New Ryan White Book Highlights Indiana’s Mixed Legacy of Acceptance
In some ways, the recent furor over Indianas Religious Freedom Restoration Act echoed a heated discrimination debate from three decades ago, when the state was previously a battleground in the national culture wars: HIV/AIDS activist Ryan Whites struggle to attend public school.
As cases of HIV/AIDS started popping up across the country in the 1980s, the rhetoric used in some of the medical and political language of the time attacked victims and described the disease as exclusive to homosexuals and intravenous drug users. The Reagan Administration was slow to act, regarding AIDS as a disease that infected morally corrupt individuals: Pat Buchanan, Reagans communications director, called it natures revenge on gay men.
As absurd as Buchanans claim sounds today, negative perception and stereotyping were the reality for many HIV/AIDS patients of the time. That is, however, until the national media focused on discrimination against Whitea 13-year-old who contracted HIV through treatment for hemophiliain his hometown of Kokomo, Indiana. Suddenly, the epidemic couldnt be dismissed as a curse; it had a human face, an average kid living in Americas heartland.
http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-culture/ryan-white-book/