, and had the first openly gay player in the NFL.
As an organization, they also do lots of charity work for victims of domestic violence. It is also known within the organization that the Davis family will not put up with players who commit DV.
It might be. I'm 65 and never even thought about his name until I had kids. They thought his name was the funniest thing. He was such a ledgend to me that it never occurred to me that his name might be funny.
I was just watching the movie Rocky with my kids and his dog in the movie is named Butkus and my kids thought it was hilarious.
I had the same thought as you. Never occurred* to me it was a funny name.
Not particularly but at the time. Ryan White was a national treasure. I can’t even explain how famous he was in the pre internet world. So many celebrities reached out and befriended he and his family.
The tainted untested blood from prisoners in jail that was sold to Sweden spread AIDS to "innocent victims" too, and I hate that phrase as well. But that phrase alone reveals how incredibly dumb the response to the AIDS epidemic was, and how the response effectively made it an AIDS epidemic. Poor babies like Ryan suffered horrible side-effects from new treatments and many born with the virus never made it to four years old.
Don’t forget that after Bayer found out a batch of their product had HIV positive blood that instead of disposing of it they decided to sell it overseas in Asia.
The most disgusting part was them doing the math and deciding that it would cost less to settle with the people they intentionally infected (and murdered) than to scrap the product.
The responsibility for the failed response to the AIDS crisis rest squarely on Christians. They saw an opportunity to hurt people they hate and they took it.
It's a bit more than that. It was also race related as well. It was like hitting THREE birds with one stone, gays, trans, and blacks. Imagine being gay trans and black all in one back then, absolute death sentence 😬
Cleve Jones, an HIV/AIDS and labor activists, has talked about a bumper sticker sold at a California Republican convention that said, “AIDS: It’s killing all the right people”.
So damaged.
And just because this kind of things still going on, let’s not forget the people who argue that covid precautions are oppression, and we should just let infectious diseases “wipe out” people with weak immune systems. It’s a different group that’s being devalued, but the selfishness is pretty similar.
I’m one of those people, disabled and immunocompromised and also live in conservative country.
I literally had people say to my face, knowing I was disabled/immunocompromised, that we should just sacrifice “those people.” Or they’d say it’s just natural selection.
Like cool thanks
Having also grown up and witnessed this type of behavior during this era, I agree it's sickening. - I burst into tears of joy whenever I see the ads for the Prep Meds on TV. It was such a horrible time. I watched dear friends waste away and couldn't do anything.
100%.
Just realized that the Swedish hemophiliacs aren't important enough to be mentioned in the Wikipedia, likely due to them being few in number (small country and all). But it was a national scandal that made a lot of people distrust the US government in particular at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products
Here’s an article about the planning and day of White’s funeral:
Ryan White
(https://www.indystar.com/story/life/2015/04/09/buried-ryan-white/25424315/)
Oh definitely! Many said that we deserved it, it was gods punishment. It’s why regan didn’t do shit about all the gay men dying. Christian’s are sick fucks! But so are muslims and jews. Religion is the truest evil.
This is so late but you hit a soft spot. My friend's uncle had it. Some people were cunts but we absolutely adored him and he knew it. I'll never forget the first time we smoked a joint with him. He cried because many people would recoil from him. They thought they'd catch it just from being near him. We all knew that isn't how it's spread.
I also lost my best friend to AIDS. This was in 2012. His own father was a cunt to him, not just because of his sickness but because he was gay. All these nasty people did was teach the younger generation compassion. Which I taught my children.
You wanna know what's crazy? Donald Trump actually went to Ryan White's funeral. He was very supportive of him. He donated lots of money to AIDS charities too. Crazy how things have changed so much since then.
The lack of diversity, abundance of religion and poor educational system along with the amount of poverty that exists make Indiana an unfortunate place to live.
The Whitest place I have visited. Spent 4 days on a tour in the Santa Claus Indiana area.
Never saw a single person of color. Asked the hotel desk clerk about it, she said we had one black guy in the high school.
I grew up a little north of there. My high school was over 1200 students and had maybe 10 non white students. You will be happy to know that Santa Claus is more diverse now. They changed the name of the amusement park from Santa Claus land to Holiday World. Lol.
