Ray brothers

During the 1980s, As we've talked about before, AIDS was largely stigmatized as an illness impacting the gay community.

In the U.S., that perception shifted with media focus placed on white and other prominent heterosexual HIV-infected people, such as Magic Johnson, who we've talked about, Arthur Ashe, and the Ray Brothers, although these cases were often framed as quote-unquote innocent, which is like, hey, so then what do we call Ryan White? Not innocent? Anyways...

It sounds like, yeah, it sounds like that, yeah.

Go ahead.

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, who we did talk about very briefly as well, was one of the earliest public faces of AIDS.

Other public figures who were infected with HIV included Keith Haring, Holly Johnson, Freddie Mercury, The Ray Brothers, Matthew Johnson, Greg Laganis, I think is how you say his name, Arthur Ashe, Liberance, Eazy-E, who we talked about as well, Tim Richmond, Anthony Perkins, who we've definitely talked about during the Ed Gein episode, Randy Schultz, Ricky Wilson, Afra Hazza, Robert Reed, and Jerry Smith.

White hoped to increase public awareness that HIV-AIDS was a significant epidemic.