Richard Rodriguez on Prop. 8 and the aftermath

In Latino activist circles, Richard Rodriguez has always been the black sheep of the family... even among Latino LGBT activists... even after he came out...

The (current? former?) NPR commentator and PBS News Hour panelist drew ire for arguing that Latino immigrants should learn English upon arrival in the US and for defending his allegiance to the Catholic church. But deeply, secretly, I have been such a fan.

Weird. I have to say that I am not a religious person. And that I also have been supportive and in awe of ACT UP's daring (and still controversial) action at St. Patrick's Cathedral back in 1989 (something that Rodriguez doesn't share).

But tonight's Salon.com piece ("Why churches fear gay marriage") is such a snapshot at why Prop. 8 opposition failed among some Latino Californians that I'd be remiss if I didn't share.

An excerpt:

...the real challenge to the family right now is male irresponsibility and misbehavior toward women. If the Hispanic Catholic and evangelical churches really wanted to protect the family, they should address the issue of wife beating in Hispanic families and the misbehaviors of the father against the mother. But no, they go after gay marriage. It doesn't take any brilliance to notice that this is hypocrisy of such magnitude that you blame the gay couple living next door for the fact that you've just beaten your wife

The full read is illuminating. Click on the link above to read it.

My New York: Gotham City stands up for same-sex marriage tonight

Update: Towleroad, as always, has the most comprehensive rundown.

Oh what a beautiful sight! Thousands of people in a semi-impromptu demonstration the likes I haven't seen since that huge rally in Manhattan after the death of Matthew Shepard. All demanding equal rights for same-sex couples following the passage of California's Proposition 8 and chastising the Mormon church for pouring so much money into the effort to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Back then, after the Matthew Shepard rally, I was quoted in the Village Voice marveling at how e-mail networking had made the humongous vigil a reality. Appropriate, then, that tonight's vigil was brought to you pretty much courtesy of Facebook. To be sincere, I expected perhaps 1,000 people or less. As if! One estimate I heard tonight placed the crowd at 16,000 (smaller than the Matthew Sheppard vigil but just an amazing number for something that was almost ethereal in execution. Rex Wockner has a post on what might be called Activism 4.0 (personally - despite the turn out - I am uncertain how the energy can be truly channeled effectively in the future). Kudos to organizer Corey Johnson.

BTW - If you missed tonight there is another protest Saturday (more details here)

Snapshots from tonight:

Winner! Best sign of the night!

Runner up!

Le Joe Jervis est hoaging le camera (jeez! is Joe.My.God everywhere?)

The closing shot: The end of the night rally at Columbus Circle just outside Central Park.

'cept c'est le moi! c/o le Ozed guy! Thanks John!


More pictures here

A short vid below:


Related:

• Prop 8 backlash hits NYC Mormon Temple (Andy Humm / Gay City News)
  
• 15,000 march against Prop 8 in NYC (Wockner)
• NYC: Thousands rally for equality (Joe.My.God)
• Of the instant (John Ozed)
  
• Lavi Soloway's photos here
• NYC against Proposition 8 - aka Prop Hate (Pop Bytes)
  
• Thousands protest Prop 8 in Manhattan (Boy in Bushwick)
• Prop H: Child brides, YES! Gay marriage, NO! (Bitten by a Zebra)
  
• An amazing protest at the Mormon Temple in Manhattan (Father Tony / Bilerico)
• NY turns out for anti-Prop 8 march (Pam Spaulding)
• 10,000 New Yorkers turn out to protest Prop. 8 (Queerty)
• Thousands gather in NYC to peacefully protest proposition 8 (Brian Juergens / After Elton)
  

ACT UP gets horny for gay pride: Marchers needed!

