AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
Encyclopedia
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS (PWAs) and the AIDS pandemic
AIDS pandemic
The acquired immune deficiency syndrome pandemic is a widespread disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus .Since AIDS was first recognized in 1981, it has led to the deaths of more than 25 million people, making it one of the most destructive diseases in recorded history.Despite recent...
to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and lives.
ACT UP was effectively formed in March 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is a nonprofit organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population of New York City and nearby communities.- History :...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer is an American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for Women in Love in 1969, earning...
was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the Gay Men's Health Crisis
Gay Men's Health Crisis
The Gay Men's Health Crisis is a New York City-based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization that has led the United States in the fight against AIDS.-1980s:...
(GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp
Douglas Crimp
Douglas Crimp is an American professor in art history based at the University of Rochester.- Biography :Born in Idaho, Crimp went to Tulane University in New Orleans on a scholarship to study art history. His career started after moving to New York in 1967, where he worked as an art critic,...
, Kramer posed a question to the audience: "Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?" The answer was "a resounding yes." Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP.
Actions
The following chronological accounts of ACT UP actions are drawn from Douglas Crimp's history of ACT UP, the ACT UP Oral History Project, and the online Capsule History of ACT UP, New York.Wall Street
On March 24, 1987, 250 ACT UP members demonstrated at Wall StreetWall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
and Broadway to demand greater access to experimental AIDS drugs and for a coordinated national policy to fight the disease. An Op/Ed article by Larry Kramer published in the New York Times the previous day described some of the issues ACT UP was concerned with. Seventeen ACT UP members were arrested during this civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
.
On March 24, 1988, ACT UP returned to Wall Street for a larger demonstration in which over 100 people were arrested.
On September 14, 1989, seven ACT UP members infiltrated the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
and chained themselves to the VIP balcony to protest the high price of the only approved AIDS drug, AZT
Zidovudine
Zidovudine or azidothymidine is a nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitor , a type of antiretroviral drug used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is an analog of thymidine....
. The group displayed a banner that read, “SELL WELLCOME” referring to the pharmaceutical sponsor of AZT, Burroughs Wellcome, which had set a price of approximately $10,000 per patient per year for the drug, well out of reach of nearly all HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
positive persons. Several days following this demonstration, Burroughs Wellcome lowered the price of AZT to $6,400 per patient per year.
FDA
In 1987 ACT-UP had one of its most successful demonstrations (both in terms of size and in terms of national media coverage) when it successfully shut down the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a day. Media reported that it was the largest such demonstration since demonstrations against the Vietnam War.General Post Office
ACT UP held their next action at the New York City General Post Office on the night of April 15, 1987, to a captive audience of people filing last minute tax returns. This event also marked the beginning of the conflation of ACT UP with the Silence = Death Project, which created the famous poster consisting of a right side up pink triangle (an upside-down pink triangle was used to mark gays in Nazi concentration camps) on a black background with the text "SILENCE = DEATH." Douglas Crimp speaks of the "media savvy" of ACT UP at this demonstration, because the television mediaBroadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
"routinely do stories about down-to-the-wire tax return filers." As such, ACT UP was virtually guaranteed media coverage.
Cosmopolitan magazine
In January 1988, CosmopolitanCosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
magazine published an article by Robert E. Gould
Robert E. Gould
Robert Emery Gould was clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, and chief of adolescent services at Bellevue Hospital...
, a psychiatrist, entitled "Reassuring News About AIDS: A Doctor Tells Why You May Not Be At Risk." The main contention of the article was that in unprotected vaginal sex between a man and a woman who both had "healthy genitals" the risk of HIV transmission was negligible, even if the male partner was infected. Women from ACT UP who had been having informal "dyke dinners" met with Dr. Gould in person, questioned him about several misleading facts (that penis to vagina transmission is impossible, for example), questionable journalistic methods (no peer review
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
, bibliographic information, failing to disclose that he was a psychiatrist and not a practitioner of internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...
