Lift ‘Shroud of Silence,’ Mother With HIV Urges : Convention: She stresses that AIDS virus can hit anyone. Delegates, some tearful, respond with a standing ovation.

A Republican woman infected with the AIDS virus challenged her party Wednesday to lift a “shroud of silence” and shame over the deadly disease and spread the word that it can strike anyone.

In an address that silenced the normally noisy hall and then brought the delegates to their feet in an emotional ovation, Mary Fisher, a 44-year-old mother with impeccable GOP credentials, asked the delegates to put aside politics and prejudice to recognize the devastating effects of the epidemic.

Fisher praised President and Barbara Bush’s personal compassion for her and her family and said much has been achieved in the war against AIDS because of his leadership.

But she said much more remains to be done, and she dared the delegates who have embraced an election year theme of “traditional family values” to think about the brutal reality of a disease that has taken a rapidly growing toll in the United States and around the world.

“We do the President’s cause no good if we praise the American family but ignore a virus that destroys it,” said Fisher, who learned a year ago that she has the infection.

“We cannot love justice and ignore prejudice, love our children and fear to teach them. Whatever our role, as parent or policy-maker, we must act as eloquently as we speak--else we have no integrity.”

As tears welled in the eyes of many delegates, she warned that “if you believe you are safe, you are at risk. If you do not see this killer stalking your children, look again. There is no family or community, no race or religion, no place left in America that is safe. Until we genuinely embrace this message, we are a nation at risk.”

Fisher contracted the virus from her ex-husband, who reportedly had been an intravenous drug user. Her two sons, Max, 4, and Zachary, 2, are not infected. She appeared at the convention a month after two Democrats with the AIDS virus--Bob Hattoy and Elizabeth Glaser--made emotional and eloquent appearances before their party’s convention in New York.

But Fisher’s task was more formidable since the new Republican platform treats AIDS as just another sexually transmitted disease, even though it calls for compassion and no discrimination against those who suffer from it.

Republicans have been more uncomfortable addressing the subject. The epidemic had gone on for years before President Ronald Reagan even mentioned the word, and some religious fundamentalists in the GOP have said the disease is God’s punishment for homosexuality and drug abuse.

As a personal friend of the Bush family and a former staff aide to ex-President Gerald R. Ford, Fisher came to the podium with a rock-solid Republican background.

She appeared wearing the red ribbon signifying solidarity with the fight against AIDS on her lapel, the only speaker at the convention so far to do so. In the audience was her father, Max Fisher, 84, a Detroit real estate mogul and longtime Republican fund-raiser, along with Ford and his wife, Betty.

“In the context of an election year I ask you--here in this great hall or listening in the quiet of your home--to recognize that the AIDS virus is not a political creature,” she said. “It does not care whether you are Democrat or Republican . . , black or white, male or female, gay or straight, young or old.

“Tonight I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society.

“Though I am white and a mother, I am one with the black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital.

“Though I am female and contracted this disease in marriage and enjoy the warm support of my family, I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family’s rejection.”

At least 200,000 Americans are dead or dying of AIDS, she said, and 1 million more, like her, are infected with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus.

“Despite science and research, White House meetings and congressional hearings, despite good intentions and bold initiatives, campaign slogans and hopeful promises--despite it all, it’s the epidemic which is winning tonight,” she said.

“And we have helped it along--we have killed each other--with our ignorance, our prejudice and our silence. We may take refuge in our stereotypes, but we cannot hide there long . . . because people with HIV have not entered some alien state of being. They are human. They have not earned cruelty and they do not deserve meanness. They don’t benefit from being isolated or treated as outcasts. Each of them is exactly what God made, a person. Not evil, deserving of our judgment; not victims, longing for our pity. People.”

She said her family has been “a rock of support.” In the audience, Georgette Mosbacher, wife of Bush campaign general chairman Robert A. Mosbacher, wept and leaned forward, putting her hand on the shoulder of Fisher’s father.

Others have not been so lucky, Fisher said in addressing families of those stricken by AIDS or HIV.

“You have lost loved ones but dare not whisper the word AIDS . You weep silently; you grieve alone.

“I have a message for you: It is not you who should feel shame, it is we . . . we who have taught you to fear. We must lift our shroud of silence, making it safe for you to reach out for compassion.”

She said she wants her own children to know that their mother was not a victim but a messenger seeking to break a taboo about discussion of a deadly disease.

“I want them to know that courage is the strength to act wisely when most we are afraid,” she said. “I want them to have the courage to step forward when called by their nation or their party and give leadership--no matter what the personal cost.”

When the 15-minute speech ended, the convention hall rose in sustained applause. Ford, among others, appeared to have tears in his eyes.

“It was very moving, extremely compelling,” said Olivia Silva Maiser, a delegate from Los Angeles. “She had the audience absolutely spellbound. It was the first time this week that total silence fell over the floor.”

“I always thought it was somebody else’s problem,” said June Hartley, a delegate from Nyssa, Ore. “But she really changed my vision and gave me a more personal, emotional view of this terrible disease.”

Ruth Hatton of Woodbury, Minn., agreed that Fisher was an effective speaker but disagreed that ignorance causes the spread of AIDS. “It’s promiscuity,” she said. “We’ve got to preach abstinence.”

Marlene Reid, another Minnesota delegate, told CNN: “I don’t see the point” in Fisher’s appearance. “We’ve already spent lots of money on AIDS, and no one with cancer spoke to us,” she said.

After learning in July, 1991, that she had the virus, Fisher disclosed the diagnosis last February in a Detroit newspaper interview. She is now an artist, working in handmade paper. She also has founded the Family AIDS Network, a support group for friends and family members of those who are infected with AIDS.

As Fisher paid tribute to President and Mrs. Bush for their support, she referred to the cancer death of a young Bush child: “In the darkest hours, I have seen them reaching out not only to me, but also to my parents, armed with that stunning grief and special grace that comes only to parents who have themselves leaned too long over the bedside of a dying child.”

She also left this message for her sons:

“I will not hurry to leave you, my children. But when I go, I pray that you will not suffer shame on my account.”