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Today & Tomorrow

Philip Wik

The Christians of Kokomo

It is by the littlest hair from the littlest hamster that the scales tip positively for me on the question: does Christianity matter? I think, for example, of how the Christians of Kokomo Indiana treated Ryan White who contacted AIDS through a blood transfusion. Ryan’s testimony before the President’s Commission on AIDS tells his story: “My name is Ryan White. I am sixteen years old. I have hemophilia, and I have AIDS. In 1971, when I was three days old, the doctors told my parents I was a severe hemophiliac, meaning my blood does not clot. December 17, 1984, I had surgery to remove two inches of my left lung due to pneumonia. After two hours of surgery the doctors told my mother I had AIDS. I contracted AIDS through my Factor VIII which is made from blood. I came face to face with death at thirteen years old. I was diagnosed with AIDS: a killer. Doctors told me I'm not contagious. Given six months to live a being the fighter that I am, I set high goals for myself. It was my decision to live a normal life, go to school, be with my friends, and enjoying day to day activities. It was not going to be easy. The school I was going to said they had no guidelines for a person with AIDS. The school board, my teachers, and my principal voted to keep me out of the classroom even after the guidelines were set by the I.S.B.H., for fear of someone getting AIDS from me by casual contact. Rumors of sneezing, kissing, tears, sweat, and saliva spreading AIDS caused people to panic. We began a series of court battles for nine months, while I was attending classes by telephone. Eventually, I won the right to attend school, but the prejudice was still there. Listening to medical facts was not enough. People wanted one hundred percent guarantees. There are no one hundred percent guarantees in life, but concessions were made by Mom and me to help ease the fear. We decided to meet them halfway:

· Separate restrooms

· No gym

· Separate drinking fountains

· Disposable eating utensils and trays

Even though we knew AIDS was not spread through casual contact. Nevertheless, parents of twenty students started their own school. They were still not convinced. Because of the lack of education on AIDS, discrimination, fear, panic, and lies surrounded me:

· I became the target of Ryan White jokes

· Lies about me biting people

· Spitting on vegetables and cookies

· Urinating on bathroom walls

· Some restaurants threw away my dishes

· My school locker was vandalized inside and folders were marked FAG and other obscenities

I was labeled a troublemaker, my mom an unfit mother, and I was not welcome anywhere. People would get up and leave so they would not have to sit anywhere near me. Even at church, people would not shake my hand.”

Finally, Ryan’s family decided to move to the community of Cicero, Indiana. Cicero welcomed Ryan with open arms. He attended Hamilton Heights High School, where students had all attended an informational seminar on AIDS. Ryan continued to speak out against discrimination toward people with AIDS. On August 18, 1990, ten days after Ryan died, Congress passed Public Law 101-381, the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. This Act was created to help states, communities and families cope with the growing impact of the AIDS epidemic.

The leading role taken by the Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians of Kokomo County was shameful, but they were afraid and fear was fueling their ignorance. They saw Ryan not as a courageous kid with brown eyes and light brown hair who liked Robo Cop, Debbie Gibson music, Star Wars, Andy Griffith, and his two dogs but as a disease that needed to be isolated, demonized, and destroyed.

I would say then in summary to try to be tolerant of those around you, even though you don’t necessarily understand or agree with their behavior. “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32).