Ryan White

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Ryan Wayne White (December 6, 1971 – April 8, 1990) was a young man with AIDS from Kokomo, Indiana. In the 1980s, he drew national and worldwide attention due to his infection. White became infected with HIV from a blood product, known as Factor VIII, as part of his treatment for hemophilia which was given to him on a regular basis. He was diagnosed with AIDS on December 17, 1984, by a doctor performing a partial lung removal as treatment for pneumonia. As a result, he was expelled from his school, Western School Corporation, because of the supposed health risk to other students. His situation became a controversial case in North America with AIDS activists lobbying to have him reinstated while attempting to explain to the public that AIDS cannot be transmitted by casual contact but rather only by blood and sexual contact.

White won the case, but because of the threat of violence and parents threatening to sue, they moved from Kokomo toward the school he eventually transferred to Hamilton Heights School Corporation, in neighboring Cicero, Indiana, where Michael Jackson purchased a home for him and his family. White was received as a celebrity by faculty and students of Hamilton Heights who were more educated regarding HIV.

According to Wanda Kline, Hamilton Heights High School Business Department Chair, White was a great student with an exceptional work ethic and perseverance. Kline said White was well-received and respected by his fellow students because of his admirable traits. In the final years of White's life, he was a resident of Cicero, living with his mother, Jeanne - employed at one time at GM and now spokesperson for his cause - and sister Andrea, who was an accomplished skater at the national level. He had a stepfather, Steve Ford. His biological father, Wayne White, did not live with them at the time he entered into the national scene - as a reluctant, astute, but tireless and fierce advocate for those suffering from the onslaught of HIV.

White developed a close relationship with his personal physician, Dr. Martin Kleiman, now the Ryan White Professor of AIDS Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. White participated in several yearly benefits for children with AIDS and several benefits for sports figures and in Hollywood. He befriended John Cougar Mellencamp, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Linda Otto, Ronald Reagan, Alyssa Milano, Nancy Reagan, Phil Donahue, Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, Bobby Knight and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He also was a friend to many other children and others who either had AIDS or other potentially debilitating conditions. He disliked the spotlight on him and his family to a degree, loathed remarks that seemingly blamed his mother or his upbringing for his illness, and emphasized that he would trade his fame at any moment if he could be free of the burden of the disease.

Before he died of pneumonia caused by his illness in April 1990, he worked to educate people on the nature of HIV and AIDS, to show it was not a "homosexual disease" and that it was safe to associate with people who were HIV-positive. Being outside the stigmatized "normal" groups allowed him to become a poster child for HIV infection in North America. Upon his death, his funeral was a standing-room-only event held at the Second Presbyterian Church on Meridian Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. Services and burial by the Rev. Ray Probasco were attended by many celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Phil Donahue, Judith Light, and Elton John. They were the largest Indiana had ever seen. John performed "Skyline Pigeon" at the funeral and trained the Hamilton Heights High School choir to sing at the funeral, according to Chris Noble, Hamilton Heights High School Fine Arts Department Head. Ryan is buried in Cicero, close to the home of his mother, Jeanne.

In 1990, Congress enacted The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act or Ryan White Care Act, the United States' largest federally funded program (excluding Medicaid and Medicare) for the care of those living with HIV and AIDS. The program has been continuously funded since it began and in 2005 is expected to total approximately $2.2 billion per year. Updated figures suggest a higher total, approximately $2.5 billion in 2006. The Ryan White CARE Act provides medical and psychosocial services to those living with HIV/AIDS. According to Karen Blake, town of Cicero manager, there is an annual AIDS walk in his hometown of Cicero to benefit his AIDS foundation.

Michael Jackson, who was a close friend of White's, dedicated the song "Gone Too Soon" from his Dangerous album. '80s pop star Tiffany dedicated the song "Here in My Heart" to White on her New Inside album (1990) and wrote this in the booklet: "I just hope that God has plans to bless the world with more people like Ryan White."

Friend Jill Stewart established the Indiana University Dance Marathon in 1991 to raise money in her late friend's name for the Riley Hospital for Children. Over the past 17 years, the Indiana University Dance Marathon has helped raise over 5 million dollars for the children at Riley. The money raised has also helped found the Ryan White Infectious Disease Clinic at the hospital to take care of the nation's sickest children. The clinic bears Ryan's name because of his will to get better even though he was faced with adversity, ignorance, and hatred.

Elton John is thought to have written "The Last Song" which appears on his album The One in Ryan's memory.

In 1989 the television movie "The Ryan White Story" aired. It starred Judith Light as Jeanne, Lukas Haas as Ryan and Nikki Cox as sister Andrea. Ryan White had a small cameo appearance as Chad, a young patient with AIDS.