Friday, June 29, 2007

Ryan White CARE Act

The federal government funds HIV/AIDS treatment programs through Ryan White funds. The program is the third largest federal program, behind Medicare and Medicaid, and more than 500,000 Americans rely on Ryan White funds for their health care.

Why, then, is the program named for a straight, white boy? Yes, straight, white males can catch HIV and some do have AIDS, but this is a disease that has had far greater impact on gay men and people of color.

Why don't people care unless it's a straight, white male?

(I know this is random, but, well, it's Stonewall week, so I'm gonna post some militant homosexual rantings.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because Ryan White brought the issue to the front of papers and put an everyday face to the disease. The way he contracted it was not through poor life choices. I think that that we should infect Bush with HIV and make him the face of AIDS.
Do you think having a gay man be the face of AIDS would be more appropriate? It might be since everyone seems to think we are the ones who started it and we are the most likely to catch it.

Anonymous said...

P.S. This would have been funny if it was titled "Ryan White Gave US AIDS"

Anonymous said...

It appears you've stopped blogging (booooo).

In an effort to keep my blogroll fresh, I'm going to remove your site from it. If however you start blogging again, just let me know and I'll you back!

Hope all is well.