08/12/2025
Advocacy works! In 1988, amfAR Program Officer Terry Beirn met with President George Bush in the Oval Office to champion the passage of the Ryan White CARE Act. Enacted into law two years later with strong bipartisan support, the program continues to this day to help provide Americans living with HIV who are uninsured or underinsured with treatment, care, and essential services.
In 1986, at the suggestion of amfAR Founding Chairman Dr. Mathilde Krim, the amfAR staff member was hired part-time by Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s office to help design major AIDS-related legislation and secure its passage. Aside from the Ryan White CARE Act, Beirn was a primary architect of the first comprehensive AIDS legislation—the Hope Act, and was instrumental in securing the passage of legislation vital to helping people living with HIV, such as the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990. At amfAR, Beirn worked tirelessly to support AIDS research trials, bringing together in a groundbreaking partnership the NIH university-based research system, community-based primary care physicians, and people living with HIV.
In 1991, at age 39, Beirn died of AIDS-related causes before the advent of lifesaving treatments he helped usher in. Beirn was memorialized by Senator Kennedy in the final product of their extraordinary partnership, the Terry Beirn Community-Based AIDS Research Initiative Act.
