THE FIRST TO SOUND THE ALARM

In the early 1980s, before there was “AIDS” as we know it today, there was a baffling "Gay Plague" showing up on the coasts. Mike Richards was a board member of the then Dallas Gay Alliance at that time. Like everyone, Mike was a volunteer, and he served as chair of the DGA's Education Committee. Its premise was to educate the public about issues concerning the gay community, long before any such discussions were acceptable as dinner table conversation.

As a telephone company employee, Mike had access to free long distance, which he took advantage of by calling friends in other parts of the country to determine the issues behind the headlines surrounding this mysterious disease. Mike also consulted with Howie Daire of the Oak Lawn Counseling Center. The two of them decided it was time to sound the alarm in Dallas about the coming disease, soon to be identified, again inappropriately, as GRID – gay-related immune deficiency

In 1982, Mike and the DGA sponsored a national HIV conference in Dallas to learn and share as much as they could about transmission, treatments, and prevention. A year later, a similar conference was held in Denver where the critical "Denver Principles" were adopted governing how to treat individuals with HIV from an employment, housing and treatment standpoint. Discrimination against individuals perceived to be gay was rampant in the early 1980s. Young men living in certain zip codes (e.g., the entire Oak Lawn area of Dallas) were often denied insurance on account of insurance company fears that these individuals might become infected with HIV. Gay men began losing their jobs, as companies, fearful a negative impact on their bottom lines, randomly discharged employees simply because they were suspected to being homosexual (perfectly legal at that time). Others lost their homes. More than a few lost their families as well.

As a result of this emerging crisis, the DGA shifted its focus from being a political organization to service delivery, including financial assistance, food, clothing, and ultimately, medicine. Mike Richards led this effort on behalf of DGA. The AIDS Resource Center (now Resource Center) was formed, and its office on Cedar Springs was transformed into a walk-in facility to provide education on how the disease was and (just as importantly) was not transmitted. Working up to 12 hours a day, Mike labored over the latest treatment news, helping fill the pages of the Center's bi-weekly "AIDS Update."

Although he had no formal training, Mike became a counselor for individuals just learning their HIV-status. "It's not a death sentence," Mike would say, being as comforting as possible.

In September 1987 Mike discovered that he, too, was HIV-positive. Still, with only meager resources available, he took early retirement from the phone company and used his own funds to travel to other cities to learn about their response to AIDS. Mike's experience then informed the direction of the Resource Center; hence he is listed as a co-founder of the Center.

As his illness began to take a toll on him, Mike retired again, this time from activism, and moved in with his parents living in Hawaii. Subsequent opportunistic infections took their toll, but the crowning blow was the issuance of an arrest warrant by the FBI in January 1988 … for robbing a Grand Prairie bank. It was obvious that the charge was bogus as Mike was in Hawaii on the date of the robbery, but Mike still had to prove his innocence. Leaders of the Dallas Gay Alliance argued with the district attorney and police on Mike's behalf, but they believed the bank's security cameras had clearly identified Mike, even though the grainy image on the cameras merely showed an indistinct man with a mustache and dark hair wearing a baseball cap. Even local reporters who viewed the tape said the District Attorney had the wrong man. There was no evidence of Mike's wealth having suddenly increased; in fact, it was the opposite. And they ignored the fact that one of the opportunistic infections had led to peripheral neuropathy, severely compromising Mike’s ability to walk or talk.

Mike Richards visiting the Davis Mountains in West Texas

The district attorney and police were resolute and determined that Mike "was their man." However, when the Grand Prairie officials filed the necessary papers to extradite Mike, his physician said he was too ill to travel, and Hawaii's state attorney general refused to sign the pro forma extradition order. In his final weeks, Mike implored his comrades in Dallas to clear his name. The case remains unresolved.

On October 22, 1989, Mike Richards, who had sounded the alarm in Dallas, died of AIDS at the age of 43 at his home in Maui, Hawaii.

Tributes to Mike poured in from around the country. Upon hearing of his death, Dalls City Council member Lori Palmer said: “Mike was a very caring person who was absolutely committed to community service. His death is a loss to our society.” Other LGBTQ and AIDS activists, including researchers and physicians who sought to utilize Mike's wealth of knowledge about HIV, sent condolences. Copies were made and sent to Mike’s parents, as well as the Grand Prairie police.