-
First Action
Outraged by the government's mismanagement of the AIDS crisis, concerned individuals unite to form the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. Our first demonstration takes place three weeks later on March 24th on Wall Street, the financial center of the world, to protest the profiteering of pharmaceutical companies (especially Burroughs Wellcome, manufacturer of AZT). Seventeen people are arrested. Shortly after the demonstration, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces it will shorten its dr -
March in DC
ACT UP joins other national activist groups in civil disobedience at the White House in Washington, DC. In a display of AIDS-phobia, the police wear rubber gloves while arresting protesters. Another demonstration is held at the Third International Conference on AIDS. -
Northwest Orient Airlines
When Northwest Orient Airlines refuses passage to people with AIDS (PWAs), ACT UP erupts in protest at the airline's New York offices. Two suits are brought against Northwest. The policy is reversed. -
Sloan-Kettering Picket
ACT UP's four-day, round-the-clock protest at New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, one of four AIDS Treatment Evaluation Units (ATEU's) in the City, demands more clinical trials of promising drugs other than AZT and more people with AIDS in the trials. -
Cosmo protest
ACT UP NY's Women's Caucus organizes first ACT UP action focused on women and HIV. Five hundred people protest an article telling heterosexual women that unprotected vaginal intercourse with an HIV+ man is safe. A documentary about the action, "Doctors, Liars, and Women: AIDS Activists Say NO to Cosmo," produced by two Women's Caucus members, is later shown around the country, winning awards and placed in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. -
Anniversary on Wall St
March 24, 1988: To celebrate our first anniversary, ACT UP returns to Wall Street. More than 100 activists are arrested; ACT UP receives major media coverage and issues central to the AIDS crisis are reported. The concept of "AIDS activism" gains credibility. -
National AIDS 9 day protests
May 1-9, 1988: ACT UP branches around the country mount nine days of protests focusing on specific, unattended aspects of the epidemic such as IV drug use, homophobia, people of color, women, testing programs, prison programs and children with AIDS. More than 50 cities participate. -
Shut down the FDA
ACT UP, joined by the national ACT NOW coalition, closes down the FDA outside of Washington, DC. More than 1,000 activists stage a series of demonstrations which result in almost 180 arrests. The event receives international press coverage. A historical event, shutting down the FDA represents to a vast audience the lethargy of this dysfunctional bureaucracy, which is in charge of testing and approving possible AIDS treatments. -
Trump Tower Thanksgiving Action
Trump Tower Thanksgiving Action - ACT UP protests a lack of housing for PWA's while city gives tax breaks to wealthy developers. Numerous affinity group actions and arrests are made. -
Housing
January 19, 1989: The Housing Committee meets with Mayor Kochs' top housing advisor Caryn Schwab to discuss the lack of action on AIDS housing. Representatives from almost every N.Y. City agency attend. Schwab defends the Koch administration record, while the Housing Committee gained information for future actions. January 31, 1989: The Housing Committee meets with HRA Commissioner Grinker to discuss the lawsuit Mixon vs Grinker, which tried to force the Koch administration to provide appropria -
Motion at the FDA
March 2, 1989: Protests and continued pressure at the FDA pay off. The FDA approves the use of DHPG, the only drug available to treat cytomegalovirus, which can cause retinitis, pneumonia and colitis. -
Target City Hall
March 28, 1989: ACT UP's second anniversary protest draws 3,000 to New York's City Hall, making "Target City Hall" the largest AIDS activist demonstration to date. ACT UP protests the inadequacy of New York's AIDS policy under Mayor Edward Koch. About 200 are arrested. -
Sell Wellcome
September 14, 1989: ACT UP once again makes history by stopping trading on the Stock Exchange floor. Seven ACT UP members infiltrate the New York Stock Exchange and chain themselves to the VIP balcony. Their miniature foghorns drown out the opening bell, and a banner unfurls above the trading floor demanding "SELL WELLCOME." Other ACT UP members snap photos which they then sneak out and send over newswires. Four days later, Burroughs Wellcome lowers the price of AZT by 20%, to $6,400 per year. -
First Major Fundraiser
December 2, 1989: ACT UP holds its first major fundraiser, an art auction co-chaired by David Hockney and Annie Leibovitz. A record price is bid for a work by the late artist and ACT UP member Keith Haring. ACT UP raises $650,000. -
Stop The Church
