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AIDS activist strived for visibility of minorities

Chris Azzopardi

Pam Lynch could always count on Derrick Anderson. Whether she needed a shoulder to cry on or a floor to sleep on, Lynch's best friend wasn't more than a phone call away.
Anderson, 51, died in late November of AIDS-related illness.
"He came to teach the rest of us," Lynch said about Anderson's involvement in helping her stand up for herself as a woman and for his HIV/AIDS activism work.
For several years Anderson, who had HIV/AIDS for over 20 years, worked at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center in Ypsilanti, on the Governor's Task Force for People Living with HIV/AIDS and on the University of Michigan's Provost's Task Force on the Campus Climate for TBLG Faculty, Staff and Students. As an activist working for better health care for those with HIV/AIDS, he strived to bring visibility to people of color with the virus. In December 2003, Anderson graduated from U-M with a master's degree in social work.
"He made an impact," Lynch said about his work. "It was mostly through his willingness to be who he was and be who he was in the open. There are not a lot of African-American men who are infected with HIV who are willing to put themselves out in their community and talk about it and in talking about it teach other people, which was what he was doing."
Patrick Chandler, a case manager at HARC, knew Anderson for about six years and admired his open-minded personality, his sense of humor and dedication to his outreach work. He said Anderson was passionate about educating others on preventing HIV and AIDS.
"There's so many things I can say about him," Chandler said. "To me he was just a unique person in all areas: strong, compassionate, forgiving, a poet."
Anderson also enjoyed traveling, experiencing other cultures and writing prose.
In Lynch's eulogy read at Anderson's service on World AIDS Day she said, "Derrick was a true spiritual child of the universe."

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