As mentioned before Billy lived a Giant life. Part of that was his activism and spreading the word about dwarfism. He actively promoted the rights of others with affected by dwarfism and unhappy with the fact that some viewed them as just midget actors.
Finally in 1957 he founded the Little People of America organization. He announced a gathering to be held in Reno Nevada. The first meeting there had all of 21 people but later grew into the organization which by 2010 had over 6,800 members.
The Little People of America was the first North American Organization for little people.
It is a non-profit organization that gives support, info, and other resources to people and their families that are affected by dwarfism. in order to qualify you must be under 4 foot 10 inches in height.
The organization was initially known as the midgets of America. But later on they made a distinction between midgets and dwarfs and renamed it to “Midgets and Dwarfs of America”. Those affected with dwarfism voiced forcefully the fact that there were more dwarfs than midgets and the name was changed later on to “the Little People of America”. They have grown:
- to over 70 local chapters
- they meet regullarly
- they have a week long conference
- They now have incorporated as of 1984 Canada into the mix and created “Little People of Canada
For those of you who do not know it is usually offensive to call a dwarf a midget. In fact many of the LPA members have filed complaints with the FCC (federal communications commission) over the use of the word midget when referring to dwarfs on public television.
If you want more information on the Little People of America just do a google search for their website – it looks like this:
