"For meeting the challenge of the AIDS epidemic and its crisis of conscience with vigilant acts of political and cultural provocation – thereby giving voice to the essential creative will of our humanity."
. from the Dance Theater Workshop AwardSeptember 15, 1988 .
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AIDS IS A POLITICAL CRISIS |
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17
YEARS DIRECT ACTION |
ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan
group of individuals united in anger
and committed
to direct action to end the AIDS crisis._
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Republican National
Convention
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....  _Crucial
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Resist! Feel free to re-post any information from this site. |
AIDS Activist Video Preservation Project archived at the New York Public Library | |
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We are sad to announce the death of Keith Cylar,
the Co-Founder and Co-President of Housing Works
| "Living with AIDS in this country is
like living through a war that's happening only for those people in the trenches. . "Every time a shell explodes you look around . to discover that you've lost more of your friends. But nobody else notices, it isn't happening to them." _ Vito Russo |
| For
the Record
 1989 Montreal AIDS Conference ,
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Flashback 1987 41,027 persons are dead and After years of negligent silence, President Ronald Reagan finally uses the word "AIDS" in public. He sided with his Education Secretary William Bennett and other conservatives who said the Government should not provide sex education information. On April 2, 1987, Reagan said: "How that information is used must be up to schools and parents, not government. But let's be honest with ourselves, AIDS information can not be what some call 'value neutral.' After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons." Flashback 1989 The 15 Year Anniversary of Tiananmen Square coincides with the 15 Year Anniversary of the Montreal AIDS Conference. Up until that June day, the International AIDS Conferences were members-only events for the AIDS establishment, a chance for scientists to hobnob with their fellow wizards while dispensing wisdom and press releases to beleaguered doctors and a fawning press. PWAs were presented mainly as abstractions, their lives reduced to statistics on spreadsheets, their needs and desires mere sidelights to the noble pursuit of science. Of course, if they wished to make their presence more concrete, they were welcome to do so, for a $500 registration fee. [It should be noted that the recent Bangkok 2004 Conference, with the ironic theme of "Access for All," entrance fees cost over $1000.] And then came Montreal, the sight of our ragtag group of 300 protesters brushing past the security guards in the lobby of the Palais de Congress, the fleet of "Silence=Death" posters gliding up the escalator to the opening ceremony or our chants thundering throughout the cavernous hall. There we were, the uninvited guests, taking our rightful place at the heart of the conference. And when PWA Tim McCaskell grabbed the microphone and "officially" opened the conference "on behalf of people with AIDS from Canada and around the world," even the scientists stood and cheered. But it was only when we refused to leave the auditorium and
instead parked ourselves in the VIP section that the crowd realized that
our action was more than just a symbolic protest. Despite threats and
rumors of a potential "international incident," we remained in our seats,
alternately chanting and cheering, and giving notice that PWAs were
"inside" the conference to stay. From that point on in the crisis,
researchers would have to make extra room at the table for PWAs and their
advocates. read
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