Hydeia Broadbent, a prominent HIV/AIDS activist who gained media attention for being a part of America’s “first generation of children born HIV positive” in the late 1980s, died Tuesday. She was 39.
Her father, Loren Broadbent, announced her death on Facebook early Wednesday morning. He did not give a cause of death.
“With great sadness, I must inform you all that our beloved friend, mentor and daughter Hydeia, passed away today after living with Aids since birth,” he wrote. “Despite facing numerous challenges throughout her life, Hydeia remained determined to spread hope and positivity through education around HiV/AIDS.”
As an infant, Broadbent was abandoned at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas and later adopted by Loren and Patricia Broadbent. It was presumed that Broadbent was born with HIV, but she was not diagnosed until she was 3.
Broadbent initially tagged along with her mother, a social worker, as she began speaking publicly about HIV and trying to reduce the stigma surrounding the virus at the time, especially for the sake of children who had been diagnosed with it. By age 6, the elementary grade-schooler began to speak, too, eventually taking the helm.
Broadbent became a fixture in HIV/AIDS advocacy before medications became available that could make living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a more manageable chronic illness.
She appeared on a Nickelodeon special about HIV and AIDS with Magic Johnson in 1992, shortly after the basketball star’s own public diagnosis with HIV. When it was her turn to talk, Broadbent began to sob, pleading, “I just want people to know that we’re just normal people.”
Johnson consoled the young girl. “You don’t have to cry, because we are normal people. OK? We are.”
Years later, Johnson told CNN that was a turning point in his life.
“That very moment was both sad and…
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