: Health Hinge

Zhou Dan ??, born in January 1974, is a lawyer, scholar and activist in China. He lives in Shanghai, China. Zhou is a leading voice for rights of gay and lesbian people in mainland China. Writing with his real name about being gay on Chinese websites for years, he came out to a local newspaper about his gay identity in November 2003.[citation needed] Since then, his name has been from time to time mentioned in Chinese newspapers, magazines and television programs.

Zhou also fights for rights of people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in China, by advocating a human-rights-based approach to the epidemic. In April 2003 he founded the Shanghai Hotline For Sexual Minorities. [1]

From January to May 2004, Zhou was a visiting scholar at the Yale Law School China Law Center with research emphasis on equality and anti-discrimination related to sexuality and HIV/AIDS. He once gave several lectures on a graduate class in homosexuality health and an undergradute class in homosexuality at Fudan University in Shanghai. [2]

Zhou was profiled in the May 2005 issue of Têtu, a French gay and lesbian magazine, and in the June 27, 2005 issue of TIME Magazine.

Phill Wilson (born April 22, 1956) founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999 and is a prominent African-American HIV/AIDS activist. Wilson is himself both gay and HIV-positive. His partner, Chris Brownlie, died of HIV-related illness. [1]

Prior to founding the Institute, Wilson served as the AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles from 1990 to 1993, the Director of Policy and Planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles from 1993 to 1996. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995, and was an appointee to the HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998.[2]

Wilson holds a B.A. in theater and Spanish from Illinois Wesleyan University.[3]

Hank Wilson and John Lauritsen, Death Rush: Poppers and AIDS (New York: Pagan Press, 1986) ISBN 0-943742-05-6
Benjamin H. Shepard, White Nights and Ascending Shadows: An Oral History of the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic (London and Washington, DC: Cassell, 1997) ISBN 978-0304701261

With Tom Ammiano and Ron Lanza, Wilson co-founded the Gay Teachers Coalition in 1975 and lobbied against discrimination for gay teachers in the San Francisco schools.[2] A leader in the 1977 anti-Briggs Initiative (No on 6) campaign, Wilson worked extensively with gay issues in the San Francisco Unified School District. He served on the Gay Youth Advocacy Council which founded Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center (LYRIC). He also served on the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s Youth and Education Committee and also launched with Ammiano a gay speakers bureau to educate San Francisco high school and middle school students about gay and lesbian issues. In 1976 he helped found the Butterfly Brigade, Castro Street Safety Patrol, and Carry a Whistle Defense Campaign.[3] Wilson was a founder of the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club.[3]

In 1978, he started a business partnership with fellow activist Ron Lanza, which led to leasing four Tenderloin Hotels. He operated the Ambassador Hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin through 1996 and it became a model of harm reduction services housing PWAs. In 1982, Lanza and Wilson created the Valencia Rose Cafe, an influential gay cabaret and performance venue, which featured musicians and comedians such as Marga Gomez, Whoopi Goldberg, Lea DeLaria, and Ammiano.[4] With Glenda Hope and Dennis Conkin he founded Tenderloin AIDS Network that led to the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center (TARC). Wilson managed the TARC drop-in center providing support to the homeless and PWAs. He was diagnosed with Kaposi’s sarcoma in 1987. He continued his activism in AIDS and participating in many demonstrations.

In 1981 he founded the Committee to Monitor Poppers to educate the gay community about the hazards of using poppers. Wilson co-authored a book with John Lauritsen entitled Death Rush: Poppers and AIDS (New York: Pagan Press, 1986), in which they alleged a connection between poppers and HIV infection. He also served several terms on the SF HIV Prevention Planning Council and the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) Community Advisory Board.

On November 9, 2008, Wilson died of lung cancer at Ralph K. Davies Medical Center in San Francisco.

Henry (Hank) Wilson (April 29, 1947 – November 9, 2008, San Francisco, California) was a longtime San Francisco LGBT rights activist and long term AIDS activist and survivor. The Bay Area Reporter noted that for “over more than 30 years, he played a pivotal role in San Francisco’s LGBT history.”[1] Other efforts and organizations he created or co-founded include the Gay Teachers Coalition; the Butterfly Brigade, which became the Castro Street Safety Patrol; San Francisco Gay Democratic Club, which became the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club; the Tenderloin AIDS Network, which became Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center; the PWA Coalition; Mobilization Against AIDS; a film festival that grew into the Frameline Film Festival; the AIDS Candlelight Vigil, which became the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial; the Committee to Monitor Poppers and ACT UP/Golden Gate, which became Survive AIDS.[1]

He was raised in Sacramento, California and graduated with a B.A. in education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971.

