Hugh Rice; AIDS Activist, Gay Leader

Hugh Rice, a key AIDS activist and the longest-tenured executive of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, has died. He was 50.

Rice died Aug. 29, surrounded by friends at his Los Angeles home, of complications of AIDS.

“Hugh made a difference in the lives of literally tens of thousands of people over his 21 years of service,” said Lorri L. Jean, current executive director of the center. “He fought valiantly against AIDS phobia and homophobia and was a staunch advocate for gay and lesbian people. He dedicated his life to our community’s health, and few have been so committed or so selfless.”

Rice began working at the Gay & Lesbian Center’s Gay Men’s VD Clinic in 1974 and was believed by colleagues to be the first person to see a case of AIDS in Los Angeles--well before the disease had been identified.

As executive director and in other positions at the center, Rice served on several statewide boards and commissions concerning AIDS. He also worked extensively with Being Alive, an organization for people with HIV or AIDS.

As awareness of the disease rose in the early 1980s, Rice remained a calm voice in urging homosexuals, heterosexuals and people who had undergone certain blood transfusions to be tested.

Among the measures he worked for was the Los Angeles city ordinance passed in 1985 to ban discrimination against people with AIDS.

The law was necessary, Rice told the City Council at that time, because “discrimination and polarized anger still exist.”

Rice earned a bachelor’s degree in mass media and psychology and a master’s in communication and speech at the University of Akron in his native Ohio. He taught there from 1970 to 1972.

He then spent two years working for “Disney on Parade” for the Walt Disney Co.

Rice is survived by his mother, Juanita, of Akron. His companion of more than 20 years, James “Billy” Owenby, died two years ago of complications of AIDS.

Services are scheduled for noon Saturday at Hollywood Memorial Park, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd. Rice had asked that those attending the services wear bright colors.

He also had asked that any memorial donations go to Being Alive, 3626 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90026.