Four Words
“You can be sincere and still be stupid…
It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently…..”
Fydor Dostoevsky
As the HIV/AIDS epidemic unfurled across the United States, U.S. Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, a racist homophobe who conflated outright hatred with ignorance, was also a coward, until he (and those of his ilk) was stopped by four words: “What about Ryan White?”
In the early to mid- ‘70s, “Senator No” focused on the ABCs of American politics: abortion, busing and communism. A decade late, homosexuality replaced race and communism as the hot-button issue of the Far Right and, with the emergence of HIV/AIDS epidemic, Helms had a new target for his vitriol – attacking “deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct” of gay men and claiming “We’ve got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts.”
Despite the deaths of Ryan White (1990) and tennis star Arthur Ashe (1993), who were infected through blood transfusions with the Human Immunodeficient Virus, and the life of Shawn Decker, who was infected by tainted blood as an eleven-year-old in 1987 and continues today as one of the world’s outstanding HIV/AIDS educators, Helms made his odious tirades against AIDS research and treatment a hallmark of his career.
Ashe, a profoundly private person and the only African American man to win Wimbleton and the U.S. and Australian opens, believed he contracted the virus from a tainted transfusion following a 1983 heart operation. After disclosing his illness in 1992, he spent the last months of his life fighting prejudice and raising awareness about the disease.
Shawn Decker was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 when he was eleven – the result of tainted blood products used to treat his hemophilia. After graduating from high school, he created one of the first Internet blogs in 1996 and continues to write and educate about HIV/AIDS through the website H-I-V.net, books – including his memoir My Pet Virus – and public lectures.
Ryan White and Shawn Decker became the targets of ignorance and prejudice that no kid in America should ever experience – forced from their grade schools and targeted by cowardly politicians who fed the fear of their constituents; they also became the faces of courage and hope.
[The prejudice and (sometimes) willful ignorance surrounding HIV/AIDS has always been especially personal. A friend-benefactor and absolutely brilliant physician, who was celebrated for skipping a night of sleep in order to research and resolve especially difficult cases, was infected by an accidental needle prick while caring for a patient. The same thing happened to a nurse and new bride of a close friend. As a prison chaplain, I ministered to too many dying men – often in their twenties and early thirties, most of whom suffered from the underlying disease of addiction and were infected through the use of contaminated needles.]
With incredible tenacity Ryan White, Shawn Decker and Arthur Ashe put the lie to the moralizing myths peddled by Helms, Pat Robertson of the 700 Club (“the towels can have AIDS” and “I think people in the gay community, they want to get people [infected]… They’ll have a ring, and you shake hands, and the ring has a little thing where you cut your finger… Really. It is that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”), Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and Liberty University (“AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals, it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”) and Billy Graham (“Is AIDS a judgment of God? I could not say for sure, but I think so.”). [To be fair, Graham later claimed that he regretted the statement and eventually called for increased governmental and religious organizational spending on HIV/AIDS education, prevention and research.]
Diagnosed with hemophilia when – at three days old - he was circumcised and the bleeding would not stop, Ryan White, originally from Kokomo, Indiana, had just turned thirteen when his HIV status was confirmed - the result of a blood product then used to treat his hemophilia – while he was being treated for a rare form of pneumonia that usually indicated AIDS.
“The disease is so new, and so few children have it, that we just don’t know how long Ryan can hang on,” Dr. Martin Kleiman of the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis informed his mother just days before Christmas. Told the diagnosis, Ryan’s response was “Mom, I want to get on with my life.”
Getting on with his life wasn’t easy. As word spread of his diagnosis, the parents of other kids and the local school board attempted – and failed – to prevent his retuning to school. “Kokomo had hardened its heart against one of its own,” Ryan’s mother, Jeanne White-Grinder, noted years later.
Ryan was forced to drink from a separate water fountain, use a separate bathroom and paper plates and disposable utensils, and was not allowed to attend gym classes or use the locker room or pool. His school locker was defaced with obscenities. At Easter Sunday church services people refused to shake his hand and wish him “Peace be with you.” The next week, while the family was at church, a bullet shattered the picture window of their home.
Yet, Ryan managed to shrug things off. He was tough and would fight this fight his own way. The family abandoned his mother’s hometown and moved to Cicero, where he was embraced at his new high school; the students themselves initiated AIDS awareness classes and offered counseling to anyone who was afraid. “The truth was, when the issue was left to the kids, they handled it much better than the adults,” observed Mrs. White-Ginder.
Ryan put the Kokomo experience into a perspective that can be as salient in 2023 as it was when he was alive:
“Look, people were just doing what you were trying to do - watching out for their kids. They were scared to death, and that’s why they acted so crazy. In a way, I really can’t blame them - though they were wrong.”