In August 1990, four months after White’s death, Congress enacted The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act (often known simply as the Ryan White Care Act), in his honor. The act is the United States’ largest federally funded program for people living with HIV/AIDS. The Ryan White Care Act funds programs to improve availability of care for low-income, uninsured and under-insured victims of AIDS and their families.[43]

Ryan White programs are “payer of last resort,” which subsidize treatment when no other resources are available. The act was reauthorized in 1996, 2000 and 2006 and remains an active piece of legislation today. The program provides some level of care for around 500,000 people a year and, in 2004, provided funds to 2,567 organizations. The Ryan White programs also provide funding and technical assistance to local and state primary medical care providers, support services, healthcare provider and training programs.[43][44]

In the early 1980s, AIDS was known as gay-related immune deficiency, because the disease had first been identified among primarily homosexual communities in New York City and San Francisco. At the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, the disease was thought to be a “homosexual problem” and was largely ignored by policy makers.[20] White’s diagnosis demonstrated to many that AIDS was not exclusive to homosexuals. In his advocacy for AIDS research, White himself always rejected any criticism of homosexuality.[36]

White was seen by some as an “innocent victim” of the AIDS epidemic.[36] White and his family strongly rejected the language of “innocent victim” because the phrase was often used to imply that homosexuals with AIDS were “guilty”. White’s mother told The New York Times, “Ryan always said, ‘I’m just like everyone else with AIDS, no matter how I got it.’ And he would never have lived as long as he did without the gay community. The people we knew in New York made sure we knew about the latest treatments way before we would have known in Indiana. I hear mothers today say they’re not gonna work with no gay community on anything. Well, if it comes to your son’s life, you better start changing your heart and your attitude around.”[36]

In the early 1980s, AIDS was known as gay-related immune deficiency, because the disease had first been identified among primarily homosexual communities in New York City and San Francisco. At the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, the disease was thought to be a “homosexual problem” and was largely ignored by policy makers.[20] White’s diagnosis demonstrated to many that AIDS was not exclusive to homosexuals. In his advocacy for AIDS research, White himself always rejected any criticism of homosexuality.[36]

White was seen by some as an “innocent victim” of the AIDS epidemic.[36] White and his family strongly rejected the language of “innocent victim” because the phrase was often used to imply that homosexuals with AIDS were “guilty”. White’s mother told The New York Times, “Ryan always said, ‘I’m just like everyone else with AIDS, no matter how I got it.’ And he would never have lived as long as he did without the gay community. The people we knew in New York made sure we knew about the latest treatments way before we would have known in Indiana. I hear mothers today say they’re not gonna work with no gay community on anything. Well, if it comes to your son’s life, you better start changing your heart and your attitude around.”[36]

White was one of a handful of highly-visible people with AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s who helped change the public perception of the disease. White, along with actor Rock Hudson, was one of the earliest public faces of AIDS. Along with later public figures who became associated with HIV/AIDS, like the Ray brothers, Magic Johnson, Kimberly Bergalis and Freddie Mercury, White helped to increase public awareness that HIV/AIDS was a significant epidemic.[26][26]

Numerous charities formed around White’s death. The Indiana University Dance Marathon, started in 1991, raises money for the Riley Hospital for Children. Between 1991 and 2008, this event has helped raise over $5 million for children at Riley.[33][34] 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. White’s personal physician, with whom he was close friends, Dr. Martin Kleiman, became the Ryan White Professor of AIDS Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. In a 1993 interview, prominent gay rights and AIDS activist Larry Kramer said, “I think little Ryan White probably did more to change the face of this illness and to move people than anyone. And he continues to be a presence through his mom, Jeanne White. She has an incredibly moving presence as she speaks around the world.”[35]

In 1992, White’s mother founded the national nonprofit Ryan White Foundation. The foundation worked to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS-related issues, with a focus on hemophiliacs like Ryan White, and on families caring for relatives with the disease.[36] The foundation was active throughout the 1990s, with donations reaching $300,000 a year in 1997. Between 1997 and 2000, however, AIDS donations declined nationwide by 21%, and the Ryan White Foundation saw its donation level drop to $100,000 a year. In 2000, White’s mother closed the foundation, and merged its remaining assets with AIDS Action, a larger charity. She became a spokeswoman for AIDS activism and continues to arrange speaking events through the site devoted to her son, ryanwhite.com.[37] White’s high school, Hamilton Heights, has had a student-government sponsored annual Aids Walk, with proceeds going to a Ryan White Scholarship Fund.[38]

White’s death inspired Elton John to create the Elton John AIDS Foundation. White also became the inspiration for a handful of popular songs. Elton John donated proceeds from The Last Song which appears on his album The One to a Ryan White fund at Riley Hospital.[39]

Michael Jackson dedicated the song “Gone Too Soon” from his Dangerous album to White,[40] as did 1980s pop star Tiffany with the song “Here in My Heart” on her New Inside album.[41]

In November 2007, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis opened an exhibit called “The Power of Children: Making a Difference” which featured White along with Anne Frank and Ruby Bridges.[42]

On March 29 1990, several months before his high school class graduated, White entered Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis with a respiratory infection. As his condition deteriorated he was placed on a ventilator and sedated. He was visited by Elton John and the hospital was deluged with calls from well-wishers. White died on Palm Sunday, April 8 1990.[2]

Over 1,500 people attended White’s funeral on April 11, a standing-room-only event held at the Second Presbyterian Church on Meridian Street in Indianapolis.[29] White’s pallbearers included Elton John, football star Howie Long and Phil Donahue. Elton John performed “Skyline Pigeon” at the funeral and also trained the Hamilton Heights High School choir to sing with him. The funeral was also attended by Michael Jackson and First Lady Barbara Bush. On the day of the funeral, former president Reagan—who had been widely criticized[20] for failing to mention AIDS in any speeches until 1987 although he had spoken on the issue in press conferences beginning in 1985—wrote a tribute to White that appeared in The Washington Post.[29][30] Reagan’s statement about AIDS and White’s funeral were seen as indicators of how greatly White had helped change perceptions of AIDS.[29]

White is buried in Cicero, close to the home of his mother. In the year following his death, his grave was vandalized on four occasions.[31] As time passed, however, White’s grave became a ’shrine’ for his admirers.[32]