: Health Hinge

Multiple Maniacs (1970) as Steve
Pink Flamingos (1972) as The Egg Man
Female Trouble (1974) as Butterfly
Desperate Living (1978) as Mr. Paul
Divine Trash (1998) as himself
Edith’s Shopping Bag (1976) as himself

Paul Swift was an American actor. He worked in the early films of John Waters.[1]

Swift’s most notable role is The Egg Man in Pink Flamingos. Aside from that, he played mostly bit parts in other films by John Waters.

Swift died of AIDS, in his hometown of Baltimore, in 1994.

Because of his work with Waters, Swift is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters’ ensemble of regular cast and crew members.

Smith died of AIDS on October 15, 1986. He was the first former professional athlete to die of the disease. Although he acknowledged that he had AIDS, he never publicly acknowledged his homosexual activities. Smith’s sexuality was confirmed after his death by a former teammate, pro NFL football player David Kopay, who had come out of the closet years earlier.

Playing for Otto Graham and George Allen’s Redskins, Smith had a stellar career. He played in the 1973 Super Bowl VII, and Sports Illustrated called him “an outstanding receiver among tight ends, with the ability to break open for a long gain.” In his career Smith caught 421 passes, including 60 touchdowns, a record for tight ends at the time. He was named All-Pro twice and held several NFL records that stood for years. Despite his accomplishments and decades standing records he has been denied membership in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Gerald “Jerry” Thomas Smith (July 19, 1943 – October 15, 1986) was a professional American football tight end for the National Football League’s Washington Redskins from 1965–1977.

Hinson died of respiratory failure resulting from AIDS in Silver Spring at the age of 53.

Hinson’s body was cremated, and the ashes were buried in Tylertown after a private service. Hinson, by then divorced, was survived by a brother, Robert Hinson, in Gulfport, Mississippi.

He resigned on April 13, 1981, early in his second term. He said that his resignation had been “the most painful and difficult decision of my life.” He was succeeded in Congress by Wayne Dowdy, a Democrat, who won the special election held in the summer of 1981.

Soon afterwards, he acknowledged that he was gay. His marriage ended, and he became an activist for gay rights.

He later helped to organize the lobbying group “Virginians for Justice” and fought against the ban on gays in the military. He also was a founding member of the Fairfax Lesbian and Gay Citizens Association in Fairfax County.

He never returned to Mississippi but lived quietly in the Washington area, first in Alexandria, Virginia and then Silver Spring, Maryland.

Hinson also disclosed that he survived a 1977 fire that killed nine people at the Cinema Follies, a Washington theater that catered to a gay clientèle. He was rescued from under a pile of bodies — one of only four men who survived.

During his re-election campaign in 1980, Hinson admitted that in 1976 while an aide to Cochran, he had been arrested for committing an obscene act[1], exposing himself to an undercover policeman, at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Hinson denied that he was homosexual and blamed his problems on alcoholism. He said that he had reformed and refused to yield to demands that he resign. He won re-election with 38.97% of the vote, as independent candidate Leslie McLemore won 29.8% and Democrat Britt Singletary won 29.4% of the vote.

Hinson, who was married to Cynthia Hinson, was then arrested on February 5, 1981 and was charged with attempted oral sodomy[2] for performing oral sex on an African-American male employee of the Library of Congress in a restroom of the House of Representatives. After his arrest, Hinson was charged with sodomy, a felony at the time carrying a maximum fine of $10,000 and sentence of 10 years in prison. But the United States Attorney’s office reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, which carried a maximum one-year penalty and a fine of $1,000. In explaining the reduction in the charge, Percy H. Russell, deputy director of Superior Court operations for the United States Attorney’s office, said it was office policy that homosexual acts between consenting adults be prosecuted as misdemeanors. Hinson pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted sodomy the following day and was released without bail pending a trial scheduled for May 4, 1981. Hinson checked into a hospital in the Washington area shortly after his court appearance, according to his office. Marshall Hanbury, Hinson’s administrative assistant, said that the Congressman had voluntarily admitted himself to a hospital.[3

Congressman Cochran chose not to run for re-election to Congress in order to run for the United States Senate. Hinson was elected to succeed his boss, winning with 51.6% of the vote. Hinson defeated John Hampton Stennis, the son of Senator John Stennis. Stennis won 26.4% and the rest went to independent candidates.

Hinson was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, and he graduated from the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Hinson was an aide to Representatives Charles H. Griffin, a Democrat, and Thad Cochran, a Republican.