How to Survive a Plague

Welcome to ACT UP!

We are the AIDS coalition to unleash power.

A diverse non-partisan group of individuals united in anger

and committed to direct action to... ...end the AIDS crisis!

Less than 12 hours from now,

we are going to be taking over city hall!

ACT UP, fight back, fight AIDS!

Yes?

Mr. mayor, in campaigning for the lesbian and gay vote in an

election year, a bit of historical context is necessary

in dealing with the AIDS crisis in New York City.

It wasn't until 1983 that you met with people to deal with the AIDS crisis.

- How do you respond to these criticisms? - That is a falsehood.

Please, anybody who's thinking about being arrested,

fill out a support sheet, make sure your support person knows

who you are and what group you're in... yeah?

If we end up in the tombs, is there like, a queer tank

there and would you recommend that we ask to be there?

There is a homo-tank and I've been there and it's

better than the straight tank, let me tell you.

Who else? Yes?

In the past, you've described act up as fascist, yet in the press

release, you called them "concerned citizens" and I was

wondering what changed your mind?

Well, I don't think you can't use both.

Fascists can be concerned citizens and I don't believe

they are fascists, I think they have used a fascist tactic.

Let us celebrate together tonight, the end of the last day

on which Ed Koch can tell himself that the communities

which are being decimated by this epidemic are so weak and

so divided among themselves, that he can keep serving us this kind of bullshit.

Tomorrow morning he will begin to learn the truth!

ACT UP, stand tall, tomorrow morning at city hall!

ACT UP, stand tall,

tomorrow morning at city hall!

ACT UP, stand tall,

tomorrow morning at city hall!

ACT UP, stand tall...

We're talking to Jim Eigo from the treatment issues committee of ACT UP.

Jim, what specific treatment issues are being

brought into this demonstration this week?

The municipal hospitals are totally falling apart.

More than half of the people that get diagnosed with AIDS

today get diagnosed in the emergency rooms of our city.

You're going to find yourself waiting four days in an

emergency room before you get a bed.

Pretty scared, but being

HIV-positive, I don't have much choice in the matter.

I just love all these people, and I think what we're doing is

really right and I mean, listen to this and look at all the people.

It's just really wonderful and it's worth putting yourself on the line for.

...there is no accurate diagnosis.

There are incentives in the city hospitals not to diagnose people

with AIDS and therefore, people don't get treated.

We are angry at the way this city has handled this crisis

and we demand that ed Koch exert leadership and declare a state of emergency.

Go in the street now or wait, those are the options.

- One, he says go. - Go now.

Says now, three.

Tom?

Go now, Tom says.

We're standing here with Larry Kramer.

What is ACT UP trying to say today to Ed Koch?

We're sending a message to public officials, to closeted

public officials, that we won't be shat on anymore and obviously

all the AIDS issues.

I would love to see like, more cameras or

something, you know, for our own protection.

Did everyone hear his concern?

People die every day, friends get sick every day.

It's like being in the trenches.

There's such anger in the community and it is coalescing

in a way that has never been done before.

Okay, which way do we face girlfriends, this way or that way?

Healthcare is a right, healthcare is a right!

Healthcare is a right, healthcare is a right!

Healthcare is a right, healthcare is a right!

Pump up the budget!

Healthcare is a right, healthcare is a right!

You are currently in violation of law by obstructing

vehicular pedestrian traffic.

You have the option of leaving at this time, otherwise...

ACT UP!

Fight back!

Fight AIDS!

ACT UP!

Fight back, fight AIDS!

I guess I'm feeling pretty helpless at the moment.

I think like, the biggest question that I'm facing

now is how to remain hopeful in

the face of increasing loss.

I don't know, maybe it sounds really corny but I...

As difficult as the time is for

us... I like being alive.

And I love my friends and I love my family.

I love the people around me.

I'm going to die from this.

This isn't going to be cured for years and years and years.

Doctor's office.

Hi, it's Peter Staley.

...it's like living in a war,

all around me, friends are dropping dead and you're scared

for your own life, all at the same time.

I was diagnosed with AIDS-related complex while I was

working as a bond trader on wall street.

I had night sweats.

I began to get dry, patchy, scaly, itchy skin on my face.

And I would get sick constantly.

Colds would lay me up for weeks.

I started to look around in desperation for ways that I

could find treatments to help

save my life... um... And there was nothing coming out

of our government's efforts, I quickly realized.

Everything I read said I had about two years to live, at most.

- What do we want? - A cure!

- When do we want it? - Now!

- What do we want? - A cure!

- When do we want it? - Now!

- What do we want? - A cure!

- When do we want it? - Now!

I was on my way to work and I got handed a flyer about act up and AIDS.

My mentor says, "if you ask me,

I think they all deserve to die because they took it up the butt."

I was deeply closeted and I had to just stew about it for the rest of the day.

I got myself to the very next ACT UP meeting.

They could just tap into that immediate anger and get stuff done.

...we will not leave until an administrator meets with us

and tells us that St. Vincent's is willing to make a public

statement condemning gay and lesbian violence.

All those in favor?

All those opposed?

They're coming!

You see them right there.

You've heard about ACT UP.

You've seen our flyers.

The kiss-in happens tonight.

ACT UP!

Fight back!

Make love!

ACT UP!

Whoo, whoo!

I'll deal with the cameras.

Are you the security guard that was beating people up?

Members of the mainstream media were thrown out, as we

were earlier on, but Steve Zabel

and I came back in and we're bringing you this exclusive footage.

Don't destroy property!

You're destroying property.

Well, actually you damaged some human property last week.

You damaged people.

You will not beat up on faggots and you will not beat up

on lesbians in hospitals in our own community.

Two gay women were beaten up and when her lover came to

respond... you know the story.

And another story was when two gay guys came in, one was sick

with AIDS, the security guard told him to get the fuck out of

here and called him "faggot."

I think if you're gonna work, especially in Greenwich village,

you should have some sensitivity training, 'cause we're not gonna have it.

I'm willing to meet with three people if the rest of you leave.

Okay, one at a time, one at a time.

It's unclear how to play it.

My own instinct would be to say, "we'll be glad to meet with you,

and when the meeting's over, we'll leave."

Not to leave before the meeting takes place.

Gregg.

We've shown the kind of power we can have by immediate action,

by sticking together, by reaching a consensus together.

We should take this in steps and we should be cool-headed.

I'm going to take a straw poll, Okay?

...and we agreed to leave the waiting room while he met with

three of our representatives:

Gregg, Jerry and Neil, in that public space right there.

And then we would stick around out here and wait to see what the outcome was.

So I said, "enough of this, this job is gonna kill me."

So, I went on disability and

decided to become a full-time AIDS activist.

In the beginning, what drugs did we have?

We had nothing.

And the pneumonia could come

on like that, and be gone and that person is dead.

The skin lesions, the Kaposi's sarcoma was... people would be

coming in with a purple spot.

Everybody was coming in with, "what is this spot?

What is that spot?"

You'd have some guys come in with k.S. On their face and

they'd be putting makeup on their face and they'd be...

It was... and they were lucky if

it just stayed in the skin.

If it didn't go into their lungs, and then if it went into

their lungs, chemo didn't work and then they were gone.

You were grasping at straws for everything because these are

young, vibrant people.

And all of a sudden they're being snatched.

I think everything has to be put in perspective.

Larry?

Iris long is lifesaving.

If you can't hear in the back and you want to, just shout it out, please.

This is a report from the American society of microbiology,

a conference I went to at the end of may.