The Press Release:

COME MARCH WITH ACT UP/NY FOR PRIDE 2008!
Sunday, June 29 - 11:30am
56th Street at 6th Avenue
917-653-7267 (cell)

This year we will be focusing on getting the word out about our exciting new harm reduction campaign that we are launching in print and on the web. Infection rates in NYC are up by 33% since 2001 among young gay and bisexual men under 30 years of age. Prevention efforts are hampered by years of abstinence only teaching, which has affected even AIDS organization's educational materials which often are timid. Our first effort will be published in this weeks Gay City News showing an inviting young man starting to dress himself by opening a condom, with the following text:

"Infection Rates are UP! The only thing you need to wear are condoms!"

The CDC's recently released statistics for 2005 show that, men who have sex with men accounted for 71% of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses among men. This is another reason we need to mobilize attention to this issue. We need an edgy, gay-sex-positive, safe-sex promotional campaign in response to this alarming rise in new infections among
young gay and bisexual men under 30. That's why ACTUP/NY is creating this new campaign to promote effective safe sex messages targeting gay youth. Our contingent will be displaying our hot new posters, promoting the launching the new campaign website, and of course, distributing condoms to all the parade-goers.

No matter what your age or gender, we need you to march with us. We don't want a tiny contingent, we need a contingent that helps set a tone that safer-sex is a LGBT community standard. Monogamy, domestic partnership and marriage won't solve this problem because, they don't really work among a very large section of young men.

We'll also have vintage ACTUP banners and chants throughout for what promises to be a fierce and fun showing at pride. We hope to see you marching in the contingent!

Saddest news in a while: Bob Kohler has died

You might remember that in June of last year I wrote about the big anti-violence rally and march through the streets of Manhattan in the wake of the anti-gay attack against queer singer Kevin Aviance.

At the time I said that I was surprised by the numbers of people who showed up for the rally considering the apathetic state in queer rights activism today. What I didn't say was that I also was awe-struck when I noticed long-time queer rights hero Bob Kohler as he watched the crowd head down to Christopher Street along 7th Avenue.

I caught up to him just as he asked trans activist Melissa Sklarz (pictured next to Bob above) what the march was about. When Melissa explained how people had shown up in support of Kevin and in anger against hate crimes, he just beamed that incredible smile of his and said "Oh, good! That's good!" probably amazed that something could move people to action.

A few minutes ago I got a message announcing that Bob, who was already into his 80's, had passed away this morning. He joins another personal hero of mine, Marc Rubin, who passed away in his 70's back in March.

Who was Bob Kohler? Well, he was a Stonewall veteran for one, and was amongst the founders of the seminal queer rights organization Gay Liberation Front. He also stood up for struggling transgender activists such as Marcia P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and a myriad of causes including Sex Panic!, the queer youth organization The Neutral Zone, Fed UP Queers, Irish Queers, ACT UP and Fierce [The Village Voice's Runnin' Scared blog has more information here; Gay City News has the most comprehensive coverage here].

Funeral arrangements and memorial services are still in the works. I will update this post when more details become available.

UPDATE: Here's a video shot this past summer at the Stonewall Inn in which Bob, Danny Garvin and Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt talk about the life of Marsha P. Johnson. Thank you Marti Abernathey for pointing it out to me.

UPDATE (from Joo-Hyun Kang & Imani Henry): "Bob was an amazingly funny, politically principled and kind person (well, maybe not always kind if he thought you weren't being politically principled….). You always knew you could count on him to show up at a picket, rally, meeting, or special scouting mission that could be helped by an older white man with blue eyes who just needed to use a bathroom in that corporate headquarters…. He was in many ways a bridge for and to many communities, and an example of what it could mean to be a white ally to communities of color. He was honest and cranky as hell, and we loved him for it."

POLITICAL FUNERAL
for
BOB KOHLER
-----------
Sunday, December 9, 2007

Meet 4pm at the LGBT Center (the one that eventually had to let Sylvia back in!)
March at 5pm to Christopher Street & to the pier
- Demand space for queers & queer youth of color in the Village.
- Demand a cure for AIDS, HASA for all,* and housing & respect for PWAs
- Demand respect for "the crazies" who (as Bob liked to point out) are the ones who usually lead the way.