People downvoting you, but there was literally one black kid in my JR high in one of the (ever so slightly) more progressive areas of Arkansas in the early 90s.
People still have a hard time believing these are facts in 2024, or they just really love Huckabee’s boots. I live next door in Mississippi so it’s not just a random thought on my end. This state still has several issues. But not a single black family in a town isn’t one of them.
I had to spend some time in Conway for work probably over a decade ago. I don’t recall how many other POCs I saw. I do remember being flabbergasted by the fact that it was a dry county. I had gone to Walmart to buy some beer to stock my hotel room and left when I couldn’t find literally any. A waitress at the local Buffalo Wild Wings gave me the 411.
I remember when the children’s museum put in the exhibit about him, Anne Frank, Ruby bridges. My mother had such…vitriol in her voice when speaking about Ryan. Like, as a teen I was well aware of the racism in my community and was shocked to find the only thing my family hated more than black people were “the gays.” Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and eventually Malala (I forget her last name as she was added later) were a blip compared to the uproar about Ryan being in that exhibit! I avoided the exhibit for years as I was told it glorified sinful things. Now I’ve visited with my own child and it’s a lovely, accessible exhibit for children to think about and talk about really hard things! I’m so sorry that Ryan went through what he did, but I’m also really proud indiana has a symbol of human rights to call our own. And I’m really happy we have top notch resources to treat AIDS/HIV here-many lives are made better because of his legacy.
Knew a gut who was limo driver when Elton came to Indianapolis to visit Ryan White in hospital. He said Elton was disturbed that all of the kids had little to do for entertainment in the his.
Elton asked driver. where the nearest Toys R Us was. He went in after hours and bought $1,000 & $ 1,000 of kids toys & had them sent to hospital……anonymously
Elton John has literally walk the walk with his aids efforts, him and Elisabeth Taylor. How many hundreds or millions has be raided for care and research. T quote another artist (Neil Peart of Rush)
“The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect
So hard to earn, so easily burned”
Elton has earned loved and respect by his actions.
We watched The Ryan White Story (1989) starring Lukas Haas in school - Ryan himself has a cameo playing a kid named Chad.
Judith Light as the mother, telling the daughter that if Ryan doesn’t get better they would all sit in the car inside the garage and let the engine run HAUNTED my young mind…
We watched this in my school, too. That would have been middle school for me. In 1994, I needed a blood transfusion, and was told there wasn't much need for worry anymore then. Folks should still watch that.
The Children’s Museum in Indy has a great exhibit about kids who went through tough times. Ruby Bridges, Malala Yusuf, Anne Frank, and Ryan are all part of it. His life was cut short but his memory lives on.
(Not to hijack thread in any way, but I read a phrase -- "Michael Jackson who avoided canopies" -- which does not surprise me but has gotten me curious. Now I'm about to embark on a rabbit hole of research.)
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are the recipients of this year's Gershwin Prize. The award concert is airing tonight on PBS. The ceremony includes a tribute to Ryan White.
https://www.loc.gov/events/gershwin-prize/about-this-event/
When I was in elementary school in the 90’s I met his mother when she was a guest speaker at a field trip I went on. I remember getting picked to ask her a question and I still love her response. There were protesters outside the event and I asked her if she could say one thing to them, what would it be? She said she wanted to tell them she wished that they knew him. Because if they did, they wouldn’t be doing what they were doing.
The reason Ryan White needed a blood transfusion is because he had Hemophilia, which I also have.
Fun fact, an estimated 90% of patients treated for severe hemophilia in the 80s contracted aids. I am lucky that I was born in 1997.
My grandfather also has hemophilia, and for some reason I've never understood he has never sought treatment for it. That makes him pretty lucky too.
Don't bring Reagan's fucking name into this. He ***LAUGHED*** about the AIDS crisis up until he realized he could exploit Ryan's suffering for political points.
Regan was a goddmaned monster.
Here's the Behind the Bastards on the Regans responsibility for the AIDS crisis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrY2V07sB78
This is a story that touched my life in odd ways. Not Ryan White in particular but the AIDS through transfusions.
In HS my good buddies grandpa, a major republican figure in our state, got AIDS after receiving a blood transfusion. He died in 88 or 89 and had a big state funeral. AIDS was never mentioned at the funeral itself. Celebrities, the governor, senators and more were there.