December 10, 1989: ACT UP and WHAM! (Women's Health Action and Mobilization) co-sponsor our first "Stop the Church" demonstration. 4,500 protesters gather outside St. Patrick's Cathedral to decry the Church's opposition to safer sex education, violent homophobia, and attempts to block access to safe and legal abortions. 111 people are arrested. The news media choose to focus on, and distort, a single Catholic demonstrator's personal protest involving a communion wafer. -
Woodrow Myers
January, 1990: ACT UP spearheads an investigation into newly-elected New York City Mayor David Dinkins' selection of Dr. Woodrow Myers for Commissioner of Health. It finds out that as Indiana State Health Commissioner, Myers endorsed and attempted to implement mandatory HIV testing, partner tracing and quarantine. After ACT UP protests at City Hall, Dinkins states that these policies will not be tolerated in New York City. -
Needle Exchange begins
March 6, 1990: ACT UP's Needle Exchange Committee is formed, dedicated to decriminalizing needle possession, safer injection education and drug treatment on demand A group of ACT UP members exchange clean needles for used ones along with safe drug injection instructions, condoms and safer sex/AIDS prevention information with intravenous drug users (IVDUs) on a Lower East Side street corner. Six of the ACT UP exchangers are arrested. -
Storm the NIH
May 21, 1990: ACT UP/NY organizes a national action to "Storm the NIH (National Institutes of Health)." One thousand protesters demand more AIDS treatments, especially for the opportunistic infections that kill PWAs, an end to the severe underrepresentation of women and people of color in clinical trials, and the formation of a Womens Health Committee in the AIDS Clinical Trial System at the NIH. -
NIAID progress
July, 1990: As a result of continuing pressure, NIAID officials meet with women from ACT UP/NY and ACT UP/DC, who make ten demands including a conference on women with HIV and a women's committee for the ACTG system. NIAID agrees to hold the conference. We also demand a natural history study of women and HIV which finally begins in 1993. -
Cuomo cuts funding
November, 1990: Gov. Cuomo cuts New York State AIDS funding by 40% just four days before his re-election. In response, 100 AIDS activists pack his "Victory" party and interrupt his election acceptance speech with cries of "Shame!" and "Cuomo Balances the Budget with People's Lives!" -
Stop The Church Anniversary
December 8, 1990: ACT UP and WHAM! return to St. Patrick's Cathedral for a "Stop the Church" anniversary. Cardinal O'Connor creates excellent publicity for the action by getting a restraining order against ACT UP. What was planned as a small demonstration attracts over 1000 protesters. Signs and chants include "Expel O'Connor from the Public Schools" and "'Just say no' is not enough: Teach safer sex!" -
Day of Desperation
January 23, 1991: ACT UP declares a "Day of Desperation" in New York City. This action, designed to target every aspect of City life, demands that everyone realize that every day is a day of desperation for those in the AIDS community. Day of Desperation begins when activists invaded PBS and CBS Evening News broadcasts on the night of the 22nd. On the 23rd a morning demo begins on Wall St. and more than 2000 protesters marched with coffins that were delivered to City, State & Federal officials r -
Condoms in Schools
February 27, 1991: ACT UP celebrates one of its most concrete victories against the AIDS virus as the New York City Board of Education vote 4-3 to approve a plan to distribute condoms to high school students in the public schools. ACT UP's Youth Education Life Line Committee was an important part of the coalition that lobbied and pressured the board for the plan's passage. -
Dinkins tries to cut funding
March 1991: Upon learning of a plan by Mayor Dinkins to cut City AIDS funding, breaking Dinkins' post-election promise that AIDS funding would be exempt from budget cuts, ACT UP created another loud demonstration that could be heard in City Council chambers. Most of the cuts were restored to the budget in subsequent weeks. -
CDC adds women
August 1991: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) proposes a revised definition of AIDS to include anyone with a T-cell count of 200 or less. They also added two gynecological opportunistic infections to the classification, the first women-specific opportunistic infections. -
Targeting Bush
September 30, 1991: ACT UP targets President Bush at the White House, declaring that, with over 120,000 Americans dead from AIDS, the President is getting away with murder. In a loud and angry march to the White House, activists demanded that the President stop his deliberate policy of neglect. Eighty-four people were arrested in acts of civil disobedience that included chaining themselves to the gates of the White House and to each other. Bush spent the day in Disney World. -
Clinton Campaign