There will be a memorial for Bob in a few weeks, in addition to this action. For info, e-mail bobsqueers@gmail.com.

Latino LGBT pride in NYC: 1997

The Spanish language newspaper El Diario La Prensa is publishing an LGBT pride supplement this year and I've been providing information to a few reporters on issues related to the history of Latino LGBT organizing in the city, challenges faced by bi-national same-sex couples and Latinos involved in the push for same-sex marriage in New York.

I have also been looking through images that I have that might help to illustrate the vibrancy of Latino LGBT life in New York over the last decade and have submitted some although I'm not sure they will be published.

In the next few posts I will share some of them and my recollections on where and when they were taken.

copyrighted photo - to post, please ask for permission: blabbeando@gmail.com

Let's start with ACT UP and members of the Latino Caucus: The back of the photo I scanned says April of 1997 so I'm not exactly sure on what exact day it was taken or what the protest was about (obviously access to treatments was a theme but considering the size of the crowd it must have been a reaction to something).

I do remember that I was marching with members of ACT-UP's Latino Caucus including Hector Seda, Carlos Maldonado, Popo and a few other people who I'd befriended and had shown me the ropes of activism. Not sure if Sam Larson or Jesus Aguais were there on that day. I was dating a great Peruvian guy, Fernando Mariscal, who was a photo enthusiast and must still have quite a collection of historic photos from those days.

I think by the time I met them, the caucus had folded but they still continued to participate in marches and hang out socially. I was in awe of their activism and wanted to grow up and be just like them (hehe).

While ACT UP is not a gay rights organization, the historical importance to Latino LGBT advocacy in New York is that some of the members of the ACT UP Latino Caucus were influential in launching a couple of gay Latino organizations. Jesus Aguais, who now directs Aid for AIDS, founded the now-defunct Venezuelan Gay and Lesbian Association (VGLA) which led also to the creation of the Colombian Lesbian and Gay Association (COLEGA) - Jesus was dating a Colombian guy and suggested that he bring some people together to launch a Colombian organization, which he did. I ended up being co-chair of COLEGA a couple of years later.

Gonzalo Aburto, who would later become editor of the Spanish-language version of POZ Magazine, also was among a few guys who launched HoMoVISIONES, another gay Latino organization that was unique in that it was not a social or a community service organization but focused on creating audiovisual material covering issues related to the Latino LGBT community. They had an incredible community access cable news show which, among other things, captured the only video I remember seeing of a NYPD officer mounted on a horse trampling through some activists at the massive Matthew Sheppard rally that took place in Manhattan on October 13 of 1998 (the police had penned in demostrators on side streets between avenues and were arresting people en masse). Gonzalo now produces the only 'Rock in Spanish' radio show in New York (La Nueva Alternativa) and writes for... El Diario La Prensa.

At the time there were already a number of Latino gay organizations, including Las Buenas Amigas and Latino Gay Men of New York (currently the longest existing surviving Latino gay organizations in the city) and Latinas y Latinos de Ambiente de Nueva York (LLANY) which still gets listed on gay directories even though I believe it's been more than a decade since it folded. These, in turn, were born out of earlier Latino LGBT organizing in the city and organizations such as HUGGL (sp?) which was gone by the time I moved to New York and, I believe, was founded as a direct result of the incredible rise of power of the Puerto Rican communities in New York in the 1980's and 1990's. I used to know some of this by heart but, unfortunately, time erases some memories and details.

There are still some people out there who have written about that part of Latino LGBT organizing history in New York, most notably Luis Aponte-Pares.

As for the Queer Justice League...

The Queer Justice League apparently had their first ever action last night at the West Side Piers.

I had heard that group members had finally agreed on keeping the Queer Justice League name (which at one point carried an asterisk to designate activist dissatisfaction with the supposed military connotations of the name or with the word queer or with the comic-bookishness of it - trust me, process sometimes gets ugly). Ultimately I guess the name stuck and QJL prevailed. Super-homos unite!