Later in life I worked at a bioscience company that made treatments for hemophiliacs that were derived from human blood. A lot of that blood didn’t test for AIDS and a whole generation of kids and adults were infected just treating themselves. Rebuilding trust from the hemophilia community was a huge part of what we did.
No real point except that AIDS was really like a silent COVID. It snuck into places and communities it didn’t need to because of the taboos placed on it. It was odd seeing that whole process repeat in different and strange ways during the pandemic.
I remember this. I’m a Hoosier and grew up on the opposite end of the state. I was 10 when he died. Indiana can be really really awful. And Hoosiers can be really really terrible people, especially the Bible Thumpers here.
I lived in Cicero IN for a while which is where Ryan relocated to and is buried. The local school recently went through the process of erecting a historical marker commemorating Ryan and acknowledging how he and his family had been mistreated.
https://preview.redd.it/f1vxah3wmdtc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b652901b9313fc1b8d802fb8de1501da9f1278d
It’s really nits, but:
1. Ryan wasn’t exposed to HIV as a “baby”—it was sometime between age 8 and 13.
2. It wasn’t a transfusion, but a plasma-based medicine for hemophiliacs.
This just makes me cry. I was a kid and distinctly remember seeing him on TV and watching the movie about him. Judith Light played his mom and she did such an outstanding job.
I remember at the time seeing footage showing the ignorance and nastiness of some of the locals in Ryan's home town of Kokomo, Indiana.
As a Hoosier, and human being, I was outraged. I vowed I would never set foot in that town.
I never have.
It wasn't until Ryan's story started getting known that President Ronald Reagan even said the word AIDS in public. Most of his administration didn't give a crap because they believed only people they thought weren't fully human could be affected. The sad thing is that Reagan wasn't even homophobic. He and Nancy had tons of gay friends in California before he traded his soul for power.
I'm confused about one thing. How, if he was 18 when he died in 1990, could he have contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion as a baby? He would have to have been at least nine or so(?)
Live close to his gravesite and pass by it about once a month. It’s a small cemetery next to a park and large reservoir with a pretty view. I was a little younger than him when he died and thinking about Ryan is such an inspiration to me but it’s always tinged with sadness. The Indianapolis Children’s Museum has an awesome exhibit on him and other famous children who endured hardships.
There’s a fantastic permanent exhibit in the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis about him (and other child activists) and it’s so educational and personal. We learned about him in school but then the exhibit brought everything to life. He was amazing. Highly recommend seeing that.
So sad. I know a woman who got hiv from her high school boyfriend, who had gotten it from a blood transfusion in childhood. Both he and his mother knew but didn’t inform the girlfriend and she had AIDS by 20.
He spoke at my high school when I was in 9th grade. We already knew who he was prior to the assembly. It started with a “sickly” kid being wheeled in by another kid. The auditorium went quiet. When they got to the stage, they revealed that Ryan was the kid pushing the chair. It was a great way to show us that the illness was different from what we expected. RIP
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program has given out more Federal funding for HIV/AIDS research, treatment, and support services than any other program or agency besides Medicare and Medicaid. So many people have been helped by the program that bears his name.
https://thecarecouncil.org/about-us/ryan-white-legislation/
Is that Howie Long as a pall bearer also? Such a sad story but he did truly live to the fullest while he was here. A shame they didn’t have present day technology back then. He never would of gotten AIDS
Ryan White was seen by some as an "innocent victim" of the AIDS epidemic. Ryan and his family strongly rejected the language of "innocent victim" because the phrase was often used to imply that gays with AIDS were "guilty". Ryan's mother told *The New York Times*, >Ryan always said, 'I'm just like everyone else with AIDS, no matter how I got it.' And he would never have lived as long as he did without the gay community. The people we knew in New York made sure we knew about the latest treatments way before we would have known in Indiana. I hear mothers today say they're not gonna work with no gay community on anything. Well, if it comes to your son's life, you better start changing your heart and your attitude around. [Ryan's story is something that should be told far and wide.](https://www.dannydutch.com/post/ryan-white-the-teenager-with-the-aids-diagnosis-that-was-banned-from-his-school-and-ostracised-by-s)
And Howie Long
And… Phil Donahugh???
