KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As a mom, all Jeanne White-Ginder wanted was for her son to live.
It wasn't meant to be for Ryan White. But the Indiana boy once shunned by society because he had HIV left a legacy of compassion and tolerance that still moves millions today.
White-Ginder served as feature speaker Tuesday at Positively Living and Choice Health Network's luncheon. Positively Living started out focusing on HIV and AIDS but now also tries to help the homeless, mentally ill and those fighting substance abuse.
In the 1980s and '90s, millions across America came to know Jeanne and her young son. A severe hemophiliac, Ryan was diagnosed with HIV at about age 13 years after getting a bad blood transfusion.
The AIDS crisis was encircling the globe, and thousands of people, including many gay men, were becoming sick or facing near certain death as HIV turned into AIDS.
"It became so very ugly," White-Ginder recalled Tuesday.
Ryan endured ignorance and bias from his school and his hometown. He just wanted to live like a normal kid, his mother said. The Whites ended up moving to another, more welcoming city in Indiana.
Gradually, they became national figures in the conversation over who could get HIV and how they should be treated.
Ryan befriended superstars such as Elton John and Michael Jackson, who gave him a red Ford Mustang to drive. He met Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
After he died in April 1990, the former president wrote a tribute that appeared in The Washington Post. Reagan was widely criticized during his administration for doing too little to fight AIDS.
By 1990, a much different Reagan had emerged.
"We owe it to Ryan to make sure that the fear and ignorance that chased him from his home and his school will be eliminated. We owe it to Ryan to open our hearts and our minds to those with AIDS. We owe it to Ryan to be compassionate, caring and tolerant toward those with AIDS, their families and friends. It's the disease that's frightening, not the people who have it," the ex-president wrote in an op-ed.
White-Ginder told the audience Tuesday that Elton John often credits her son for helping save his life all those decades ago. Ryan helped the musician see the dangerous life he'd been living and how he could do better.
Elton John spent Ryan's final days at an Indianapolis hospital with Ryan and his mom as he finally succumbed to AIDS.
Several months after his death, Congress passed Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act to help those with HIV and AIDS.
By the conclusion of White-Ginder's talk, many in the room were fighting back tears.
"I know I'm going to see my son soon," she said. "And he's not gonna have AIDS."
