Ryan White was born in 1971 in Kokomo, Indiana. He received an AIDS diagnosis in 1984, the result of contaminated infusions of an experimental factor VIII (FVIII) drug used to treat his hemophilia A. As his health worsened, Ryan was hospitalized, and a biopsy confirmed he had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a rare illness associated with AIDS. Doctors told him he had only three to six months to live, but he surpassed that prognosis, living for another five and a half years.

At just 13 years old, enduring bullying, Ryan addressed…