Hope
Galmarini
Dr.
Brown
Eng.
306- Research Paper Pt. 2
10
November 2016
HIV/AIDS and the ACT UP
Movement-Analysis of a Movement Artifact
The ACT-UP protest movement began in
the face of a multitude of emotional turmoil from the gay community. This included
a collection of poems, stories, and images that saturated the media giving fire
to their movement. This mass expression of grief and pain gave ACT-UP an
appropriate window to truly pursue their goals: to force the Reagan
administration to financially support research efforts and to offer more
visibility to the large gay community that was continuously loosing more
members to HIV/AIDS.
During the height of the AIDS
crisis, with thousands of people dead and many more in mourning. Feeling anger
in the face of adversity, particularly the lack of recognition and assistance
from the Reagan administration, ACT-UP assembled. Halting trade on the floor of
the New York Stock Exchange for two hours, continuously assembling in the West
Village of New York City, and protesting in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
But the most prominent act of
protest was ACT-UP’s slogan: “Silence=Death”. The silence ACT-UP spoke about
was the silence reverberating through out the nation. The silence of the deaths
of thousands of Americans, who received zero representation in the American
press. But most of all, the silence of then president Ronald Reagan who refused
to even speak about AIDS publicly until 1987. This was a consistent and direct
message to President Reagan and the primary object during the entire protest
movement.
The symbolism of this artifact goes
deep. ACT-UP’s full logo was a pink triangle with the slogan “Silence=Death”.
On the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP’s, current website Brian
Howard a writer for the current movement, and a leader of the Silence=Death
project, describes the history of the logo.
“The pink triangle
was established as a pro-gay symbol by activists in the United States during the 1970s. Its
precedent lay in World War II, when known homosexuals
in Nazi concentration camps were forced to wear inverted pink triangle badges as identifiers, much in
the same manner that Jews were forced to wear
the yellow Star of David. Wearers of the pink triangle were considered at the degradation. Thus, the appropriation
of the symbol of the pink triangle, usually turned
upright rather than inverted, was a conscious attempt to transform a epidemic, it was well-entrenched as a
symbol of gay pride and liberation.” (Howard, Brian.)
The pink triangle was a strong symbol, showing solidarity with the community’s ancestors who too felt they were mistreated. This was intended to send a strong message to the Reagan administration. In 1987, the same year that Reagan finally spoke the word AIDS in public, ACT-UP began their “Silence=Death” project. The project began plastering posters with the group’s logo on it all over New York City. The posters sent a clear message: it was a declaration that the silence about the oppression and annihilation of gay people, during the Nazi regime and during the AIDS crisis, must be broken for the gay community to survive. Not only did the posters include the startling image of the pink triangle, but the bottom of the poster asked the viewer “Why is Reagan silent about AIDS? What is really going on at the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Vatican? Gays and lesbians are not expendable...Use your power...Vote...Boycott...Defend yourselves...Turn anger, fear, grief into action.” (Howard, Brian).
The pink triangle was a strong symbol, showing solidarity with the community’s ancestors who too felt they were mistreated. This was intended to send a strong message to the Reagan administration. In 1987, the same year that Reagan finally spoke the word AIDS in public, ACT-UP began their “Silence=Death” project. The project began plastering posters with the group’s logo on it all over New York City. The posters sent a clear message: it was a declaration that the silence about the oppression and annihilation of gay people, during the Nazi regime and during the AIDS crisis, must be broken for the gay community to survive. Not only did the posters include the startling image of the pink triangle, but the bottom of the poster asked the viewer “Why is Reagan silent about AIDS? What is really going on at the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Vatican? Gays and lesbians are not expendable...Use your power...Vote...Boycott...Defend yourselves...Turn anger, fear, grief into action.” (Howard, Brian).
Primarily,
ACT UP’s logo completely solidified the identity of the gay community that was
directly being affected by the AIDS crisis. Not only were they gay, but they
were alike to the gay men and women in the Nazi concentration camps years
before. ACT-UP created an oppositional protest group that stood as one in the
face of disease and death. Not only did ACT-UP create the face of this newly
revamped gay community, but they created the gay community in the face of AIDS.
The gay community had to transform in the face of AIDS, and now they had. They
responded collectively to an administration that was completely silent about
their struggles and grief. But now the entirety of the United States of America
knew who ACT-UP was and now knew what the gay community was going to stand for
in the face of AIDS.
Politically
and socially the gay community was sending a clear message to the Reagan
administration through the work of ACT UP. The community was solidified in the
face of HIV/AIDS. However, personal relationships were still being affected and
many members of the community found effective ways to address their grief and
anger, and utilize it to send a clear message alongside ACT UP.
Walta
Borawski was a gay poet who lost his partner in the mid 80’s to AIDS. To
express his grief and sorrow, Lingering
in a Silk Shirt was created. A collection of poems chronicling the gay
experience in the face of disease and sorrow, Lingering in a Silk Shirt addressed a variety of topics associated
with a loss at the hands of AIDS.
“Diagnosis
When
the doctor and the tests confirm you are ill begin to learn to breathe.
Hold
on to a crystal your lover or your god.
Watch
your favorite tv shows read books that teach or make you laugh escape or go
deeper
Don't smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol; Take
vitamins, eat good food, keep working and exercise
Don't
curse fate or spend energy wishing things were otherwise
They're
not
Today
is still yours
Be
good to it
- Walta Borawski” (Walta Borawski)
The collection begins with the poem
“Diagnosis”. This poem addresses the personal experience of discovering your
own diagnosis, and then addresses the various coping techniques taken up by
members of his community. Some gay men looked to spirituality for comfort and
solace, others looked to worldly pleasures. The poem ends with almost a call to
action, similar to the constant call to action coming from ACT UP. “Don’t curse
fate of spend energy wishing things were otherwise. They’re not. Today is still
yours. Be good to it.” (Walt Borawski). Borawski’s call to action was a
personal one, asking those who were facing the reality of their diagnosis to
not fall apart in the face of AIDS, to not give up. This was different from ACT
UP’s much larger call to action, which prompted gay men and women to question
their country and pressure the Reagan administration to act. However, the arts
allowed for gay men and women to begin creating a new voice, a new identity, as
AIDS was slowly stripping them of what they knew. This allowed for the greater
movement that turned into ACT UP, because the arts and professions of personal
experiences with AIDS allowed for the LGBT community to gather the strength
necessary to fight the Reagan administrations strong holds.
The identity of ACT UP, and the gay
community as a whole, was reworked when the AIDS pandemic occurred. Before, the
gay community worked in secret and in many ways prospered in solitude. When
HIV/AIDS attacked the gay community, this solitude was perpetually shattered.
Suddenly, they were revealed to the world, but not in a positive light. When
the gay community needed their country, the Reagan administration responded in
silence. Their identity was perpetually transformed, and they became fighters
against silence, poets and artists to express their grief. Activists,
proclaiming their truth in all different forms became what the gay community
was. ACT UP fought on the streets and certainly gained the most notoriety.
However, the community as a whole came together under one identity that could
be well represented by the oppositional AIDS group: ACT UP.
Works Cited
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