"Even at church, people would not shake my hand." (1)

Ryan White 
Accessiblechurch.ca is dedicated to Ryan White and all people living with illness or disability who have faced discrimination because of ignorance and fear. 

Ryan was a boy living with hemophilia, he became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment and was diagnosed with AIDS at the age of 13 on December 17 1984. After being out of school for months, he asked to return, but was told by school officials that he could not. 


On June 30 1985, a formal request to permit re-admittance to school was denied. White's school, Western Middle School in Russiaville, faced enormous pressure from many parents and faculty to bar him from the school after his diagnosis became widely known. 117 parents (from a school of 360 total students) and 50 teachers signed a petition asking the school to ban White from school. The principal agreed, and when appealed to the school board they also agreed and continued to bar him from school.. 


Jeanne White, Ryan's mother said people on the street would often yell, "we know you're queer" at Ryan. Many threats followed, as well as demonstrations outside his home and school. 

When a bullet was fired through the Whites' living room window, the family had to leave their home. His family moved to Cicero, Indiana, where White enrolled at Hamilton Heights High School. On August 31, 1987, a Ryan was greeted by school principal Tony Cook, school system superintendent Bob G. Carnal, and a handful of students who had been educated about AIDS and were unafraid to            shake Ryan's hand. Ryan died on Palm Sunday, April 8, 1990. (2)