Community leader, advocate and story teller living life one day at a time
Posts related to HIV
On September 20, 2024 HIV Edmonton and the Canadian AIDS Society nominated Ron Byers to be a recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his contributions to the HIV/AIDS movement in Canada.
On November 20, 2024 The Governor General of Canada awarded the medal to Ron Byers.
The presentation ceremony will take place on June 26 2025 at Edmonton City Hall where recipients will be presented with their medals by Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Salma Lakhani.
The following story shares my experiences where HIV Stigma played a significant role in my medical care by practising family […]
We Are Survivors – Backroom Chatter Podcast In this Premiere episode, non-other than Mr. Ron Byers, Rhoda B, long-time host […]
To call any of those who did drag as charitable… while in drag… would be stretching the truth. Known for their caustic wit, quick retorts and haughty gestures, raising money for anything charitable was almost non-existent.
Then in 1984 reports that had been surfacing out of San Francisco and New York for the previous few years of a new “gay-related immune deficiency” (GRID), finally named by the CDC in the U.S. as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), attracted the attention of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose in Edmonton.
In this podcast interview with Tales of the LGBTQ+ I talk about the early years of the AIDS epidemic in Edmonton and how the community reacted to the virus that was taking so many of our friends from us. I also share how I dealt with the deaths of many close to me and the lasting impact it had on me to this day.