I also knew that they had settled on some sort of public kiss-in as a first action (you'd think that New York City is full of public demonstrations of good ol' same-sex saliva swappin' but you'd be surprised) AND that they had also decided to do it in support of the Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment (or FIERCE for short) and their efforts to keep the West Side Piers safe and open for queer youth of color. And what can be wrong about bringing together some upscale Chelsea gay glamour with some radical queer youth radicalis of color? They are usually at odds with each other so all's good for mending the bridges.

I would have been there, I really would. Except that the action announcement and date was never sent through the Queer Justice League e-mail list or posted on the QJL blog. What's up with that? (Or maybe I missed something?).

Joe.My.God does have evidence that something did happen. Not sure there was any saliva swappin' though.

Previously, in Queer Action League history.

Meetings, we've got meetings...

Not sure I can make it to any of tonight's two meetings or even next week's meetings but...

Calling it the Queer Justice League (asterisk*) might be inappropriate because some people have reservations about the (*) name and it was supposed to be an interim name (*) anyway, but there's a bunch of people meeting at 7pm tonight at the LGBT Center on 13th Street. It's the 2nd meeting since a speech by Larry Kramer riled up the masses. I can't promise that the issue of whether to use Robert's Rules of Order will be resolved by meeting's end. Do try to take a chill pill beforehand so you can be in the right mood to deal with different levels of oppression and the tension level that a few hundred e-mail messages have ratcheted up. Maybe, just maybe, something will come out of it. If there seems to be consensus on one thing it's that they want some freakin' direct action, NOW! So at the very least maybe you too can throw your pet cause into the ring and see if it sticks. It's been billed as a "working meeting" to address some remaining process issues with a "full meeting" to follow at 8pm on April 26th, also at the Center. For updates click here [NOTE: Gay City News has more on what went on druring the first meeting here].

Not to be confused with the (non-asterisk *) ACT-UP meetings that still take place every Monday at 8pm also at the Center.

Tonight, though, ACT-UPers and ACT-UP allies can also head over to the City University of New York for "CLAGS LGBTQ Studies Panel: Discussions Around the History of ACTUP." That also takes place at 7pm tonight (not sure if some asterisks * will make it should the meeting at the Center end up early). What is the CLAGS meeting about?

"To mark the 20th anniversary of ACT UP, this round table discussion features Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard, co-coordinators of the ACT UP Oral History Project and co-founders of the MIX New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, and invited guests. The conversation will focus on the early history of AIDS activism in New York City, the birth and history of ACT UP, and the needs in/for AIDS activism today."

It's free and open to the public and will take place at the Skylight Room (#9100) of the Graduate Center at CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street) in Manhattan. Need more info? Call 212 817-1955 or click here.

Speaking of April 26th, you might want to make it to the Center a couple of hours earlier before the 3rd Queer Justice League (asterisk *) meeting: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control and the Bureau of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (whew! THEY should have an asterisk!) is presenting "A Community Discussion on Male Circumcision and HIV Prevention."

If it turns out to be half as interesting as the one a few of us held with them a few days ago in the wake of this, it should be a hoot.

Blog rundown

Rex continues his perusal of old ACT UP photographs (painful scanning involved) here (first part is here).

Arthur Leonard has decided to stop using the names of individuals when reporting on political asylum cases even if he will continue writing about asylum court decisions. He also has a fascinating analysis of today's dissenting statement by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision ruling against so called "partial birth abortions" AND a note about an anti-gay discrimination suit against Starbucks.

One of our favorite fag hags and savviest of Latina bloggers, elenamary says she has launched a Latinas for Obama group but also expresses some slight annoyance with Obama's lead Latino organizer.

Lorenzo has seen tension grow in the LGBT community over the last few years on the issue of same-sex marriage.

Good As You explores God Tube. Yes, I said God Tube, not You Tube.

