AIDS is really a test of us, as a people. When future generations ask what we did in this crisis, we're going to have to tell them that we were out here today. And we have to leave the legacy to those generations of people who will come after us.
Someday, the AIDS crisis will be over. Remember that. And when that day comes -- when that day has come and gone, there'll be people alive on this earth -- gay people and straight people, men and women, black and white, who will hear the story that once there was a terrible disease in this country and all over the world, and that a brave group of people stood up and fought and, in some cases, gave their lives, so that other people might live and be free.
-Vito Russo, 1988
"Why we fight"
I believe in activism: I believe in people coming together and working to change the world for the better. Here is just a small sampling of a few groups that are working on fighting AIDS; you can join them, or take them as inspiration for your own action.
Also, I'm working on my own history of how AIDS activism changed (and didn't change) individual relationships between people with HIV and their doctors. For more information about this project, go here.
Actions:
The Treatment Action Campaign are pushing for healthcare equality in South Africa and for the implementation of the government's commitment (after a long struggle led by TAC) to universal antiretroviral access for people with AIDS. I worked with them during the summer of 2003 and continue to support their work. I believe that their work is deeply important, and I highly recommend their email list: to subscribe, send a blank email here. To donate with a US tax deduction, go here and put "Treatment Action Campaign" in the comments line when you donate.
Medicins Sans Frontieres is working to get access to essential medicines for people outside the wealthiest countries.
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines is a network of university students who want to make the innovations of university biomedical research available to people who need them. They seek to transform how intellectual property is used for the public good.
The Harm Reduction Coalition is a national group working to promote the philosophy of harm reduction in approaches to drug policy and in healthcare for drug users. Among other activities they produce literature like this pamphlet which give a detailed account of how injection drug users can reduce the harms associated with injection.
CHAMP works to "build power" among people who want to fight the spread of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
Health Gap is a network of activists who work on international AIDS issues.
History:
Where activism by people with AIDS started: the story of the Denver Principles.
The inspiring, incredible, indefatigible history of ACT UP NY, as told by its members: ACT UP oral history.
Vito Russo's Why we fight at the ACT-UP NY site.
ACT-UP: tactics, documents, history from ACT-UP NY.
And one from before AIDS:
The 504 sit-in, in which disability activists occupied a San Francisco federal building until the government agreed to enforce disability rights legislation, was a turning point in activism for disability rights: Read this account, listen to this one, and (most of all) watch this extraordinary video that shows and tells the story of this event.