April 2, 1992: ACT UP member Rob Rafsky confronts candidate Bill Clinton at a New York City fundraiser. Clinton asks what he should be saying to prove that he cares about AIDS. The exchange is carried on CNN and Nightline. April 4, 1992: Bill Clinton meets with members of ACT UP and UAA (United for AIDS Action) to discuss his AIDS policies. Clinton agrees to make a major AIDS policy speech, to have people with HIV speak to the Democratic Convention and to sign onto the UAA's five point plan. -
Manhattan actions
July 14, 1992: ACT UP joins the United for AIDS Action march and rally in midtown Manhattan. July 15, 1992: ACT UP demonstrates at a free outdoor Broadway review under a banner saying "RIBBONS ARE NOT ENOUGH" -
Interruptions
August 20, 1992: AIDS Activists disrupt a speech by George Bush at a $1,000.00-a-plate fundraising luncheon. August 20, 1992: Seven people are arrested after interrupting a speech by Jerry Falwell to the Christian Action Network screaming "Your family values are killing us. Every seven minutes somebody dies." -
Ashes Action
October 11, 1992: ACT UP NY holds its first political funeral -- the ASHES Action -- in Washington, DC, on the weekend of the final exhibition of the AIDS Quilt. In a procession starting at the Capitol, 11 people from both coasts carried ashes of freinds, family and lovers. Met at the White House lawn by police in riot gear, on motorcycles, and on horses, the procession - by then some 8,000 strong - broke through police lines and scattered the ashes on the White House lawn. -
Mark Lowe Fischer's Funeral
November 2, 1992: Following a political funeral at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, more than 300 AIDS Activists carry the open coffin of 38 year old ACT UP member Mark Lowe Fischer- a member of Marys, an affinity group who had been organizing political funerals for people with AIDS - from Washington Square to the Republican Headquarters on West 43rd Street. On the eve of the Presidential election, mourners indicted George Bush with Fischer's murder. "I want my own political funeral to be fi -
DIVA TV
January 5, 1993: DIVA TV (Damned Interfering Video Activists) inaugurates AIDS Community Television, a weekly television series & media network for AIDS activism. -
March on Washington
April 24 & 25, 1993: ACT UP joins a million lesbians and gay men at the March on Washington. ACT UP/NY stages a demonstration with more than 1,000 activists from across the country at the headquarters of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association, accusing the pharmaceutical industry of adhering to profit-driven research, price gouging, corporate secrecy and inaction while allowing people with AIDS to die. During the demonstration, activists scaled the building and hung bodies representing pe -
Disability regulations improve
May 1993: After three and a half years of pressure by ACT UP, the Social Services Administration changes the disability regulations for people with HIV, including the addition of a wide range of women-specific opportunistic infections. -
Tim Bailey's Funeral
July 1, 1993: The Marys affinity group carries out the second political funeral for an activist who has died of AIDS. Two hundred demonstrators travel to Washinton, DC, to fulfill 35-year-old ACT UP and Marys affinity group member Tim Baily's final wishes for a plitical funeral in front of the White House. After an emotional three hour standoff, plans are thwarted when police attempt to wrestle the casket containing Bailey's embalmed body away from activists in front of the Captiol Building. Two -
Jon Greenberg's Funeral
July 16, 1993: In the third political funeral for a member of ACT UP New York affinity group The Marys, the coffin of Jon Greenburg, 37, co founder of ACT UP's Alternative and Holistic Treatment Committee and director of TAP (Treatment Alternatives Project) was carried through the streets of the East village to Tompkins Square Park in New York City, where personal eulogies were heard by more than 200 activists, friends and family members. -
ACT UP LIVE!
January 6, 1994: DIVA TV launches ACT UP LIVE! a weekly call-in show on Manhattan public access TV. -
Target Rudy
March 22, 1994: Target Rudy - More than 1500 activists, including ACT UP NY, the Harlem Group, Mothers Voices and AIDS Service providers, march across the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to City Hall to focus media attention on drastic cuts proposed to the Division of AIDS Services. Forty-seven are arrested. -
Town Meetings
April 11 & 13, 1994: ACT UP NY confronts Mayor Giuliani at a series of Town Meetings. Activists demand that Guiliani abandon any plans for budget cuts affecting AIDS services in New York City. April 12, 1995: Following City Council hearings on the proposed DAS cuts, ACT UP members hold a sit-in outside Giuliani's office in City Hall. Twenty-five arrested. -
Giuliani backs down
May 10, 1994: Bowing to pressure from activists, Mayor Giuliani releases his proposed city budget which leaves the threatened Division Of AIDS Services intact. The following day, 18 ACT UP members are arrested for displaying a banner on the steps of City Hall reading "DAS is not enough Rudy Fight AIDS now."