OMG! I think I spotted Noel in one of Paul's debaucherous bar night posts.

JockoHomo has some Bebel goodness as a preview to the new CD.

Manhattan Offender celebrates Happy Gonorrhea Awareness Week! Yay!

Monaga is just, well, Monaga. Just about the most comprehensive site on gay night life (and day life) in the Dominican Republic.

El Oso Raro at Slaves of Academe remembers one of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Pedro Julio gloats (as well he should).

Updates: Constable Dupree, Rev. Diaz' money, Larry Kramer challenged

Dupree's troubles: Things for gay Dallas constable Mike Dupree get thornier - according to the Dallas Voice - as the Texas State Attorney General's Office mulls prosecution in a series of charges that have arisen since the Dallas Observer reported last year that the fifty year old man had apparently had his deputies arrest a twenty year old Honduran ex-lover and arranged to have him deported. Santo Gay highlights a more recent Dallas Observer story in which they detect a pattern in the type of guys Dupree goes for and how he gets his way with them.

Rev. Diaz' purse strings: The homophobic Reverend (and State Senator) Ruben Diaz, Sr. hasn't let an FBI probe disturb the way he channels state funding towards projects in which he is directly associated. On April 4, the New York Daily News reported that the recently approved state budget includes two grants worth close to $300K for the Christian Community Benevolent Association.

Reactions to Kramer: Following the ACT UP Wall Street demonstration a week ago Thursday, Gay City News has a cover page story on the rally this week. In the same issue, CHAMP Executive Director Julie Davids has an essay on the role of women in ACT UP throughout the years and Larry Kramer's failiure to aknowledge them in his recent rable-rousing speech.

Over at the New York Blade Paul Varnell argues, in an OpEd piece, that Kramer's speeches are "characterized by substantial exaggerations of fact, hyperbolic rhetoric and a certain amount of vulgarity" and that his most recent statements are incoherent.

PS - By the way, speaking about local gay media, Gay City News also inaugurated it's first webcast this week featuring editor in chief Paul Schindler.

ACT UP protest: Same old BS, twenty years later

NOTE: Images Copyright © 2007 Andrés Duque and Rex Wockner

About 400 t0 500 people showed up on a magnificently sunny day to act up once again on what was planned as the 20th year anniversary action of the organization ACT UP.

Larry Kramer, who was among the people who jump started the direct action group twenty years ago addressed reporters at the rally's start (YouTube video here). Clients from organizations such as Housing Works, African Services Committee, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, the New York City AIDS Housing Network, People of Color in Crisis and GMHC joined the crowd. There was also a large contingent from ACT UP Philadelphia.

The well-behaved crowd shouted slogans such as "No more bullshit, health care for all," "Health care for people, not for profit" and "Same old bullshit, 20 years later."

Marchers made their way from the Federal Building down to City Hall with a stop at Trinity Church (just off the World Trade Center site) through the narrow building canyons in front of the New York Stock Exchange ending up at the big bull statue at Bowling Green, long a symbol of Wall Street.

Organizers threw plastic body bags in front of the statute, two ACT UP'ers also mounted the bull and flew a banner that read "ACT UP: Health care for all."

After addressing the crowd and reporters, a group of 20 to 25 activists crossed the police barriers surrounding the Bowling Green park and laid down on the street in a "die-in." They were arrested for disrupting traffic and are currently in custody.

When it was all said and done the bull was left standing alone with a pair of condoms adorning its horns.

Additional stuff:

• Lots of photos here
• Even more photos, from a Philadelphia ACT UP'er here (courtesy of Kaytee Riek)
  
• A video of marchers going past the New York Stock Exchange here
• Rex has his take on today's march here as well as commentary about ACT UP's past - including some archive photos - here
• Michael Petrelis: "Dozens 'Die-In' at san Francisco ACT UP/Gay Shame Action in the Castro"
• Castro Die-In Demands Housing for All (SF/Bay Area Independent Media Center)
• ACT UP marks 20 years with housing protest (San Francisco Chronicle)
  

Future meetings: According to a message left tonight on my voice mail by Andrew Velez, ACT UP will mark its anniversary with a $20 celebration/fundraiser on Saturday, March 31 at 8 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street.