), and demanded a retraction and apology. When he refused, in the words of Maria Maggenti, they decided that they "had to shut down Cosmo." According to those who were involved in organizing the action, it was significant in that it was the first time the women in ACT UP organized separately from the main body of the group. Additionally, filming the action itself, the preparation and the aftermath were all consciously planned and resulted in a video short titled, "Doctor, Liars, and Women: AIDS Activists Say No To Cosmo." The action consisted of approximately 150 activists protesting in front of the Hearst building (parent company of Cosmopolitan) chanting "Say no to Cosmo!" and holding signs with slogans such as "Yes, the Cosmo Girl CAN get AIDS!" Although the action did not result in any arrests, it brought significant television media attention to the controversy surrounding the article. Phil Donahue, Nightline, and a local talk show called "People Are Talking" all hosted discussions of the article. On the latter, two women, Chris Norwood and Denise Ribble took the stage after the host, Richard Bey, cut Norwood off during an exchange about whether heterosexual women are at risk from AIDS. Footage from all of these media appearances were edited into "Doctors, Liars, and Women." Cosmopolitan eventually issued a partial retraction of the contents of the article.
"Stop the Church"
In December 1989, approximately 4,500 protestors arrived at St. Patrick's CathedralSt. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
during Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
in a demonstration directed toward the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York covers New York, Bronx, and Richmond counties in New York City , as well as Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties in New York state. There are 480 parishes...
's public stand against AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
education and condom
Condom
A condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
distribution, as well as its opposition to abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. One-hundred and eleven protesters were arrested. Camille Paglia
Camille Paglia
Camille Anna Paglia , is an American author, teacher, and social critic. Paglia, a self-described dissident feminist, has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1984...
wrote in a December 2008 Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
column that a consecrated Host was desecrated by a protester, an act considered by Catholics to be blasphemous and an outrage. Robert Hilferty
Robert Hilferty
Robert Hilferty was a New York based journalist, filmmaker and AIDS activist.-Career:Hilferty began his career in 1988 working as a production assistant for Robert Altman on The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and Tanner '88.Although he was HIV-negative, Hilferty became an AIDS activist following...
's documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about the protest, Stop the Church
Stop the Church
Stop the Church was a demonstration by members of ACT UP and WHAM held on December 10, 1989 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Approximately 4,500 protestors joined in what was the largest demonstration against a religious organization in US history...
, was originally scheduled to air on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. The film was eventually dropped from national broadcast by PBS, but still aired on Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV stations in several major cities including Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and San Francisco.
NIH demonstration
In May 1990, ACT UP organized a large choreographed demonstration at the National Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
(NIH) Campus. According to Kramer, this was their best demonstration, but was almost completely ignored by the media because of a large fire in Washington, D.C. on the same day.
Day of Desperation
On January 22, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, ACT UP activist John Weir and two other activists entered the studio of the CBS Evening NewsCBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
at the beginning of the broadcast. They shouted "AIDS is news. Fight AIDS, not Arabs!" and Weir upstaged anchorman Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
before the control room cut to a commercial break. The same night ACT UP demonstrated at the studios of the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour. The next day activists displayed banners in Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
that said "Money for AIDS, not for war" and "One AIDS death every 8 minutes." One of the banners was handheld and displayed across the train timetable and the other attached to bundles of balloons that lifted it up to the ceiling of the station's enormous main room. These actions were part of a coordinated protest called "Day of Desperation."
Seattle schools
In December 1991, ACT UP's Seattle chapter distributed over 500 safer-sex packets outside Seattle high schools. The packets contained a pamphlet titled "How to Fuck Safely", which was photographically illustrated and included two men performing fellatio. The Washington state legislature subsequently passed a "Harmful to Minors" law making it illegal to distribute sexually explicit material to underage persons.Boston and New England
In January 1988, ACT UP Boston held its first protest at the Boston offices of the Department of Health and Human Services, regarding delays and red tape surrounding approval of AIDS treatment drugs. ACT UP/Boston's agenda included demands for a compassionate and comprehensive national policy on AIDS; a national emergency AIDS project; intensified drug testing, research, and treatment efforts; and a full-scale national educational program within reach of all. The organization held die-ins and sleep-ins, provided freshman orientation for Harvard Medical School students, negotiated successfully with a major pharmaceutical corporation, affected state and national AIDS polices, pressured health care insurers to provide coverage for people with AIDS, influenced the thinking of some of the nation's most influential researchers, served on the Massachusetts committee that created the nation's first online registry of clinical trials for AIDS treatments, distributed information and condoms to the congregation at Cardinal Bernard Francis Law Confirmation Sunday services at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, and made aerosolized pentamidinePentamidine
Pentamidine is an antimicrobial medication given for prevention and treatment of Pneumocystis pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii , a severe interstitial type of pneumonia often seen in patients with HIV infection...
