#20 – Chris Smith
Though perhaps not a celebrity in terms of an entertainer or a musician, Chris Smith is a celebrity of his own right in his native Great Britain. Beginning his career as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Smith was named as the Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment and later for the National Heritage, Health and finally Culture, Media and Sport.
With an impressive career of firsts, Smith made headlines across Europe in 1984 for more personal matters when he became one of the first Members of Parliament to come out as gay. Making headlines yet again in 1997 as Great Britain’s first openly gay Cabinet minister, Smith received even more backlash in 2005 when he told the media he had been HIV positive since 1987. Also the first MP in Great Britain to publicize his diagnosis, Smith now works as the Master of Pembroke College in Cambridge as well as the Chairman of Trustees at Cambridge Union Society.
#19 – Eazy-E
Just call me Eazy-E! One of the most influential rappers during the surge of gangster rap in the early 1990s, Eric Lynn Wright is better known as Eazy-E. First launching his career as the owner of Ruthless Records, the known “Godfather of Gangsta Rap” joined the group N.W.A.
in 1987 with the release of the group’s most controversial album, Straight Outa Compton, just a year later.
Not everything was easy for E, however. On February 24, 1995, he was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital for what he believed was an asthma attack. Unfortunately, doctors discovered that Eazy-E not only had the HIV virus, he suffered from AIDS as well.
Just a few weeks later, Eazy-E made his diagnosis public and detailed his sexual history, which resulted in several children coming forward from numerous women. Knowing that his time was nearing its end, Eazy-E said his goodbyes and resolved matters with N.W.A., Snoop Dogg and sent a message to his fans. At the age of 30 years old and only a month after his diagnosis, Eazy-E passed away on March 26, 1995.
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