In response to AIDS activists’ urging yesterday, December 10, that Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee meet with Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White—a teenager who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion and died of AIDS-related illness in 1990—Huckabee said he would be “very willing” to meet with White-Ginder, reports the Los Angeles Times (latimes.com, 12/12).
Yesterday, members of advocacy groups, the Human Rights Campaign and the AIDS Institute sent a letter to Huckabee, urging him to meet with White-Ginder in response to his refusal to retract a statement he made in 1992 that called for the isolation of people living with AIDS.
Though the U.S. surgeon general had already reported that HIV could not be spread through casual contact when Huckabee made his comments, he said his words were a reflection of the current state of knowledge surrounding the disease at that time, reports the Times. “Obviously, we know a lot more today. I'm glad we do,” Huckabee said. “That was 1992.”
Huckabee has yet to comment on his current thoughts surrounding AIDS. Last month, a statement issued by his campaign called for increased efforts to provide care for people living with HIV both in the United States and abroad, according to the Times.
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