Ryan White's Mom Angry With Huckabee

The Human Rights Campaign is trying to engineer a meeting between Mike Huckabee and Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White, the Indiana teenager whose battle with AIDS in the 80's riveted the nation and made Ryan a darling of AIDS activists such as Elton John.

White-Ginder says Huckabee's recent comments about AIDS have infuriated her and that "We have to treat this disease like a disease, and like Ryan always said, not like a dirty word." When her son contracted HIV through his treatment for hemophilia in 1984, he was barred from public school, becoming the country's best-known example of discrimination against people with AIDS. After Ryan White's death, the largest federally funded program for people with AIDS was named for him.

While I understand why the HRC is using the example of Ryan White to respond to Huckabee, White is also one of the sainted, media-proof, "innocent victims" of AIDS. Gay organizations invoking the image of a straight teenager to protest AIDS discrimination has always stuck in my craw.

UPDATE: Huckabee has responded to the HRC's letter. Regarding the White family: "I certainly never would want to say anything that would be hurtful to them or anyone else. I would have great regret and anxiety if I thought my comments were hurtful or in any way added to the already incredible pain that families have felt regardless of how they contracted AIDS."
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