There will also be a follow-up organizing meeting on Thursday, April 12th at 7:30PM - also at the LGBT Community Center - for the first ever meeting of the Queer Justice League (although the name of the group is subject to change). Questions should be directed at queerjusticeleague@gmail.com.

Coverage:

• ACT UP Roars Again at 20 (Andy Humm in Gay City News)
• ACT UP returns to Wall Street with a bang (POZ Magazine)
  
• El Diario La Prensa's Photo Gallery
  
• Still Acting Up Twenty Years Later (New York magazine's "The Intelligencer")
• Arrests Taking Place at ACT UP demo - Updated (Joe.My.God)
• ACT UP 20th Anniversary March (Queer on Paper)
  
• ACT-UP's 20th Anniversary March on Wall Street (Band of Thebes)

UPDATE: The official press release puts participation at "nearly a thousand" and arrests at 27. It also has a full list of co-sponsors.

Larry Kramer: Dear Straight People...

Larry Kramer on a roll: "Dear Straight People - Why Do You Hate Gay People So Much?" (from today's Los Angeles Times)

In the meantime, Rex Wockner also has an interview with Larry here.

March 29: 20 years of ACT UP

The biggie: Demand Healthcare for people, not profit! ACT UP turns twenty.

Pedro Julio's take on yesterday's ACT UP protest

From Pedro Julio Serrano on yesterday's ACT UP protest:

Police picked Rabbi Klein- baum and Matt up off the ground and arrested them. They took them away for standing up against the immorality of an administration that has denied full citizenship to LGBT people, that has engaged in an immoral war killing hundreds of thousands and injuring many thousands more, that has been accomplice to the homophobia that destroys the moral fabric of this country. Indeed, not everything that is legal is moral and not everything that is moral is legal.

From "True Moral Leadership" over at Outspoken (yes, NGLTF's own blog).

ACT UP to General Pace: Your War is Immoral

It's been a while since I told a story in pictures. So here it goes:

Having followed the recent developments regarding the 20th anniversary of ACT UP but having yet to attend one of the planning meetings, this morning I headed over to the first of several demos being planned to mark the occasion. The reason behind it? General Peter Pace's recent comments to the Chicago Tribune in which he called homosexuality "immoral."

With home made-signs that read "Being gay is not immoral, being bigoted is," "Torture is Immoral, Love is Fabulous," "Pace = Hate," and "Don't Ask Don't Tell, General Pace Go to Hell," a lively and lovely crowd of about 200 to 250 people showed up to the protest following Larry Kramer's call to arms on Tuesday.

Kramer (top picture) was among the participants and at one point joined Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and National gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman in knocking on the door of the Times Square Armed Forces recruitment office (or "Career Center" as they call it), but they might have known that ACT UP would be showing up because the Center remained shut and no one was inside.

Rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker brought along a 100 foot flag that participants used to frame the protest and surround the recruitment center.

This was the same flag that Matt Foreman and Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum used at the end of the protest to stop traffic in an act of civil disobedience as they extended it across 7th Avenue. Mr. Foreman and Rabbi Kleinbaum were first warned by police officers and then quickly arrested after they sat down and would not budge.

The flag was also taken into custody.

As he promised after the Larry Kramer speech on Tuesday, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey also showed up (that's me next to him in the bottom pic). Actually, he was amongst the first to arrive and offered to pick up coffee for me at Starbucks, alas, by the time he got back from Starbucks the protest was in full swing. Gay City News and Gay USA reporter Andy Humm spent most of his time doing an extensive interview with the former Governor so expect a detailed report in the next issue of GCN.

