During the 1980s, a teenager from Indiana became the face of the AIDS epidemic and left a legacy that’s still felt 35 years after his death.
Ryan White contracted AIDS through contaminated blood products used to treat his hemophilia. He became a spokesperson for people with AIDS after he and his family had to fight for his right to attend school due to stigma around the disease. He appeared on TV shows and magazines and met celebrities such as Sir Elton John, who became a close friend.
Ryan died of AIDS-related illness in 1990, just a few weeks before his high school graduation. But his name and his advocacy lives on thanks to the Ryan White CARE Act, which was signed into law on Aug. 18, 1990.
The Ryan White CARE Act is the largest federally funded program in the United States for people living with HIV/AIDS. It provides funding for community-based HIV service organizations to offer support for people with HIV and AIDS – organizations like the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, now Allies.
Thanks to the Ryan White CARE Act, Allies is able to provide case management, food assistance, housing assistance, transportation assistance and emergency funds to people living with HIV.
The Ryan White CARE Act expired in 2013, but Congress has continued to provide funding for the program. This act is still important for the continuation of the services Allies – and organizations like ours - provides today. In 2023, more than 576,000 people in the U.S. received care and services through Ryan White programs, and thousands of lives have been saved since the act was first passed.
Learn more about the Ryan White CARE Act and its importance to Allies today from our friends at QBurgh. Click here(opens in a new tab) to read more at QBurgh.
