5 ms·

Thank you for bringing this up. I had never heard of Ric Weiland. Here is another article discussing how he distributed his wealth: https://www.geekwire.com/2

by pgrote 8y ago

Thank you for bringing this up. I had never heard of Ric Weiland. Here is another article discussing how he distributed his wealth: https://www.geekwire.com/2017/remarkable-life-legacy-ric-weiland-microsoft-employee-no-2-still-making-impact-decade-death/ https://www.geekwire.com/2017/remarkable-life-legacy-ric-wei...

screye 8y ago
"A gay man who fell victim to HIV." The number of times I have heard of this misfortune is sometime truly astounding. A whole community ravaged by an illness that we don't have a solution to, with the government turning their back to it.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Not long ago a movie "120 beats per min" told the issues faced by HIV and/or gay groups regarding the start of the epidemic, but in France.
- evincarofautumn 8y ago
  Yup. It set back LGBT rights by decades; there’s a sizable chunk of an entire generation of the community just gone, people who might today have become leaders, activists, and mentors for young LGBT people. Reagan and the US government not only “turned their back” and failed to act for years, leading to conservative estimates of thousands of new infections that could’ve been prevented; they also also actively interfered: for example, Congress banned the use of federal funds for prevention campaigns that “promoted or encouraged, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities”. So a lot of the prevention campaigns became ineffective fear-based propaganda rather than what was needed: targeted education to vulnerable communities about safer sex and needle drug use practices.
- nodesocket 8y ago
  > with the government turning their back to it. Do you also think the government is turning their back to cancer? The reality is if a cure is to come, it will come from private industry (for profit companies).

5 ms·

Thank you for bringing this up. I had never heard of Ric Weiland. Here is another article discussing how he distributed his wealth: https://www.geekwire.com/2

by pgrote 8y ago

screye 8y ago
"A gay man who fell victim to HIV." The number of times I have heard of this misfortune is sometime truly astounding. A whole community ravaged by an illness that we don't have a solution to, with the government turning their back to it.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  Not long ago a movie "120 beats per min" told the issues faced by HIV and/or gay groups regarding the start of the epidemic, but in France.
- evincarofautumn 8y ago
  Yup. It set back LGBT rights by decades; there’s a sizable chunk of an entire generation of the community just gone, people who might today have become leaders, activists, and mentors for young LGBT people. Reagan and the US government not only “turned their back” and failed to act for years, leading to conservative estimates of thousands of new infections that could’ve been prevented; they also also actively interfered: for example, Congress banned the use of federal funds for prevention campaigns that “promoted or encouraged, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities”. So a lot of the prevention campaigns became ineffective fear-based propaganda rather than what was needed: targeted education to vulnerable communities about safer sex and needle drug use practices.
- nodesocket 8y ago
  > with the government turning their back to it. Do you also think the government is turning their back to cancer? The reality is if a cure is to come, it will come from private industry (for profit companies).