Editing ACT UP (section)

==ACT UP New York actions==
[[File:A pink triangle against a black backdrop with the words 'Silence=Death' representing an advertisement for The Silence = Death Project used by permission by ACT-UP, The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power. Wellcome L0052822.jpg|thumb|"[[Silence=Death Project|Silence=Death]]" poster]]
Much of the documentation chronicling ACT UP's history is drawn from Douglas Crimp's history of ACT UP, the ACT UP Oral History Project,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.actuporalhistory.org/ |title=ACT UP Oral History Project}}</ref> and the online Capsule History of ACT UP, New York.<ref name="ACTUPNY">{{cite web |website=ACT UP New York |title=Capsule History |url=http://www.actupny.org/documents/capsule-home.html}}</ref>

===Wall Street===
On March 24, 1987, 250 ACT UP members demonstrated at [[Wall Street]] and Broadway to demand greater access to experimental AIDS drugs and for a coordinated national policy to fight the disease.<ref name="ACTUPNY1">ACT UP New York: First Demonstration Flyer, [http://www.actupny.org/documents/1stFlyer.html Actupny.org]</ref>  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.<ref name="kramer1">Kramer, Larry. Interview with Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard. ACTUP Oral History Project. February 16, 2005. MIX: The New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival.  December 11, 2005, [http://www.actuporalhistory.org/interviews/images/kramer.pdf Actuporalhistory.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517152516/http://www.actuporalhistory.org/interviews/images/kramer.pdf |date=2017-05-17 }}</ref>  Seventeen ACT UP members were arrested during this [[civil disobedience]].<ref name="ACTUPNY2">ACT UP New York: Capsule History - 1987, [http://www.actupny.org/documents/cron-87.html Actupny.org]</ref>

On March 24, 1988, ACT UP returned to Wall Street for a larger demonstration in which over 100 people were arrested.<ref name="ACTUPNY3">ACT UP New York: Capsule History - 1988, [http://www.actupny.org/documents/cron-88.html Actupny.org]</ref>

On September 14, 1989, seven ACT UP members infiltrated the [[New York Stock Exchange]] and chained themselves to the VIP balcony to protest the high price of the only approved AIDS drug, [[Zidovudine|AZT]]. 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]] positive persons. Several days following this demonstration, Burroughs Wellcome lowered the price of AZT to $6,400 per patient per year.<ref name="ACTUPNY4">ACT UP New York: Capsule History - 1989, [http://www.actupny.org/documents/cron-89.html Actupny.org]</ref>

===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 an 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 a 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 said this demonstration showed the "media savvy" of ACT UP because the [[broadcasting|television media]] "routinely do stories about down-to-the-wire tax return filers." As such, ACT UP was virtually guaranteed media coverage.<ref name="crimp1"/>

===''Cosmopolitan'' magazine===
In January 1988, ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' magazine published an article by [[Robert E. Gould]], a psychiatrist, entitled "Reassuring News About AIDS: A Doctor Tells Why You May Not Be At Risk."<ref name="crimp1"/> 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 Gould in person, questioning him about several misleading facts (that penis to vagina transmission is impossible, for example) and questionable journalistic methods (no [[peer review]], bibliographic information, failing to disclose that he was a psychiatrist and not a practitioner of [[internal medicine]]), and demanded a retraction and apology.<ref name="maggenti1">Maggenti, Maria. Interview with Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard. ACTUP Oral History Project. February 16, 2005. MIX: The New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival.  December 11, 2005, [http://www.actuporalhistory.org/interviews/images/maggenti.pdf Actupralhistory.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423235136/http://www.actuporalhistory.org/interviews/images/maggenti.pdf |date=2021-04-23 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="carlomusto1">Carlomusto, Jean. Interview with Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard. ACTUP Oral History Project. February 16, 2005. MIX: The New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival.  December 11, 2005, [http://www.actuporalhistory.org/interviews/images/carlomusto.pdf Actuporalhistory.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423213335/http://www.actuporalhistory.org/interviews/images/carlomusto.pdf |date=2021-04-23 }}</ref> Additionally, filming the action itself, the preparation and the aftermath were all consciously planned and resulted in a video short directed by [[Jean Carlomusto]] and [[Maria Maggenti]], titled, "Doctor, Liars, and Women: AIDS Activists Say No To Cosmo." The action consisted of approximately 150 activists protesting in front of the [[Hearst Tower (Manhattan)|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!"<ref name="crimp1"/> 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.<ref>Treichler, Paula. ''How To Have Theory In An Epidemic''. Duke University Press, 1999. (Discussion of the Cosmopolitan controversy and media representation)</ref> 