an accessible treatment in New England.
Structure of ACT UP
ACT UP was organized as a leaderless and effectively anarchist network. This was intentional on Larry Kramer's part - he describes it as "democratic to a fault." It followed a committee structure with each committee reporting to a coordinating committee meeting once a week. Actions and proposals were generally brought to the coordinating committee and then to the floor for a vote, but this wasn't required - any motion could be brought to a vote at any time. Gregg Bordowitz, an early member, said of the process:- "This is how grassroots, democratic politics work. To a certain extent, this is how democratic politics is supposed to work in general. You convince people of the validity of your ideas. You have to go out there and convince people."
This is not to say was in practice purely anarchic or democratic. Bordowitz and others admit that certain people were able to communicate and defend their ideas more effectively than others. Although Larry Kramer is often labeled the first "leader" of ACT UP, as the group matured, those people that regularly attended meetings and made their voice heard became conduits through which smaller "affinity groups" would present and organize their ideas. Leadership changed hands frequently and suddenly.
- Some of the Committees were:
- Action Committee
- Finance Committee
- Outreach Committee
- Treatment and Data Committee
- Media Committee
- Graphics Committee
- Housing Committee
Note: As ACT UP had no formal organizing plan, the titles of these committees are somewhat variable and some members remember them differently than others.
Along with committees, ACT UP New York relied heavily on "affinity groups". These groups often had no formal structure, but were centered on specific advocacy issues and personal connections, often within larger committees. Affinity groups supported overall solidarity in larger, more complex political actions through the mutual support provided to members of the group. Affinity groups often organized to perform smaller actions within the scope of a larger political action, such as the "Day of Desperation", when the Needle Exchange group presented NY City Health Department officials with thousands of used syringes they had collected through their exchange (contained in water cooler bottles).
DIVA-TV
An acronym for “Damned Interfering Video Activist Television” -- an affinity group within ACT UP that videotaped and documented AIDSAIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
activism. One of their early works is “Like a Prayer” (1991), documenting the 1989 ACT UP protests at St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
against New York Cardinal O'Connor’s position on AIDS and contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
. In the video, Ray Navarro, an ACT UP/DIVA TV activist, serves as the narrator, dressed up as Jesus. The documentary aims to show the mass media bias as it juxtaposes original protest footage with those images shown on the nightly news.
Although less as a "collective" after 1990, DIVA TV continued documenting the direct actions of ACT UP and AIDS activists, producing over 160 video programs for public access television channels (as the weekly series "AIDS Community Television" from 1991–1996); film festival screenings; and continuing on-line documentation and streaming internet webcasts. The video activism of DIVA TV ultimately switched media in 1997 with the establishing and continuing development of the ACT UP (New York) website. The most recent DIVA TV-genre video program documenting the history and activism of ACT UP (New York) is the feature-length documentary: "Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP" (2002), screened at the Berlin Film Festival and exhibited worldwide. DIVA TV programs and camera-original videotapes are currently re-mastered, archived and preserved, and publicly accessible in the collection of the "AIDS Video Activist Video Preservation Project" at the New York Public Library.
Institutional independence
ACT UP had an early debate about whether to register the organization as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in order to allow contributors tax exemptionTax exemption
Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
s. Eventually they decided against it, because as Maria Maggenti said, "they didn't want to have anything to do with the government." This kind of uncompromising ethos characterized the group in its early stages; eventually it led to a split between those in the group who wanted to remain wholly independent and those who saw opportunities for compromise and progress by "going inside [the institutions and systems they were fighting against]."
