Legislators Greet Billings With Hugs, Warmth Schools Chief Surprised At Avalanche Of Support Since Announcing She Has Aids

State school chief Judith Billings, making her first appearance at the Legislature since revealing she has AIDS, was greeted with hugs and warm wishes Thursday.

She said she is “drawing a lot of positive energy” from the avalanche of public support since she announced her “nasty news” earlier this week. She said she has no regrets about going public with her diagnosis and hopes good will comes of it, whether she’s in Congress or speaking out as a private citizen.

“You don’t have to go home and sit in a rocking chair,” she said in an interview.

Billings was all business when she appeared before the Senate Education Committee to respond to a fairly positive legislative audit of her agency.

Before the hearing, senators walked up to her one by one, offering hugs, whispering in her ear, patting her shoulder. At times, her eyes brimmed with tears.

“Are you going to come here and be as dramatic as you have been recently?” kidded Sen. Dwight Pelz, D-Seattle. After talking quietly with her for a moment, he added, “You have all our support.”

In an interview in her flower-bedecked private office, Billings said she has been overwhelmed by the response since she announced Tuesday that she has AIDS, contracted in the early 1980s when she was artificially inseminated.

Her husband, Don, had a vasectomy and they wanted children. Don Billings is not infected with the virus.

“I am drawing a lot of positive energy” from family, friends, legislators, work colleagues and the general public, she said. “It has really been invigorating. You can really draw a lot of energy from this kind of interest and support.”

She said she was stunned at the national media interest, including coverage on the front page of the New York Times and on CNN.

“It’s been beyond what I expected,” she said. “I know that this would have some interest to Washington state. But what I was totally surprised at was the interest it generated nationally.”

She said nearly all of her phone calls, mail and personal contacts were positive. She said a few cranks called her office, including one man who said he was outraged she went public with her diagnosis.

Billings, 56, elected twice to the statewide office, said she knows the same media and public glare will come if she decides to run for Congress in the 9th District.

But she said she doesn’t want to be known as “The AIDS Lady” of Congress and would seek to make her mark as an advocate for children in an era of federal budget cuts.

She hasn’t committed to the race, saying she still needs to talk to a number of party and opinion leaders in the district.

Billings said she could have kept her diagnosis a secret, as long as she didn’t join an AIDS support group and as long as she was free of symptoms.

“But there wasn’t really any question in my mind from the very beginning when I found out about it that there would be a time when I would go public,” she said.

The main reasons, she said, were so she could allow her own case to be used in the war on AIDS and so she would no longer have to worry about letting her secret slip out. This way, friends and family can help carry her burden, she said.