Public Faces For Public Problems: Advocacy Done Correctly, Thanks Elizabeth and Paul Michael Glaser

There shouldn't be an American alive today that would not recognize this face, yet there are many that have forgotten.  You shouldn't.  This is Elizabeth Glaser, wife of "Starsky and Hutch's" actor/director Paul Michael Glaser, whom advocated for AIDS victims and children born with AIDS through the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, an organization that still exists today.  While Elizabeth passed away in 1994 from the disease it wasn't without raising awareness and lots of money for research that assisted all of us in our quest to live with this disease.  This incredible woman is what I like to refer to as "the public face for a public problem", much like Christopher Reeve for spinal chord injuries or Michael J. Foxx for Parkinson's Disease.

I like to pick Elizabeth for this example for many reasons but mostly because she is a face that YOU SHOULD REMEMBER.  Not because she was married to someone famous, but because she became famous working for others while battling the same disease.  That's the job of the public advocate too...it's willing to step out in front regardless of the criticism and fear associated with the cause you are associated with.  Elizabeth, like Ryan White, stepped into the spotlight of public advocacy without hesitation because of her own experience.  She became the public spokesperson for children with AIDS while suffering from the disease that would eventually take her own life.  Along the way she was an integral part of research, development, fund raising and advocacy for those that suffered with HIV disease.  This is a face you should associate with love, humanity, sacrifice and help.  I want you to remember her.  I want you to never forget whom she was and what she stood for at a time when nobody was standing for anyone.

I wouldn't dare to compare myself with a woman like Elizabeth on any level, but my level of love and concern for the victims of electronic harassment and intentional infection of HIV in Palm Springs, California.  I love my community.  I love my friends.  I love my boyfriend and I want to help the law enforcement community to understand what has happened here and how to fix it.  Public faces to silent crimes are so necessary that people would lose their lives, and more importantly, their hope without them.  I knew people would criticize me.  The police even said it on television and online, but those are the battles that make the victory even better for the victims.  The examples given in the negative, support the victims in the future.  I am proud to have taken a public stand for our community and for everyone that is being experimented upon.  Someone has to do it.

People like Ryan White and Elizabeth Glaser stepped forward and took much more heat than I have, but it is all relative.  Not many people want to come forward and say, "I'm gay, HIV positive without explanation and I hear voices in my head".  It's a triple threat of negativity from some...speaking out publicly about it, helps those whom suffer along with me.  They understand.  That's important for me.  More important than just about anything.

I'm not as brave as Ryan or Elizabeth...this situation was forced upon me, but as I have grown into the man I am today I am reminded by my friends that passed away that I have a responsibility that can not be shirked.  I have to be as strong as Ryan and as public as Elizabeth for the people that suffer from this crime.  It's not ever easy knowing that I've known Laurie for most of my life and that she's impacted so many people.  Once I knew it was her, I decided that it was my time to take up the responsibility with the courage of Ryan White and the love of Elizabeth Glaser.  This was my calling and I chose to answer it.  I'm by no means a celebrity, I'm simply the person God chose to carry this burden to the people.   To gather up the tears of my community and inform all of you about what has happened to effect a change for the future.

Those whom would criticize me must understand that a person makes a choice for themself and the world when the time is right.  That time is now.