Ryan White
Ryan White
Ryan Wayne White was an American teenager from Kokomo, Indiana, who became a national poster child for HIV/AIDS in the United States after being expelled from middle school because of his infection. As a hemophiliac, he became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment and, when diagnosed in December 1984, was given six months to live. Doctors said he posed no risk to other students, but AIDS was poorly understood at the time. When White tried to return to...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth6 December 1971
CityKokomo, IN
CountryUnited States of America
The desire to move into a bigger house, to avoid living AIDS daily, and a dream to be accepted by a community and school, became possible and a reality with a movie about my life, The Ryan White Story.
Eventually, I won the right to attend school, but the prejudice was still there.
The school I was going to said they had no guidelines for a person with AIDS.
I'm just one of the kids, and all because the students at Hamilton Heights High School listened to the facts, educated their parents and themselves, and believed in me.
I believe in myself as I look forward to graduating from Hamilton Heights High School in 1991.
I received thousands of letters of support from all around the world, all because I wanted to go to school.
We got out of the pace we wanted. Fifty-two points is not our style, and Kellie going out, she is what holds this team together. That always hurts, and I think the combination of free throws and we got shots, but we didn't score.
We have engineers in Iowa, Washington State and France. Although we have a critical need for good communications, we can't afford to spend the time and money to fly folks for weekly design and review meetings.
We began a series of court battles for nine months, while I was attending classes by telephone.
Even at church, people would not shake my hand.
My family and I held no hatred for those people because we realized they were victims of their own ignorance.
We had great faith that with patience, understanding, and education, that my family and I could be helpful in changing their minds and attitudes around.
We were noticing an increase in these problems. We couldn't go to freshman orientation anymore and tell parents there were no problems with the old system.
Financial hardships were rough on us, even though Mom had a good job at G.M.