(NewsNation) — On Aug. 19, 1992 Mary Fisher made a historic speech, “A Whisper of AIDS,” at the Republican National Convention after she was diagnosed with HIV a year prior.
Over the last 33 years, Fisher has continued to educate the public about HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).
The advocate and author of, Uneasy Silence: An activist seeks justice and courage over a lifetime of change, spoke with NewsNation about breaking stigmas about the illness since she came forward in the early ‘90s, a time when the virus was labeled as a rare cancer found in gay men by the New York Times.
Fisher was a divorced mother of two then-toddlers, Max and Zachary, and contracted the virus from her then-husband. Part of the impetus for sharing her diagnosis on a national stage was to destigmatize the disease in hopes of making it easier for her young children.
Mary Fisher, who is HIV positive and founder of the Family AIDS Network, pauses during her speech to the Republican National Convention at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas, Wednesday night, Aug. 19, 1992. Although protesters at the convention have accused President Bush of being unsympathetic to AIDS victims, Fisher praised the president for his compassion. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) 
Founder of the Family AIDS Network, Mary Fisher, who is HIV positive, pauses during her speech to the Republican National Convention at the Houston Astrodome, Houston, Texas, Wednesday night, Aug. 19, 1992. (AP Photo/David Longstreath) 
Mary Fisher, 44, commissioner of the National Commission on AIDS and founder of the Family AIDS Network, talks at the University of Michigan Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., March 9, 1993. (AP Photo/Richard Sheinwald) 
FILE – AIDS activist Mary Fisher kisses 12-year-old Hydeia Broadbent, a youngster who also has AIDS as they were both addressing the evening session of the 1996 GOP convention in San Diego Monday, Aug. 12, 1996. Broadbent, a prominent HIV/AIDS activist known for her inspirational talks in the 1990s as a young child to reduce the stigma surrounding the virus she was born with, has died. She was 39. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File) 
FILE – AIDS activist Mary Fisher hugs Hydeia Broadbent on the podium at the Republican National Convention Monday Aug. 12, 1996, in San Diego, Calif. Broadbent, a prominent HIV/AIDS activist known for her inspirational talks in the 1990s as a young child to reduce the stigma surrounding the virus she was born with, has died. She was 39. (AP Photo/Ruth Fremson, File) 
Courtesy: Mary Fisher 
Courtesy: Mary Fisher 
Courtesy: Mary Fisher
“My mentor, Betty Ford, said to me, ‘Once you say it in public, you can’t take it back.’ So I knew that anything might happen.”
Former President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford were her children’s godparents and encouraged the single mother to be a voice for change.
“Betty said to me, okay, we’ve cried. You know, we’re dealing with it. But what are you going to do for others? Women in this world and other people, what are you going to do? And I was like, whoa, you know, it’s like, OK, what am I going to do? She said, you’re going to speak out. And I mean, that’s what she had always done.”
Fischer continued, “She was encouraging and loving and so was he (Ford).”
Now three decades later, Fisher reflected on the advancements in medicines as well as the persistent deficits that remain in society presently surrounding HIV/AIDS.
“Society needs to do a lot of things better right now. Caring about other people would be one of them. We lost so many people in those years. I mean, quickly. And because there were no medications. Now we have some medications. I mean, hundreds of medications that are keeping people alive. How great is that? That’s amazing. I’m alive because of medical research,” Fisher told NewsNation.
Despite medical advancements, Fisher points out that there still is no cure for HIV/AIDS. She adds that she’s concerned research may be stunted as funding for public health research is cut.
“I’m frightened, I’m scared, I’m worried about people that I know all over the world that are going to not be able to get medication or people here that aren’t going to be able to have access to insurance… It’s a difficult, difficult, difficult time,” she said.
Fisher said in her eighth decade of life, she is committed to truth-telling.
“I can urge people to stand up and tell the truth and say what they believe is the right thing,” she said. “Look out for people, care about people, feed people.”