Arcadia, a small, rural town in south Florida, had some trouble back in 1987. A group of concerned parents gathered together to protest the presence of the Ray children in their elementary school. Richard, Robert and Randy Ray were brothers, hemophiliacs and AIDS patients. By the mid-1980s, most of us knew that AIDS couldn’t be transmitted like the common cold, but folks in Arcadia didn’t care about all that fancy, scientific, book-learning nonsense. They didn’t want the Rays in their school. Period.
Locals harassed and terrorized the Ray family, up to and including the destruction of their home. Finally, the Rays left town and raised their sons, and daughter, in a more progressive community. Sarasota welcomed them with open arms.
And so here we are, over 25 years later, discussing Edgewood, Florida. Just a few hours north of Arcadia, this sleepy Central Florida town is in the news for a different kind of discrimination. Recently, parents gathered to protest the presence of a little girl. This child has a severe peanut allergy, and the parents want her out of their school. Period.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2011.