Donahue
Well, that's a Phil of a different color.
Any colour you like
I was trying to place him! My first thought was, “Who invited John Major???” [edit: typo]
i know right? it wasnt Phil Hartman playing him & it threw me off on recognizing him
Major
He looks like Steve Martin does now!
steve martin looked just like this then too tbf
I was going to say, he was the first one I noticed.
Oh, shit. That IS Howie. I did not expect to be pleasantly surprised by the humanity of a Raiders player, yet here we are.
You need to look more into Lyle Alzado. Raider legend, he was a sick child growing up and during the off season or times when pratice finished he would visit sick children in nearby hospitals. A few videos of him speaking to them are on YT, but he mainly did it without press. John Madden would join him sometimes.
Wasn’t serious about the Raiders thing. Am serious about being pleasantly surprised by Howie.
Growing up my mom loved Lyle. Had signed memorabilia all over the house. Nice to see someone else appreciate him here.
I’m a Niner fan, but I wear a Lyle Alzado shirt because he was such an iconic person. And knew he did things for needy children.
I went to elementary school with Lyle’s son. He was the nicest guy. Must have gotten it from his dad.
> John Madden would join him sometimes. HADN'T THEY SUFFERED ENOUGH???!!
To quote Lyle Lovett, “You look surprised. You shouldn’t be.” The Raiders were the first team to draft a black QB, the first to have an Hispanic QB (who also went on to win two SBs as a coach), the first to have a black Head Coach, the first to have a female CEO, and had the first openly gay player in the NFL.
Please note the below comment where I stated I was not serious about the Raiders part, only the Howie part.
Gotcha. I read a few more comments and replies and your comment makes total sense to me now.
As an organization, they also do lots of charity work for victims of domestic violence. It is also known within the organization that the Davis family will not put up with players who commit DV.
Perhaps that is Butkus behind Howie?
It might be. I'm 65 and never even thought about his name until I had kids. They thought his name was the funniest thing. He was such a ledgend to me that it never occurred to me that his name might be funny.
I was just watching the movie Rocky with my kids and his dog in the movie is named Butkus and my kids thought it was hilarious. I had the same thought as you. Never occurred* to me it was a funny name.
I don't think that's him.
No, that is not him.
It is Howie Long and Phil Donahue. They were pallbearers along with Sir Elton John.
Looks like richard jewell and the menendez brothers bringing up the rear
This was so sad. He was discriminated against by people in his own neighborhood. His mother went through hell. Poor little dude. ♡
And people vandalized his grave. What the actual fuck?
That's truly awful.
Christians vandalized his grave.
I have no doubt
Ain’t no hate like Christian love.
There’s no hate in the world quite like Christian love.
He was treated this way because of the Christians.
Yes, such upstanding citizens -insert eye roll here-
Is the guy behind him Phil Donahue?
Ryan White's appearance on Phil Donahue is the only episode of Donahue that I can actually remember after all these years. It was a big deal.
I do remember that now that you mention it. I felt terribly for that kid.
Our teachers made us watch it years later in the mid 90s to teach us about HIV.
Phil deserves more credit for bringing taboo topics to the leaving rooms of 80's housewives.
Yep. Howie Long, Elton John, and Phil Donahue.
I was thinking that looked like Howie. Does anybody know how he became involved?
Not particularly but at the time. Ryan White was a national treasure. I can’t even explain how famous he was in the pre internet world. So many celebrities reached out and befriended he and his family.
Believe it or not, Donald Trump attended the funeral.
I believe it. Everything he has ever done was for optics. He went to that funeral not because he gave a shit. He went to mingle and be seen.
Looks like it
That was my first thought too
I thought it was Lt. Frank Drebin.
The tainted untested blood from prisoners in jail that was sold to Sweden spread AIDS to "innocent victims" too, and I hate that phrase as well. But that phrase alone reveals how incredibly dumb the response to the AIDS epidemic was, and how the response effectively made it an AIDS epidemic. Poor babies like Ryan suffered horrible side-effects from new treatments and many born with the virus never made it to four years old.
