Ken Ramsauer

{{Short description|American person with AIDS}}

Ken Ramsauer (December 26, 1954 – May 24, 1983) was an American businessperson. He was a hardware store manager and freelance lighting designer who became the first person with AIDS to be the subject of a national network television news special when he was interviewed by Geraldo Rivera on the 20/20 television program broadcast four days before his death in 1983.{{citation|title=AIDS and the New Puritanism|first=Dennis |last=Altman|author-link=Dennis Altman|publisher=Pluto Press|year=1986|page=18|isbn=9780745300122}}{{cite web | last=Gruson | first=Lindsey | title=1,500 ATTEND CENTRAL PARK MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR AIDS VICTIM | newspaper=The New York Times | date=1983-06-14 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/14/nyregion/1500-attend-central-park-memorial-service-for-aids-victim.html | access-date=2017-06-09}} At the time little was known of AIDS, including its causation. A candlelight vigil was held in Central Park commemorating his life and death, opened by New York Mayor Ed Koch and attracting {{circa}} 1,500 people.{{citation|title=1500 mourn deaths of those with AIDS|author=Julis Genachowski|newspaper=Columbia Spectator|date=22 June 1983|url=http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19830622-01.2.5&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------}} The vigil was later covered in the book version of How to Survive a Plague.{{citation|author=David France|author-link=David France (writer)|title=Life in the Plague Years|date=November 16, 2016|work=New York|url=http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/an-excerpt-from-david-frances-how-to-survive-a-plague.html}} Around 600 individuals were known to have died from AIDS at the time of Ramsauer's death, and their names were read aloud at the vigil.{{citation|title=Death, fear and misinformation on Aids cut to the core of 1980s Big Apple: An exhibitionabout the early years of the Aids crisis reflects a period of despair|date=June 26, 2013|author= Keith Duggan |newspaper=The Irish Times|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/death-fear-and-misinformation-on-aids-cut-to-the-core-of-1980s-big-apple-1.1442355}} The vigil was called "the first large gathering acknowledging the existence of the epidemic".{{citation|work=Financial Times|title=The unlikely coalition that put the brakes on Aids|type=book review of How to Survive a Plague|date=December 7, 2016 |author=Steve Silberman|url=https://www.ft.com/content/74237282-bb0c-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d080}}

At the time of his death, the public was advised by authorities to avoid contact with individuals infected with HIV. Ramsauer recalled in the 20/20 interview how he was treated by hospital staff, whom he overheard asking "I wonder how long the faggot in 208 is going to last." Some sources have stated that Ramsauer was sought out by 20/20 producers for the shocking appearance of a man near death, seeking "the most debilitated people with AIDS they could find".{{citation|title=Fluid exchanges: artists and critics in the AIDS crisis|first=James L. |last=Miller|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1992|isbn=9780802058928|page=32|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6_7kA0oxrq4C}} Ramsauer's treatment by the press was "decisively deconstructed"{{cite book | last1=Creekmur | first1=C.K. | last2=Doty | first2=A. | title=Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Essays on Popular Culture | publisher=Duke University Press | year=1995 | isbn=978-0-8223-1541-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOKX0_QfdpgC&pg=PA379 | page=379}} in Bright Eyes, a documentary by writer and filmmaker Stuart Marshall describing "the pathology of fear and manipulation surrounding the AIDS crisis".{{citation|title=Stuart Marshall|publisher=Video Data Bank School of the Art Institute of Chicago|url=http://www.vdb.org/artists/stuart-marshall|accessdate=2017-06-09}}