Page 26 - Act Up News Today

With a reputation issue. he recently had a cup of urine confiscated from his cell. he says he was going to throw it at a particular officer, but an even more sinister concoction. >> i was planning on making a special remedy we used to do back in the old days called funky cold medina. its kind of like skunk juice. its made out of some really nasty parts, urine, feces, peanut butter and sour milk. and we mix it together until its liquid. if you hit anybody with this, they aint coming, theyre not g...

Nearly 3,000 members of new york citys gay and lesbian community and its supporters. the demonstrators are from a defiant political action group called actup, the aids coalition to unleash power. actups co-founder, sawyer, was diagnosed with hiv in 1984. >> one thing we realized writing letters or articles to the editor about the health crises wasnt getting the publics attention and decided we really had to disrupt people in their daily lives the way aids was disrupting our daily lives. >> the c...

>> as we got into the 90s, the number of our friends within actup dying was just escalating and we were really getting tired of metaphors. and a lot of people were using rhetoric, when i die, throw my body over the white house fence. >> in 1992, with the presidential election looming, actups activists seized the opportunity to put aids research on the national agenda. >> actup began a year-long campaign called campaign 92: aids, vote if your life depended on it. >> on october 11th, three weeks b...

City government was also absent. ed cotchs administration was not talking about aids publicly. >> actup is born in 1987, emerging from the powerlessness that many affected by the disease are feeling. >> actups original photo was also its formula. anger into action. our grief, after a while, became anger. we took that anger and frustration and we focused it. >> a key part of actups strategy is to use the media to spread its message. >> actup was very, very savvy. we had people like ann northrop w...

Of people. people you knew. >> we are gathered here today to pay our last respects to the bush administration. >> i think the ashes action was kind of drawing a line in the sand and saying, we arent going to take it anymore. you know, we are bringing our dead to your door, and you had better start doing something to stop the dying, or, you know, you literally are going to be walking on bodies. >> shame, shame, shame, shame. >> it was the most emotionally charged thing ive ever participated in. w...

Difficult time as they try to make their way home. reporting live from grand central terminal -- >> tony arena is a former videographer for actup. >> what i remember the most was the noise. i mean, we were so loud. >> so its hundreds and hundreds if not a thousand people inside grand central. it was an incredible thing to see. >> seeing the banners hanging over the train schedule and the banners floating on the ceiling gave me a sense of pride, you know, like, we really did it. >> day of despera...

Tries to sneak into a number of news organizations. planning to disrupt their live broadcasts. they succeed at cbs. >> good evening. were going to take a break for a commercial just now. >> we knew that cameras were going to cut off as soon as they could. so we didnt know whether we were going to get one word out, two words out, or a whole sentence. so we came up with "fight aids, not arabs, act up, act back, fight aids." >> the next day, actups planned demonstrations wreak havoc on the city. th...

Mid 1990s, the group splits apart due to internal disagreements. in the end, the coalition is considered groundbreaking for the attention it brings to aids. >> we got the drug company and the federal government to develop treatments that were extending lives and stopping the immediate carnage. >> by 1996, a drug cocktail is introduced that brings -- >> those of us who had under 100 "t" cells and were really sick, our health started to rebound. >> eric sawyer is one of the longest terms survivors...

By 1991, the number of people infected with hiv reaches 1 million. and theres still no effective drug treatment in sight. >> almost in step with the way the epidemic was exploding, the turnout to act up exploded. first it was a few dozen people planning, and then a thousand people or more showing up at a meeting. >> in january, 1991, around the 10-year anniversary of the epidemic, actup mounts a major coordinated protest, hoping to attract maximum media coverage. they call it day of desperation....

Move me out this county, man. because somebodys going to get hurt, somebodys man. >> antoines lobbying to move out of cook county where he wont be a high profile target and will have more freedom. since the latest attempt on his life, hes been confined to a supermax tier. >> hes housed alone. he showers alone. he goes to court under special escort. any movement he has is going to be handcuffed, shackled at all times. its just a threat level. and we need to for his own protection. >> if i could p...