Linda Luschei Hunio; Advocate for Women With HIV, AIDS

Linda Luschei Hunio, a founder of Women at Risk, a Los Angeles advocacy and support group for women with HIV and AIDS, died Saturday of complications from the virus. She was 36.

Under her maiden name--Linda Luschei--she had been a frequent speaker in the cause of educating women about the risks of HIV infection while helping them confront ostracism. With a few female friends, Mrs. Hunio founded Women at Risk, based in Culver City. As an advocate, she lectured before students, church groups and health professionals, and was featured on TV and radio talk shows. In 1993, the city of Los Angeles honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her efforts.

Often, she told her own story.

A graduate of UCLA, Mrs. Hunio was working in the publishing industry in New York when she married Michael Ruggere in 1985. After his unexpected death a few months later, she learned she had HIV, having contracted the virus from her husband. He had evidently and unknowingly contracted HIV from transfusions before blood was tested for the virus.

For five years, she once told The Times, she kept her condition secret from all but a few confidantes, terrified of society’s ignorance and bigotry. Overcoming those fears, she learned to caution women of their risk and urged those with HIV to seek joy in their lives. Her quest for love and companionship prompted her to place an ad in the L.A. Weekly personals identifying herself as HIV-positive. She dated several men as a result, both HIV-positive and negative.

In her last two years, her quest was answered by Stephen Jay Hunio of Los Angeles, who is also HIV-positive. They were married in March, a few days before Mrs. Hunio’s illness required her to enter the hospital.