“Screaming, Yelling, Making a Fuss”: ACT UP Grabs America’s Attention (1990)

John Rosak, of public station KQED San Francisco, reports on one activist group called Act Up. Its goal is to force people to come to terms with AIDS and to help get medicine for those dying of the disease. Its tactics mix civil disobedience with radical street theater. Its targets have been drug companies, researchers and government officials. Act Up is an acronym for the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. One of its targets at the San Francisco AIDS Conference is the Immigration and Naturalization Service for policies restricting immigration and travel by those infected with the AIDS virus. After months of similar protests, the travel ban was lifted for those attending the conference. But Act Up wants the ban removed entirely. Act Up's members are mostly young and gay. Many are infected with the AIDS virus. Most have friends or lovers who've died of the disease. All share a growing frustration over what they see as the government's inadequate response to the AIDS epidemic. [chanting] AIDS care, we care, why don't they care?

Jorge Cortinas helped organize the INS demonstration. You're not going to do it by writing letters to the editor and that didn't do it because people tried that. You're going to do it by seizing a platform, by jumping in front of where the cameras are, by really finding the agenda. Act Up has picked unexpected places for its protests. They say their intent is to shock the rich and powerful who they say set AIDS policy. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, 40 Act Up members disrupted Holy Communion during a high mass, staging a die-in in the church aisle. [shouting] How many more have to die? Condoms save lives! Condoms save lives! Saving lives is morally right! In San Francisco, members of Act Up formed a human blockade on the Golden Gate Bridge. [shouting] Run over the son of a bitches, run them over! I have to go to work to take care of AIDS patients and I'm an hour late because this

demonstration, I'm not happy. Are you a doctor? Yeah, I'm a doctor that takes care of AIDS patients. Their motto is 'silence equals death.' Act Up members say they'll use any means to be heard. Peter Staley is a member of New York Act Up. The time had come to really start screaming, yelling, making a fuss, pissing people off and only that would bring about any change. Act Up's main targets are politicians, doctors, researchers and drug companies, those most closely associated with AIDS and targeted for attack by Act Up at the AIDS conference. These tactics make headlines. They also create dissension among gay leaders and AIDS fundraisers. Dr. Mervin Silverman is president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research and raises money for AIDS nationally. There is a sense around the country among a number of people that too much money has gone into AIDS or at least enough has gone into AIDS.

And I think sometimes these tactics tend to turn off people who have that sense and make them more angry that money is going into AIDS and support is going for it. Cleve Jones is a leader in the gay community and creator of the AIDS quilt. He supports Act Up's goals, but questions its techniques. There are times I think when Act Up sort of crosses the line and engages in behavior that is designed more to inflame public opinion rather than inform it. The street activists need to view the American public as potential allies rather than automatic enemies. It amazes me that complaining that we're dying is perceived as irresponsible. Irresponsibility to me is letting 45,000 people die of a disease before you say the word AIDS on national television when you're the president of the richest and most powerful country in the world, that is irresponsible and that is murder. By their nature, attention gets focused on Act Up's public demonstrations, but they're only one aspect of Act Up's AIDS agenda.

The group has also staged sit-ins at offices of drug companies, they set up letter writing campaigns, they've lobbied politicians, they've also pressured the FDA and AIDS researchers, they've agitated hard and long. Now those tactics seem to be paying off. Even many critics say Act Up was instrumental in twice lowering the price of AZT, one of the most expensive drugs and the only one useful against the AIDS virus. Speeding up approval of the release of ganciclovir used to prevent AIDS-related blindness and gaining acceptance of parallel tracking, so AIDS patients inside and outside clinical trials may benefit from promising drugs while they're tested. The proof of Act Up's impact came last fall when Bristol Myers and AIDS researchers unveiled the new drug DDI. It was Act Up whom they credited with helping design the clinical trials. I do not believe it would be in the position of having this forum tonight or not for the

perseverance and the hard work of Act Up. We owe a great deal to them and their work on behalf of those of us living with HIV disease. Dr. Paul Volberding is Chief AIDS Researcher at San Francisco General Hospital and co-chairman of the 6th International AIDS Conference. The way clinical trials have been done, certainly the FDA involvement has changed. The willingness of the drug companies to do things in different ways has changed in large part because of the groups like Act Up.