Jeanne White-Ginder described her son’s death eloquently:
“I was afraid he was struggling to hold on to life for my sake. ‘Just let go, sweetheart,’ I whispered to him. ‘It’s all right now.’ On Palm Sunday, 1990, Ryan let go. Like the day’s last rays of sunlight, his breathing faded and then his heart stopped. Dr. Kleiman nodded. I leaned over and gave my son a last kiss. Then I reached for his guardian angel night-light and switched it off.”
With appearances on Nightline and the Today show, as a new friend of Elton John, the young man who declared “I just want to be a kid” joined the company of actor Rock Hudson, basketball legend Magic Johnson, and Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis as one of the earliest public faces of AIDS.
Months after Ryans death, when Jeanne White-Ginder attempted to speak with Jesse Helms about his opposition to the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency (CARE) Act, the homophobic racist Senator refused; without uttering a word he took refuge in a Senate elevator and hid.
Nonetheless, that same year the CARE Act was adopted, providing funding for medical care and support services for individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS.
Former president Ronald Reagan penned an op-ed published in The Washington Post on the day of Ryan’s funeral:
“Ryan White touched our lives in a special way. His ready smile, his youthful innocence, his simple desire to just live his life tugged at our hearts in a way we will always remember. How we wanted to hug him and make him better.
“Ryan accepted his situation with awe-inspiring courage and magnanimity. He did not run and hide, and he graciously accepted the public responsibilities thrust on his young shoulders. He was patient and kind and did not wallow in self-pity. Cruelly robbed of the simple pleasures of his childhood, he had a dignity and strength that were an inspiration to everyone who knew of him. Nancy and I had the privilege of being with Ryan a few days ago in California. He was not feeling well, but he carried on with a smile and with determination. He never gave up hope, and he even spoke of going to college. He just wanted to be like the other kids.
“God had a different plan for Ryan White -- a plan which we do not understand now but one which I believe with all my heart will one day make sense….
“We owe it to Ryan to make sure that the fear and ignorance that chased him from his home and his school will be eliminated. We owe it to Ryan to open our hearts and our minds to those with AIDS. We owe it to Ryan to be compassionate, caring and tolerant toward those with AIDS, their families and friends. It's the disease that's frightening, not the people who have it.
“There is a tendency to measure a life by its length. But a life should be measured not by the number of years but by what happens in that life and by those whom that life touched. Our lives are better for having known Ryan White. He taught us how to live, and he taught us how to die….”
Time after time, when Helms, Falwell, Robertson and their God’s-Judgement’s Science-Denying cohorts would “blame it on the gays,” they were stopped in mid-speech by the shouted question “What about RyanWhite.”
History tends to repeat itself:
The “blame it on Jews” meme has never died. Wait for the shouting and strait-armed salutes to start spreading again in coming months, fanned by desperate politicians aspiring to gain or terrified of losing power.
Throw in alleged alliances of “globalists,” “Marxists,” “communists,” “Freemasons” and “Masons,” “George Soros,” “Rothschild,” the whole gamut of south-of-the-border despots and dictators and you have a thick broth of imaginary enemies to punish and vote against.
Don’t forget the “Wokerites.” [Okay. We just coined a new word.]
Quran-burning and Muslim-blaming-and-shaming will hold a special place in contentious 2024 campaigns.
“Baby killer” labels will be thrown at dedicated physicians, nurses and families confronted by overwhelming and ultimately fatal diagnoses.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun” will be repeated constantly. Yet, in 2020 the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade group, reported that “the estimated total number of overall firearms in civilian possession is 433.9 million.” [The US population is approximately 334.2 million.] And, on July 17, 2022, the Associated Press reported:
“Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting at a Uvalde [Texas] elementary school, but ‘egregiously poor decision-making’ resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman who took 21 lives was finally confronted and killed… The gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building — and it is ‘almost certain’ that at least 100 shots came before any officer entered….”
While AIDS has disappeared from the insult lists, bi-sexuals, transsexuals and others who don’t fit into an “acceptable” norm will be the fuse repeatedly lit to explode irrational fears and angers in coming election cycle.
More than 520,000 student-athletes competed in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship sports in the 2021-2022 academic year, according to the organization’s December 2022 report. On April17, 2023 the website Outsports – www.outsports.com – reported, “Outsports knows of almost three dozen out trans athletes from college sports who have been out publicly while competing, all in the last decade.” The list dated to 2010.
36 since 2010.
520,000 during the last academic year.
In January 2022, the NCAA announced a “sport-by-sport approach to transgender participation” consistent with US and International Olympic Committees practices and will require mandatory testosterone testing at the beginning of athletes’ seasons and again six months later. Additionally, they will need to test four weeks before championship selections.
Today’s versions of the racist homophobe Senator No are already campaigning, their stump speeches filled with hate- and fear-inspiring rhetoric.
Let’s pray they can be unmasked and silenced with a question as profound and authentic as “What about Ryan White?”