January 24, 2007

ACT UP, Act Two

One blustery New York evening last week a little after seven, several generations of AIDS activists descended on a warm West Village classroom to plan an event marking ACT UP’s 20th anniversary in March. Founder Larry Kramer, 72, shuffled through the door in a bright orange hunting cap and coat. Kim Sue, a 22-year-old Columbia University grad much newer to AIDS activism, took a seat toward the back of the room. And the brainstorming began.

How to mark this momentous occasion? With something brazen, of course, something that does justice to the legacy of the group that invented AIDS activism by shutting down Wall Street on March 24, 1987 in order to protest the exorbitant price of AZT.

“Should we have a screw-in?” asked facilitator Ann Northrop, 58, a former CBS reporter hoping for a protest about sex ed failures in New York City schools. She was going for laughs (and got them) but she was also recalling ACT UP’s famous “kiss-ins,” random group smooches intended to confront the anti-HIV, anti-gay hysteria of the times.

“Whatever we do, we’re going to be loud, noisy and radical because that’s the only thing that gets people moving!” vowed AIDS educator Mark Milano, 50.

Milano is one of a rare few whose ACT UP membership never waned in these 20 years. New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Miami, Long Island, Paris and Kenya still boast active ACT UP chapters, but only thanks to a steady influx of new members. Campus activism—lately enjoying a fresh jolt of energy through anti-war protests—is usually the best source for fresh faces.

If last week’s meeting didn’t draw more than about 30 people, it was a source of pride to the old guard that it took place at all. “The fact that ACT UP still exists and has power is unique and admirable,” Northrop said afterward. “Someone once told me that the natural lifespan of any volunteer activist group is three years.”

Sue, a veteran of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, said having ACT UP elders at the meeting was key. “I was glad to see these people come back and to hear about their experiences,” she said. “I feel like you have to blend experience with what works with action.”

Many of the early activists also bring the experience of being HIV positive themselves, not to mention witnessing the early days—the death, the civil disobedience, the celebration—and benefiting from ACT UP’s successes at accelerating drug approvals and lowering prices.

Frank Jump, 46 and HIV positive since 1984, attended the very first ACT UP meeting at a time when he didn’t expect to live more than two or three more years. He told POZ that becoming involved again reminded him of the miracle of his survival. “It’s pretty amazing that 20 years later I’m here with a lot of gray hairs,” he said. “I’m still alive,  and I’ve got a lot of spunk still.”

It was thanks to spunk and persistence that a consensus formed last week that ACT UP’s anniversary should be marked with something bigger than just a one-time event. Why not launch a campaign for a national single-payer health care program?

“This is an issue that cuts across to every American,” said Milano. Sue predicted, “Universal health care is going to draw a lot of young people because it’s a broader social issue.”

Once the plan was set in motion—no what or where yet, but it was a start—the group began to disperse. Larry Kramer prepared to leave but paused instead and made a suggestion for the group to ponder: changing the name of ACT UP to the Action Coalition to Unleash Power. Then, he put on his hunting cap and made his exit.

The committee organizing ACT UP's 20th anniversary action meets next at 8pm on Monday, January 29, at the LGBT Center at 208 West 13th Street in Manhattan.