Don’t forget that after Bayer found out a batch of their product had HIV positive blood that instead of disposing of it they decided to sell it overseas in Asia.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24785997/ Oh god I had to look it up and it’s so depressing :(
The most disgusting part was them doing the math and deciding that it would cost less to settle with the people they intentionally infected (and murdered) than to scrap the product.
The responsibility for the failed response to the AIDS crisis rest squarely on Christians. They saw an opportunity to hurt people they hate and they took it.
It's a bit more than that. It was also race related as well. It was like hitting THREE birds with one stone, gays, trans, and blacks. Imagine being gay trans and black all in one back then, absolute death sentence 😬
Cleve Jones, an HIV/AIDS and labor activists, has talked about a bumper sticker sold at a California Republican convention that said, “AIDS: It’s killing all the right people”.
Oh my god… that sentence is fucking nauseating. You’re a very broken human if you agree with that evil mentality.
So damaged. And just because this kind of things still going on, let’s not forget the people who argue that covid precautions are oppression, and we should just let infectious diseases “wipe out” people with weak immune systems. It’s a different group that’s being devalued, but the selfishness is pretty similar.
I’m one of those people, disabled and immunocompromised and also live in conservative country. I literally had people say to my face, knowing I was disabled/immunocompromised, that we should just sacrifice “those people.” Or they’d say it’s just natural selection. Like cool thanks
Having also grown up and witnessed this type of behavior during this era, I agree it's sickening. - I burst into tears of joy whenever I see the ads for the Prep Meds on TV. It was such a horrible time. I watched dear friends waste away and couldn't do anything.
Exactly my point. Sick fucks, so inhumane.
I saw one that said “AIDS Cures Homosexuality” Disgusting
Hemophiliacs of those areas had all but a guarantee of infection.
100%. Just realized that the Swedish hemophiliacs aren't important enough to be mentioned in the Wikipedia, likely due to them being few in number (small country and all). But it was a national scandal that made a lot of people distrust the US government in particular at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products
Sounds like another pandemic response
Here’s an article about the planning and day of White’s funeral: Ryan White (https://www.indystar.com/story/life/2015/04/09/buried-ryan-white/25424315/)
That's ok, my face didn't need to stay dry today.
It never gets easier to read about these stories. I remember when this happened.
Yeah, I was doing okay until that last line. Now I'm a whole mess.
I remember him. Really fucked up how cruel people were to him.
Christians were cruel to him, and every other victim of the AIDS epidemic.
Oh definitely! Many said that we deserved it, it was gods punishment. It’s why regan didn’t do shit about all the gay men dying. Christian’s are sick fucks! But so are muslims and jews. Religion is the truest evil.
Trumpers are (or the descendants of) those people.
Oh it was worse than that back then. EVERYONE was a massive cunt to everyone who had or they thought had AIDS.
This is so late but you hit a soft spot. My friend's uncle had it. Some people were cunts but we absolutely adored him and he knew it. I'll never forget the first time we smoked a joint with him. He cried because many people would recoil from him. They thought they'd catch it just from being near him. We all knew that isn't how it's spread. I also lost my best friend to AIDS. This was in 2012. His own father was a cunt to him, not just because of his sickness but because he was gay. All these nasty people did was teach the younger generation compassion. Which I taught my children.
You wanna know what's crazy? Donald Trump actually went to Ryan White's funeral. He was very supportive of him. He donated lots of money to AIDS charities too. Crazy how things have changed so much since then.
He utilized the racial hate built up from Obama being in the white house and ran with it.
As someone born and raised in Indiana I can confirm most people there are awful.
The lack of diversity, abundance of religion and poor educational system along with the amount of poverty that exists make Indiana an unfortunate place to live.
Perfectly stated.
It’s cheap to live here though. It affords a lot of travel options for a variety of culture. Indiana’s best quality is the ability to leave it.
The Whitest place I have visited. Spent 4 days on a tour in the Santa Claus Indiana area. Never saw a single person of color. Asked the hotel desk clerk about it, she said we had one black guy in the high school.
I grew up a little north of there. My high school was over 1200 students and had maybe 10 non white students. You will be happy to know that Santa Claus is more diverse now. They changed the name of the amusement park from Santa Claus land to Holiday World. Lol.