Later years
ACT UP, while extremely prolific and certainly effective at its peak, suffered from extreme internal pressures over the direction of the group and of the AIDS crisis. After the action at NIH, these tensions resulted in an effective severing of the Action Committee and the Treatment and Data Committee, which reformed itself as the Treatment Action GroupTreatment Action Group
Treatment Action Group is a US-based HIV/AIDS activist organization formed in 1991 involved with worldwide efforts to increase research on treatments for HIV and for deadly co-infections that affect people with HIV, such as hepatitis C and tuberculosis...
(TAG). Several members describe this as a "severing of the dual nature of ACT UP."
In recent years, with the changing nature of the AIDS crisis, ACT UP's membership has dwindled, though many chapters continue to meet.
Housing Works, New York's largest AIDS service organization and Health GAP, which fights to expand treatment for people with AIDS throughout the world, are direct outgrowths of ACT UP.
Factionalism in San Francisco
In 2000, ACT UP/Golden Gate changed its name to Survive AIDS, to avoid confusion with ACT UP/San Francisco (ACT UP/SF). The two had previously split apart in 1990, but continued to share the same essential philosophy. In 1994, ACT UP/SF began rejecting the scientific consensus regarding the cause of AIDS and the connection to HIV, and the two groups became openly hostile to each other, with mainstream gay and AIDS organizations also condemning ACT UP/SF. The group would link up with People For the Ethical Treatment of AnimalsPeta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
against animal research into AIDS cures. Restraining orders have been granted after the organization physically attacked AIDS charities that help HIV-positive patients, and activists have been found guilty in misdemeanor charges laid after threatening phone calls to journalists and public health officials.
Criticism and controversy
The organization, or offshoots of it, have at times faced criticism for being too militant. Their disagreements with Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor on issues related to sex education in New York City Public Schools, as well as the Cardinal's public views on homosexuality, led to the first Stop the Church protest on December 10, 1989 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New YorkSt. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
, in which it's estimated 4500 ACT-UP and WHAM! members gathered outside St. Patrick's Cathedral to protest the Church's perceived homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
, and their opposition to safe sex education
Safe sex
Safe sex is sexual activity engaged in by people who have taken precautions to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. It is also referred to as safer sex or protected sex, while unsafe or unprotected sex is sexual activity engaged in without precautions...
and abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. 111 activists were arrested. Some activists entered the Cathedral, interrupted Mass, chanted slogans, or lay down in the aisles. One protestor broke a communion wafer and threw it to the floor. As a result of the St. Patrick's Cathedral action, ACT-UP was publicly condemned by Mayor Edward Koch and some media for what they viewed as militancy and disrespect. ACT-UP's account of the event notes that "The news media choose to focus on, and distort, a single Catholic demonstrator's personal protest involving a communion wafer." However, the Cathedral protest was criticized as "stupid and wrong-headed" by others in the LGBT community, while one ACT-UP leader denounced the protest as an "utter failure" and a "selfish, macho thing."
See also
- David B. FeinbergDavid B. FeinbergDavid Barish Feinberg was an American writer and AIDS activist.-Early life:Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Feinberg grew up in Syracuse, New York...
- Didier LestradeDidier LestradeDidier Lestrade , is a French author, magazine publisher, AIDS and LGBT rights advocate.- Biography :Didier Lestrade was born in Mehdia, Algeria. He grew up in the Southwest of France, and left home in 1977 after failing twice to graduate from the French Baccalaureate...
, ACT UP Paris co-founder - Fed Up QueersFed Up QueersFed Up Queers, or FUQ, was a queer activist direct action group that began in New York City. The group was made up mostly of lesbians, though notable participants included gay rights pioneer and Stonewall riots veteran, Bob Kohler, and writer, Mattilda aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore...
, group which grew out of ACT UP - Luke MontgomeryLuke MontgomeryLuke Montgomery is an American political activist.- Biography :Luke Montgomery helped lead efforts to distribute over 500 safer-sex packets outside Seattle high schools...
