Sarah Schulman’s latest book, Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, chronicles the organization’s first six years. The group’s unifying principle? Direct action to end the AIDS crisis. Sodomy laws were still on the books, and there were no protections against being fired or denied housing because of one’s sexual orientation.Įnter ACT UP. Recall that, at the time, “gay-bashing” was a frequent occurrence, and the state - police in particular - was part of the problem.

After years of triage and loss caused by a plague that the government, helmed by Ronald Reagan, was utterly uninterested in combating, ACT UP members resolved to fight back, forcing changes that no one had been willing to offer them. In 1987, New Yorkers formed the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, better known by its acronym, ACT UP.

Within months, both had passed away from it. It was the first that either had heard of the illness. He read that article out loud to his two roommates, both of whom were gay.

To wit: my dad lived in the New York area at the time. With startling rapidity, the illness would decimate entire communities, the gay community foremost among them. On July 3, 1981, the New York Times ran an article headlined “ Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals.” For many people, this was the first they’d heard of what we now know as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Let the record show by sarah schulman