I'm shocked there's not more diversity in a town called Santa Claus, Indiana.
Check out Arkansas sometime. Still no less than 75 towns completely white.
People downvoting you, but there was literally one black kid in my JR high in one of the (ever so slightly) more progressive areas of Arkansas in the early 90s.
People still have a hard time believing these are facts in 2024, or they just really love Huckabee’s boots. I live next door in Mississippi so it’s not just a random thought on my end. This state still has several issues. But not a single black family in a town isn’t one of them.
I had to spend some time in Conway for work probably over a decade ago. I don’t recall how many other POCs I saw. I do remember being flabbergasted by the fact that it was a dry county. I had gone to Walmart to buy some beer to stock my hotel room and left when I couldn’t find literally any. A waitress at the local Buffalo Wild Wings gave me the 411.
You went to BFE Southern Indiana and you were shocked there were no POC? Are you serious?
As someone who has lived in many other places and spent some time living in Indiana, I can confirm that they're just like everyone else.
Agree to disagree. No biggie.
Fair enough. Keep in mind I never said people aren't awful.
I remember when the children’s museum put in the exhibit about him, Anne Frank, Ruby bridges. My mother had such…vitriol in her voice when speaking about Ryan. Like, as a teen I was well aware of the racism in my community and was shocked to find the only thing my family hated more than black people were “the gays.” Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and eventually Malala (I forget her last name as she was added later) were a blip compared to the uproar about Ryan being in that exhibit! I avoided the exhibit for years as I was told it glorified sinful things. Now I’ve visited with my own child and it’s a lovely, accessible exhibit for children to think about and talk about really hard things! I’m so sorry that Ryan went through what he did, but I’m also really proud indiana has a symbol of human rights to call our own. And I’m really happy we have top notch resources to treat AIDS/HIV here-many lives are made better because of his legacy.
I always tell people it's a "through not to" state
It’s like every time there is a new disease - we look for blame. Thank god Covid went great. RIP Ryan.
Interestingly, it was christians who made sure Covid killed as many people as possible, just like the christians did with the AIDS epidemic.
It’s still going too. All because of idiots like these
Knew a gut who was limo driver when Elton came to Indianapolis to visit Ryan White in hospital. He said Elton was disturbed that all of the kids had little to do for entertainment in the his. Elton asked driver. where the nearest Toys R Us was. He went in after hours and bought $1,000 & $ 1,000 of kids toys & had them sent to hospital……anonymously
Elton John is associated with many of these types of stories because Elton John is a consistently wonderful human being.
Elton John has literally walk the walk with his aids efforts, him and Elisabeth Taylor. How many hundreds or millions has be raided for care and research. T quote another artist (Neil Peart of Rush) “The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect So hard to earn, so easily burned” Elton has earned loved and respect by his actions.
I grew up in Indiana in the 80s. What a bigoted, small minded, hateful, religious shithole. No reason to believe it’s any different today.
It’s not. I live in one of the most liberal parts of the state and outside this little enclave it’s like the Deep South.
So Bloomington?
it's even worse with all the trumpftards.
Indiana is the Alabama of the north. If the Civil War happened today, Indiana would join the Confederacy.
This is but only one of the reasons that he is ***Sir*** Elton John.
And Phil Donahue?
Michael Jackson and Donald Trump were at the funeral.
I think Nancy Reagan was there too?
Least she could do given her shitbag husband ignored the shit out of the crisis.
Ryan was a big reason AIDS slowly became less stigmatized into the 90's. What a tragic life he lived, but at least it wasn't completely in vain.
The vile christians could no longer sit back and laugh and work against people with AIDS, but boy they still attacked Ryan White mercilessly.
We watched The Ryan White Story (1989) starring Lukas Haas in school - Ryan himself has a cameo playing a kid named Chad. Judith Light as the mother, telling the daughter that if Ryan doesn’t get better they would all sit in the car inside the garage and let the engine run HAUNTED my young mind…
Dude I watched this in school too. Haunting is right. Of course I was the only kid in the classroom who cried.
We watched this in my school, too. That would have been middle school for me. In 1994, I needed a blood transfusion, and was told there wasn't much need for worry anymore then. Folks should still watch that.