===Women and the CDC's AIDS Definition===
Following their participation in the Cosmopolitan protest, ACT UP's Women's Caucus targeted the Center for Disease Control for its narrow definition of what constituted HIV/AIDS. While causes of HIV transmission, like unprotected vaginal or anal sex, were similar among both men and women, the symptoms of the virus varied greatly. As historian Jennifer Brier noted, "for men, full-blown AIDS often caused [[Kaposi's sarcoma]], while women experienced bacterial pneumonia, pelvic inflammatory disease, and cervical cancer." Since the CDC's definition did not account for such symptoms as a result of AIDS, American women in the 1980s were often diagnosed with AIDS Related Complex (or ARC) or HIV. "In this process," Brier explained, "these women effectively were denied the Social Security benefits that men with AIDS had fought hard to secure, and won, in the late 1980s."<ref>Brier 2009, p. 173.</ref>
In October 1990, attorney Theresa McGovern filed suit representing 19 New Yorkers who claimed they were unfairly denied disability benefits because of the CDC's narrow definition of AIDS. At an October 2, 1990, protest to raise attention for McGovern's lawsuit, two hundred ACT UP protesters gathered in Washington and chanted "How many more have to die before you say they qualify," and carried posters to the rally with the tagline "Women Don't Get AIDS/ They Just Die From It."<ref name = brier174>Brier 2009, p. 174.</ref>
The CDC's initial reaction to calls of the revising the AIDS definition included setting the threshold of AIDS for both men and women at a T cell count of under 200. However, McGovern dismissed this suggestion. "Lots of women who show up at hospitals don't get T cells taken. No one knows they have HIV. I knew how many of our clients were dying of AIDS and not counted."  Rather, McGovern, along with the ACLU and the New Jersey Women and AIDS Network, called for adding fifteen conditions to the list of the CDC's surveillance case definition, which was eventually adopted in January 1993. Six months later, the Clinton administration revised federal criteria for evaluating HIV status and making it easier for women with AIDS to secure Social Security benefits.<ref>Laurence 1997, p. 148-149</ref> The Women's Caucus's role in altering the CDC's definition helped to not only drastically increase availability of federal benefits to American women, but helped uncover a more accurate number of HIV/AIDS infected women in the United States; "under the new model, the number of women with AIDS in the United States increased almost 50 percent."<ref name = brier174/>

Members of the ACT UP Women's Caucus collectively authored a handbook for two teach-ins held prior to the 1989 CDC demonstration, where ACT UP members learned about issues motivating the action. The handbook, edited by [[Maria Maggenti]], formed the basis for the ACT UP/New York Women and AIDS Book Group's book titled Women, AIDS and Activism, edited by Cynthia Chris and Monica Pearl, and assembled by Marion Banzhaf, Kim Christensen, Alexis Danzig, Risa Denenberg, [[Zoe Leonard]], Deb Levine, Rachel (Sam) Lurie, [[Catherine Gund|Catherine Saalfield (Gund)]], Polly Thistlethwaite, Judith Walker, and Brigitte Weil.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The ACT UP women's caucus: women and AIDS handbook|last1=Rosenblum|first1=Illith|last2=Maggenti|first2=Maria|last3=ACT UP (Organization)|date=1989|publisher=AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power|location=New York, N.Y.|language=en|oclc = 23144032}}</ref> The book was published in Spanish in 1993 titled La Mujer, el SIDA, y el Activismo.<ref>{{Cite book|title=La mujer, el SIDA y el activismo|last1=Banzhaf|first1=Marion|last2=ACT UP (Organization)|last3=New York Women and AIDS Book Group|date=1993|publisher=South End Press|isbn=0896084558|location=Boston, Mass.|language=es|oclc = 32616186}}</ref> Members of the original Women and AIDS Handbook Group included Amy (Jamie) Bauer, Heidi Dorow, Ellen Neipris, [[Ann Northrop]], Sydney Pokorney, Karen Ramspacher, [[Maxine Wolfe]], and Brian Zabcik.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

===FDA===
On October 11, 1988, ACT UP had one of its most successful demonstrations (both in terms of size and national media coverage) when it successfully shut down the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a day.<ref name="LAFDA">{{cite news | title = Police Arrest AIDS Protesters Blocking Access to FDA Offices | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = 11 October 1988  | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-11-mn-3909-story.html | access-date = 2012-12-07  }}</ref><ref name="AtlanticFDA">{{cite news | last = Crimp | first = Douglas | title = Before Occupy: How AIDS Activists Seized Control of the FDA in 1988 | publisher = [[The Atlantic]]| date = 6 December 2011  | url = https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/12/before-occupy-how-aids-activists-seized-control-of-the-fda-in-1988/249302/ | access-date = 2012-12-07 }}</ref>  Media reported that it was the largest such demonstration since demonstrations against the Vietnam War.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

{{blockquote|The AIDS activists shut down the large facility by blocking doors, walkways and a road as FDA workers reported to work. Police told some workers to go home rather than wade through the throng.

