| Ryan White wasn't from California, and only visted a few times as far as I can ascertain. However, he was here in 1990, just before his death, to host a post-Oscars with none other than legendary AIDS heros, the Reagans. Yup, one of his last public appearances came with the man whose legacy on the HIV/AIDS crisis was well summarized by Allen White in the SF Chronicle a few years ago as "Silence Equals Death."
But while California had a long history of queer activism on AIDS, including the founding of two of the earliest AIDS-focused organizations in 1982, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the AIDS Project Los Angeles. It was Ryan White, a boy-next-door kind of kid that made Congress stop simply averting their eyes to the crisis that was occurring. And just four months after White's death, the Ryan White CARE Act was signed. While White's story was just one of many reasons for the passage of what has become a monumentally important piece of legislation to the many AIDS patients across the country, his story broke the mold of thinking that AIDS was merely isolated to one community. Incidentally, AVERT, an international HIV and AIDS charity based in the UK, has a great web section on the history and science of the AIDS crisis.
Yet, today, amidst the budget crisis, we are now facing the end of the Ryan White Legacy. In the latest budget proposals, state AIDS funding is in danger of being completely eliminated.
"Funding for all aids programs up and down the state will be cut, pretty much eliminated, and that's got all of us very worried, because its quite serious," said Dr. Judy Auerbach of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. (CBS5 6/1/09)
These cuts aren't academic in the slightest, as the above news story points out, substantial cuts to AIDS funding will mean that people will not be able to afford drugs. They will miss doses or stop taking it all. Not only will they become sick and die, but the virus will grow stronger.
California was once the nation's leader on AIDS care. Heck, go check out the Office of AIDS, and even despite all the cuts, there is still hope for the future and finding a cure. In San Francisco, the PrepareStudy is working to find a vaccine for HIV.
Ending funding for HIV/AIDS will quite literally kill people. There can be no debate on that subject. And if that's what Arnold and the Republicans want to do, they should have to say that to the faces of every single one of these people. |
