Magic Johnson
When HIV and AIDS were first recognized as diseases in 1981, there were still many people ignorant about how they affected sufferers. There was a significant amount of time that passed until it was accepted that HIV and AIDS were not gay diseases and that there were many people from countries all over the world that were being infected, regardless of their sexual orientation. For many people, it took somebody they knew suffering from the disease before they were able to take it seriously. For the people that did not know anybody that had HIV or AIDS, celebrities and public figures were a great help to increasing awareness. If many of these celebrities kept it to themselves instead of coming out with their diagnosis publicly, many patients would be suffering with muted voices. Here are some of the public figures that have been infected by HIV and/or AIDS, or have died from the viruses.
1. Rock Hudson – Although he never made it public that he was a homosexual, he was one of the first movie and television stars to die from HIV or AIDS. When Hudson publicly announced that he was dying, this made the diseases real for many people. Rock Hudson was always viewed as an all American manly man, and nobody would have thought that somebody like Hudson would be dying from that disease.
2. Magic Johnson – Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in the early 1990’s and announced it to the world. He went on a regimen of anti-retroviral drugs that kept full blown AIDS from taking over his immune system. Magic Johnson increased the hope in many sufferers, showing that it was possible to live a normal life after being diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. There were some people that thought that it was too good to be true and that Johnson had found some secret cure, but doctors have said that the types of drugs that he is on are available to anybody with health insurance.
3. Greg Louganis – An olympic diver that had won several gold medals during his career, he was found to be HIV positive in 1988. While keeping this revelation to himself at first, he decided to bring every aspect of his life into the public when his partner Tom Barrett lost a battle with AIDS. A television movie was made about this Olympian in 1997, with Louganis being played by Saved by the Bell alum, Mario Lopez.
If it was not for these public figures coming out and informing the public about their struggles, their triumphs, and everything in between, we would not be as knowledgeable as a whole when it comes to the subject of HIV and AIDS. It is especially effective when these figures tell us about their lives because when there is somebody we can look at who is suffering from these diseases, it makes it easier to educate people about prevention.