"Hey, hey, FDA, how many people have you killed today?" chanted the crowd, estimated by protest organizers at between 1,100 and 1,500. The protesters hoisted a black banner that read "Federal Death Administration."

Police officers, wearing surgical gloves and helmets, started rounding up the hundreds of demonstrators and herding them into buses shortly after 8:30 a.m. Some protesters blocked the buses from leaving for 20 minutes.

Authorities arrested at least 120 protesters, and demonstration leaders said they were aiming for 300 arrests by day's end.<ref name="LAFDA"/>}}

Among the protestors was artist [[David Wojnarowicz]], then HIV/AIDS positive, wearing painted jean jacket that read: "If I die of AIDS—forget burial—just drop my body on the steps of the F.D.A."— a nascent meme.<ref>{{cite news | title = The Jacket | work = [[Pioneer Works]] | date = 11 November 2020  | url = https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/the-jacket-david-wojnarowicz-lauren-oneill-butler/ | access-date = 2020-11-11  }}</ref> At this action, and via their campaigning in general, activists demonstrated their thorough knowledge of the FDA drug approval process.<ref>{{Cite web |last=3CR |last2=Hammond |first2=Holly |last3=Schulman |first3=Sarah |date=2023-03-08 |title=Lessons from Campaigning for AIDs Activism with Sarah Schulman |url=https://commonslibrary.org/commons-conversation-podcast-with-sarah-schulman-lessons-from-campaigning-for-aids-activism/ |access-date=2024-09-14 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref> ACT UP presented precise demands for changes that would make experimental drugs available more quickly, and more fairly. "The success of SEIZE CONTROL OF THE FDA can perhaps best be measured by what ensued in the year following the action. Government agencies dealing with AIDS, particularly the FDA and NIH, began to listen to us, to include us in decision-making, even to ask for our input."<ref name="AtlanticFDA"/>

==={{anchor|"Stop the Church"}}"Stop the Church"===
{{main|Stop the Church}}
{{See also|Anti-Catholicism in the United States}}
ACT UP disagreed with Cardinal [[John O'Connor (cardinal)|John Joseph O'Connor]] on the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York|Roman Catholic Archdiocese]]'s public stand against [[safe sex]] education in New York City Public Schools, [[condom]] distribution, the Cardinal's public condemnation of homosexuality, as well as the Church's opposition to [[abortion]]. This led to the first Stop the Church protest on December 10, 1989, at [[St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York]].<ref name="ACTUPNY"/><ref name=pose/><ref name=crouch/>{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}}

Originally, the plan was just to be a "die-in" during the homily but it descended into "pandemonium."<ref name=pose/> A few dozen activists interrupted Mass, chanted slogans, blew whistles, "kept up a banchee screech," chained themselves to pews, threw condoms in the air, waved their fists, and lay down in the aisles to stage a "die-in."<ref name=Wages/>{{sfn|Faderman|2015|pp=433-435}}<ref name=Hunter>{{cite book |last=Hunter |first=James Davison |title=Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America |publisher=Basic Books |date=1991 |page=153 |isbn=978-0975372500}}</ref><ref name=pose/><ref name=plague1>{{cite podcast |url= https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/12/01/surviving-aids-crisis-gay-catholic |title= Surviving the AIDS crisis as a gay Catholic |website= Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS & the Catholic Church  |publisher=[[America (magazine)|America]] |host= Michael O'Loughlin |date= 1 December 2019|access-date= 10 January 2019}}</ref> While O'Connor went on with mass, activists stood up and announced why they were protesting.{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}} One protester, "in a gesture large enough for all to see,"{{sfn|Faderman|2015|pp=434-435}} [[Host desecration|desecrated the Eucharist]] by spitting it out of his mouth, crumbling it into pieces, and dropping them to the floor.<ref name=rude/><ref name=keane/><ref name="ACTUPNY"/><ref name=Wages/><ref name=scalia/><ref name=carroll/><ref name=plague1/>{{excessive citations inline|date=September 2022}}

