Page 17 - Act Up News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The defiant group of AIDS activists was itself riven by discord. What can the movement’s legacy, of both ferocity and fragility, teach us?

Queer to the Left was active from the late 90s through 2005. courtesy Therese Quinn Heading into the 21st century, queer activism was at a crossroads. While the AIDS epidemic was far from over for the millions of people who lacked access to adequate health care and could not afford expensive antiretroviral therapy—which cost thousands of dollars a year even with insurance—many larger gay organizations had moved on from the issue. With gay marriage and acces...

>> why? >> well, i think because it's a gay cancer. >> reporter: larry kramer was a founder of "act up," a group that used raucous tactics to mandate faster development of drugs. among the early researchers looking for both a cause and a cure was dr. anthony fauci. >> the plan is to put into clinical trials individuals who have full-blown aids. >> reporter: but when the first drug, a.z.t., was approved in 1987, the demonstrations got louder because the drug cost so much. >> your dosage is probably going to cost you $10,000 a year. >> reporter: at today's ceremony, the losses over 40 years were...

Increasing influence on aids policies. the weekly meetings of the new york chapter attract hundreds, and the loosely-knit organization counts 10,000 members nationwide, mostly young, mostly gay. >> let's do a big demonstration there and keep it there. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: the atmosphere at the meetings and at the group's headquarters is characterized by enthusiasm and belligerence toward established institutions. playwright larry kramer started act up to accelerate the aids drug approval process. >> what right does the fda and the nih have to tell a dying person what he or she ...

Those moments, i think it can be helpful to know what that particular person has been through before. in terms of understanding what kind of effect it might have on them for them to be unfairly attacked and pilloried in public life. it helps to know where they've been, to know whether they've got what it takes to stand up to some of the unfair treatment that sometimes comes with being in the public eye. this was "nightly news," "nbc nightly news," may 21, 1990. >> this was a major day of protests by aids activists in this country, 1,000 of them converging on the national institutes of health o...