Michael P. Felts

Michael Paul Felts died at his home in Washington, DC on November 16, 1996 after a long battle with AIDS.  He was 40 years old.

Felts co-founded Deaf AIDS Action (Washington, DC).  In 1987, he co-founded the nation’s first deaf HIV prevention program in Dallas, Texas.  He was chairman of several major conferences including the Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf International Convention (Dallas, 1991) and the National Conference on Deafness and AIDS (Los Angeles, 1993).  He received special recognition from Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1991 for his tireless efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention and services.  He continued his HIV/AIDS advocacy at demonstrations and in meetings of the White House Committee on the Deaf Community and AIDS.

Felts was born August 20, 1956 in Lancashire County, England.  He lived in Bermuda, Santa Cruz, Calif., Seattle, Wash., Dallas, Texas, and the District of Columbia.  Felts graduated from Washington State School for the Deaf in 1977.  He earned a bachelors degree at Gallaudet University in 1982, and later completed a masters degree in communications.

He was a member of the Metropolitan Community Church and the Metropolitan Washington Regional HIV Services Planning Council.  His involvement in AIDS activism was matched by his passion for theater and local politics.

Felts is preceded in death by his father, Walter Earl Felts.  Survivors include his mother and step father, Greta and John Brown of Post Falls, Idaho, brothers and sisters, and longtime friends Marc Lerro and Bill Terrell of Washington, DC.

Obituary forwarded by Curtis Peart, WSDAA Historian