One hundred and eleven protesters were arrested, including 43 inside the church.<ref name=Sindelar>{{cite web|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/before-pussy-riot-act-up-confronted-church-and-won/24668230.html|title=Decades Before Pussy Riot, U.S. Group Protested Catholic Church -- And Got Results|author=Daisy Sindelar|date=2012-08-06|publisher=Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty}}</ref> Some who refused to move had to be carried out of the church on stretchers.<ref name=pose/> The protests were widely condemned by public and church officials, members of the public, the mainstream media, and some in the gay community.<ref name=carroll/>

===Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center===

In the 1980s, as the gay population of Greenwich Village and New York began succumbing to the AIDS virus, [[Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center]] established the first AIDS Ward on the East Coast and second only to one in San Francisco, and soon became "Ground Zero" for the AIDS-afflicted in NYC.<ref name=boynton>[http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/remembering-st-vincents Boynton, Andrew. "Remembering St. Vincent's," ''The New Yorker'', May 16, 2013]</ref> The hospital "became synonymous" with care for AIDS patients in the 1980s, particularly poor gay men and drug users.<ref name=plague2/> It became one of the best hospitals in the state for AIDS care with a large research facility and dozens of doctors and nurses in its employ.<ref name=plague2/>

ACT UP protested the hospital one night in the 1980s due to its Catholic nature.<ref name=plague2/> They took over the emergency room and covered crucifixes with condoms.<ref name=plague2/> Their intent was both to raise awareness and offend Catholics.<ref name=plague2/> Instead of pressing charges, the sisters who ran the hospital decided to meet with the protesters to better understand their concerns.<ref name=plague2>{{cite podcast |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/12/08/how-catholic-hospital-eventually-became-safe-haven-gay-community |title= The Catholic hospital that pioneered AIDS care |website= Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS & the Catholic Church  |publisher=[[America (magazine)|America]] |host= Michael O'Loughlin |date=December 8, 2019 |access-date= January 10, 2019}}</ref>

===Storm the NIH===
[[File:Demonstrators at the "Storm the NIH" Event (14358485404).jpg|thumb|Demonstrators at the "Storm the NIH" Event]]
On May 21, 1990, around 1000 ACT UP members initiated a choreographed demonstration at the [[National Institutes of Health]] (NIH) in [[Bethesda, Maryland]], splitting into sub-groups across the campus. The protest was in part directed at [[National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease]] and its director, [[Anthony Fauci]]. Activists were angered by what they felt was slow progress on promised research and treatment efforts.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Andrea |title=Demonstrating Discontent, May 21, 1990 |newspaper=The Scientist Magazine |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/demonstrating-discontent-may-21-1990-31227 |publisher=The Scientist |access-date=20 June 2020 |date=16 July 2017 |archive-date=July 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714215458/https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/demonstrating-discontent-may-21-1990-31227 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

===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 News]] at the beginning of the broadcast. They shouted "AIDS is news. Fight AIDS, not Arabs!" and Weir stepped in front of the camera 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]] 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."<ref>[http://www.actupny.org/diva/synDesperation.html Day of Desperation Synopsis]. ACT UP New York.</ref>

===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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Graphic Anti-Aids Pamphlet Disgusting, Say Teens -- 'We Don't Need A Four-Letter Word To Get The Point Across' At Franklin|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19911203/1320783/graphic-anti-aids-pamphlet-disgusting-say-teens----we-dont-need-a-four-letter-word-to-get-the-point-across-at-franklin|access-date=27 March 2012 | work=The Seattle Times|first=Paula|last=Bock|date=December 3, 1991}}</ref>

===Macy's Herald Square===
On November 29, 1991, the Black Friday shopping day, ACT UP activists dressed in Santa Claus costumes chained themselves inside Macy's flagship Herald Square department store to protest the store's decision not to rehire an HIV-positive Santa, Mark Woodley. They sang protest Christmas songs with lyrics such as, ''"Santa Claus has HIV, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la/Macy's won't rehire he, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la."'' Nineteen activists were arrested at the action.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90338647/no-miracle-on-34th-st-for/|title=No miracle on 34th St. for AIDS-infected man|date=November 30, 1991|agency=Associated Press|work=Danville News (Danville, PA)|access-date=December 10, 2021|page=1|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite episode |title=The day Santas stormed Macy's to protest for AIDS awareness|series=Morning Edition|date=December 10, 2021|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/12/10/1062598719/santas-macys-aids-awareness-protest|network=NPR}}</ref>