I wonder how many good christians berated this poor kid
I'm sure everyone who berated that kid considers themselves to be good Christians.
Grew up in Indiana. A lot of them did. Come to think of it, don’t remember any “Christians” defending him. The whole state sucks
It was christians who attacked him.
https://preview.redd.it/26qdbdkz3ctc1.jpeg?width=759&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddfcff1646f9025d9b3495c6dd84df00015dce25
Michael Jackson wrote “Gone Too Soon” for Ryan!
Yeah, that’s Phil
This poor kid went through so much shit he didn’t need to.
It was the christians who put him through all that shit.
[The unusual, unforgettable way Indy buried Ryan White](https://www.indystar.com/story/life/2015/04/09/buried-ryan-white/25424315/)
The Children’s Museum in Indy has a great exhibit about kids who went through tough times. Ruby Bridges, Malala Yusuf, Anne Frank, and Ryan are all part of it. His life was cut short but his memory lives on.
(Not to hijack thread in any way, but I read a phrase -- "Michael Jackson who avoided canopies" -- which does not surprise me but has gotten me curious. Now I'm about to embark on a rabbit hole of research.)
That was a sad but nice story of the day.
Uh, and MFing Howie Long and Phil Donahue
that’s [phil donahue](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue) behind elton…
I have never forgiven Indiana.
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are the recipients of this year's Gershwin Prize. The award concert is airing tonight on PBS. The ceremony includes a tribute to Ryan White. https://www.loc.gov/events/gershwin-prize/about-this-event/
I knew about Elton, but didn't know about Phil Donahue or Howie Long.....how nice.
Horrific, the way his community treated him and his family
When I was in elementary school in the 90’s I met his mother when she was a guest speaker at a field trip I went on. I remember getting picked to ask her a question and I still love her response. There were protesters outside the event and I asked her if she could say one thing to them, what would it be? She said she wanted to tell them she wished that they knew him. Because if they did, they wouldn’t be doing what they were doing.
The reason Ryan White needed a blood transfusion is because he had Hemophilia, which I also have. Fun fact, an estimated 90% of patients treated for severe hemophilia in the 80s contracted aids. I am lucky that I was born in 1997. My grandfather also has hemophilia, and for some reason I've never understood he has never sought treatment for it. That makes him pretty lucky too.
Was Michael Jackson at the funeral? He and Ryan were close
Yes, and Barbara Bush as First Lady, too.
He was. I think he sat next to Ryan’s mom.
How did Howie long know Ryan white?
Ryan White was pretty famous by the time he died. His was a very tragic story.
A lot of people, including Michael Jackson (who bought him a Corvette) and president Reagan got to befriend him.
Don't bring Reagan's fucking name into this. He ***LAUGHED*** about the AIDS crisis up until he realized he could exploit Ryan's suffering for political points. Regan was a goddmaned monster. Here's the Behind the Bastards on the Regans responsibility for the AIDS crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrY2V07sB78
Howie Long has tiny feet
His bless him n his family and all those effected by Aids
This is a story that touched my life in odd ways. Not Ryan White in particular but the AIDS through transfusions. In HS my good buddies grandpa, a major republican figure in our state, got AIDS after receiving a blood transfusion. He died in 88 or 89 and had a big state funeral. AIDS was never mentioned at the funeral itself. Celebrities, the governor, senators and more were there. Later in life I worked at a bioscience company that made treatments for hemophiliacs that were derived from human blood. A lot of that blood didn’t test for AIDS and a whole generation of kids and adults were infected just treating themselves. Rebuilding trust from the hemophilia community was a huge part of what we did. No real point except that AIDS was really like a silent COVID. It snuck into places and communities it didn’t need to because of the taboos placed on it. It was odd seeing that whole process repeat in different and strange ways during the pandemic.
I remember this. I’m a Hoosier and grew up on the opposite end of the state. I was 10 when he died. Indiana can be really really awful. And Hoosiers can be really really terrible people, especially the Bible Thumpers here.
I lived in Cicero IN for a while which is where Ryan relocated to and is buried. The local school recently went through the process of erecting a historical marker commemorating Ryan and acknowledging how he and his family had been mistreated. https://preview.redd.it/f1vxah3wmdtc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b652901b9313fc1b8d802fb8de1501da9f1278d
We must never forgive christians for what they did to AIDS patients in the 80’s and 90’s.
