SACRAMENTO, Calif. — George Raya had a seat at the table of the historic 1977 White House meeting of the National Gay Task Force, the first time a president invited LGBTQ advocates to discuss the issues their community faced. The then-27-year-old came with an issue in mind: hepatitis.
Although little was known about the disease, hepatitis plagued the gay community in the 1970s. Gay individuals were seven times more likely to have had an active infection than their straight counterparts, according to a study reported in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1978. The sexually transmitted disease causes an inflammation of the liver.
“I had friends diagnosed and in the hospital because it was a serious illness that just totally destroyed the liver,” Raya said. “People were dying.”