, ACT UP Seattle activist - J. Quinn BrisbenJ. Quinn BrisbenJohn Quinn Brisben was the Socialist Party USA candidate for President of the United States in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. His running mate was initially Bill Edwards, but after Edwards died during the campaign he was replaced by Barbara Garson.Extremely active in the civil rights...
- ActUp/RIActUp/RIActUp/ RI, the Rhode Island chapter of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, was formed in the spring of 1987, largely through the energies of Stephen Gendin, and continued as an active organization until 1993....
, the Rhode Island chapter - Bash BackBash BackBash Back! is a network of radical, anarchist queer projects within the United States. Formed in Chicago in 2007 to facilitate a convergence of radical trans and gay activists from around the country, Bash Back! seeks to critique the ideology of the mainstream LGBT movement, which the group sees...
, a group of Radical Queers influenced by ACT UP - Queer NationQueer NationQueer Nation was an organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, USA by AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay and lesbian violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media...
- Kiyoshi KuromiyaKiyoshi KuromiyaKiyoshi Kuromiya was an author and civil and social justice advocate. He was born in a Japanese American internment camp on May 9, 1943 in Heart Mountain, Wyoming...
, a member of ACT UP Philadelphia. - Chris Bartlett (activist)Chris Bartlett (activist)Chris Bartlett is a gay activist, feminist, educator, and researcher who lives in Philadelphia, PA, and is the Executive Director of The William Way Community Center.-Life and works:...
, a member of ACT UP Philadelphia.
Research Resources
- ACT UP/Boston (David Stitt) collection, 1986-1994 and the ACT UP / Boston (Raymond Schmidt and Stephen Skuce) collection, 1987-2007 (bulk 1988-1995) are housed at the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.
- AIDS Activist Videotape Collection, 1983-2000 (630 VHS tapes) is housed at the New York Public LibraryNew York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
Manuscripts and Archives Division. - Robert Garcia Papers, 1988-1993 (9 cubic feet) are housed at the Cornell University LibraryCornell University LibraryThe Cornell University Library is the library system of Cornell University. In 2010 it held 8 million printed volumes in open stacks, 8.5 million microfilms and microfiches, more than of manuscripts, and close to 500,000 other materials, including motion pictures, DVDs, sound recordings, and...
. - Women's Action Coalition Records, 1991-1997 (8 linear feet) are housed at the New York Public LibraryNew York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
Manuscripts and Archives Division. - ACT UP New York records, 1969, 1982-1997, Manuscripts and Archives, New York Public Library.
- Photographs and film regarding ACT UP New York and The Costas, 1987-1991, 2008, Manuscripts and Archives, New York Public Library.
External links
- 20th anniversary video interview with founder
- A Social History of the ACTUP movement
- ACT UP New York
- ACT UP Paris
- ACT UP Philadelphia
- ACT UP San Francisco
- ACT UP Oral History Project
- 1988 ACT UP Wall Street demonstration photo gallery
- I alive today - history of an AIDS drugs (2002) this documentary portrays how Act Up fought for access to AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
drug AZTZidovudineZidovudine or azidothymidine is a nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitor , a type of antiretroviral drug used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is an analog of thymidine....
.
External references
- "The Making of an AIDS Activist: Larry Kramer" and "ACT UP", pp. 162–166, Johansson, Warren and Percy, William A. Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence. New York and London: Haworth Press, 1994.
- “AIDS Assaults Courts Controversy with Andrew Cornell RobinsonAndrew Cornell RobinsonAndrew Cornell Robinson is an American artist based in New York City. He was born in 1968 in Camden, New Jersey.Robinson is best known for his artwork that spans various media from ceramics and painting to photography and sculptural installations...
's Obscene Ceramics”, SOWEBO, ACT UP Exhibition, Baltimore, MD. 1991 Group Show & ACT UP benefit courts controversy, Harry Newspaper, Baltimore, MD, July 1991, Vol 2, p.1 - Curley, Mallory. A Cookie Mueller Encyclopedia, Randy Press, 2010.