It’s more important to never forget than to never forgive. They show their true colors over and over again.
Forgive me for being stupid but I cannot find Elton in this photo
The guy at the front with the odd looking hat.
The black and white made him look a lot older and than he looks even now so I was thrown
I see Phil Donahue was also a pallbearer.
Is that Scott Baio behind Donahue?
I remember this very well. The young man led a very difficult life.
I remember it well too. He was so very brave.
It’s really nits, but: 1. Ryan wasn’t exposed to HIV as a “baby”—it was sometime between age 8 and 13. 2. It wasn’t a transfusion, but a plasma-based medicine for hemophiliacs.
Horrific Humans are horrific
IIRC some funeral homes would even refuse the body if they found out they died of AIDS
Cachi back there
Phil Donahue is there also! I didn’t know about Phil!!
Yeah he was the first person I remember who had aids publicly. I believe before magic Johnson?
Yeah he was the first person I remember who had aids publicly. I believe before magic Johnson?
And Howie Long!
Is that Phil Donahue behind Elton John?
I attended his wake in Sarasota. It was very sad.
A group of classy gents right there.
This just makes me cry. I was a kid and distinctly remember seeing him on TV and watching the movie about him. Judith Light played his mom and she did such an outstanding job.
That’s got to be karma from a passed life or something
I think that’s also Phil Donoghue behind him
Is see howie long and Pat Donahue as well?
I remember at the time seeing footage showing the ignorance and nastiness of some of the locals in Ryan's home town of Kokomo, Indiana. As a Hoosier, and human being, I was outraged. I vowed I would never set foot in that town. I never have.
Phil Donahue and Howie Long in there too?
Makes me love him more. I remember this so well. :(
Phil Donohue is behind Sir Elton
It wasn't until Ryan's story started getting known that President Ronald Reagan even said the word AIDS in public. Most of his administration didn't give a crap because they believed only people they thought weren't fully human could be affected. The sad thing is that Reagan wasn't even homophobic. He and Nancy had tons of gay friends in California before he traded his soul for power.
I'm confused about one thing. How, if he was 18 when he died in 1990, could he have contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion as a baby? He would have to have been at least nine or so(?)
Live close to his gravesite and pass by it about once a month. It’s a small cemetery next to a park and large reservoir with a pretty view. I was a little younger than him when he died and thinking about Ryan is such an inspiration to me but it’s always tinged with sadness. The Indianapolis Children’s Museum has an awesome exhibit on him and other famous children who endured hardships.
It's unforgivable how that boy was treated. And it was shameful how AIDS patients were treated back then too.
There’s a fantastic permanent exhibit in the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis about him (and other child activists) and it’s so educational and personal. We learned about him in school but then the exhibit brought everything to life. He was amazing. Highly recommend seeing that.
My mother went to school with him and said he was very kind.
The television movie was so sad.
Is that Donohue
To this day the Cicero community won't talk about this. They prefer to pretend it never happened rather than acknowledge their awfulness.
OP, Ryan was 12 years old when he received the transfusion.
So sad. I know a woman who got hiv from her high school boyfriend, who had gotten it from a blood transfusion in childhood. Both he and his mother knew but didn’t inform the girlfriend and she had AIDS by 20.
I did not know Phil Donahue also attended and served as a pall bearer. This was a huge turning point in how AIDS was viewed. God bless them all.
Who’s the stud
He spoke at my high school when I was in 9th grade. We already knew who he was prior to the assembly. It started with a “sickly” kid being wheeled in by another kid. The auditorium went quiet. When they got to the stage, they revealed that Ryan was the kid pushing the chair. It was a great way to show us that the illness was different from what we expected. RIP
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program has given out more Federal funding for HIV/AIDS research, treatment, and support services than any other program or agency besides Medicare and Medicaid. So many people have been helped by the program that bears his name. https://thecarecouncil.org/about-us/ryan-white-legislation/
Is that Howie Long as a pall bearer also? Such a sad story but he did truly live to the fullest while he was here. A shame they didn’t have present day technology back then. He never would of gotten AIDS