ACT UP'ers seen: Andrew Velez (with a "Queer Tortilla" ACT UP shirt), Eric Rhein (who wore his gay uncle's army jacket), Ann Northrop and Eric Sawyer, among others.

As well as: Puerto Rico Para Tod@s Pedro Julio Serrano, Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto, political mavens Allen Roskoff and Alan Fleishman, cutie patootie retired detective (and former Gay Officers Action League president) Edgar Rodriguez, Sirius radio personality and author Michaelangelo Signorile, blogger Joe.My.God and some misplaced tourists who just loved all those rainbow flags and angry fags.

What other blogs are saying:

• Queer Justice League
• Rex Wockner (for whom I actually was "on assignment" today when I took the pics)
• Joe.My.God
• Towleroad
• Good As You
• Pam's House Blend
• The Mad Professor Lectures
• Miss Wild Thing
• Andrew Sullivan
• Gothamist
• It All Goes Here
• Radioactive Quill
• The Fifth Column
• The Stranger's SLOG
  

MANY, MANY MORE PICS AT MY FOTKI SITE. Please ask for permission before using.

COVERAGE:

• "American Gay Group ACT UP Resurrected as General Pace Targeted in New York" (UK Gay News)
• "Gay Rights Activists Protest Pace's Remarks" (NY1)
  

The Queer Justice League

The earth shook up a bit on Tuesday but I wonder if enough people noticed. Sure, in this blogging age you can certainly check what some thought about it.

Larry Kramer's latest speech at the standing-room only LGBT Center in commemoration of the 20th year anniversary of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) seems to be sending a few shock waves among those who were around during the seminal activist organization's glory days - and miss the good ol' direct action demonstrations that literally changed national and international policy on HIV/AIDS and saved or extended hundreds of lives. It might also be reverberating among a small group of nascent activists, including - hm - Jim McGreevey (!?).

The keepers of the flame, among them Eric Sawyer (pictured above), Ann Northrop and John Riley, had recently activated the ACT UP phone tree to gear up for the anniversary. An initial brainstorming meeting in January drew more than fifty people but the number had dwindled at recent meetings (the group had apparently had settled on "healthcare for all" as their main focus for their 20th anniversary action, which might be a laudable issue but not necessarily a sexy one).

The speech itself, christened "We are not crumbs, we must not accept crumbs" was pure Kramer if only a bit more hopeful than the last time he opened his mouth and chastised the gays (the less-well received "The Tragedy of Today's Gays" which he unveiled at Cooper Union on November 7, 2007).

You can read the text of both speeches at the above links but I'll point out that on Tuesday's speech Larry quoted Eric and said:

In the age of the internet we can do much of what we did in our meetings and on the streets, on the world wide web. The information technology available today could help end the need for those endless meetings. Creating a blog could, in fact, incorporate even more voices and varieties of opinions and ideas than any meeting ever could. Where ACT UP once had chapters in many cities, we could now involve thousands more via simple list-serves and blogs. We can draw in students and schools and colleges all over the world. It is the young we have to get to once again. Creating a blog would allow for expression and refinement of ideas and policies, like a Queer Justice League for denouncing our enemies. A well organized website could function as an electronic clearing house for sharing information, for posting problems, for demanding solutions, for developing and communicating action plans

My friend Rex actually has a link to the video of Larry Kramer's speech here as well as updates on upcoming ACT UP actions fed to him by Andy Humm here. But for up to the minute stuff you better keep your eye on the Queer Justice League. The Queer whats-a-magibit you say?

A new blog is born: Queer Justice League

Anyway, going back to McGreevey, does anyone else find it really funny that it took the former New Jersey Governor to try to get specifics from Larry? Left Behind, who was there, reflects on the moment and remembers "what it was like being a queer newbie, all excited about your first gay protest" as he more than welcomes McGreevy into the fold.

ACT UP 2005

On my voice mail last night [Anne's voice in bold]:

Hi this is Anne Northrop and Eric Sawyer [pictured above] from ACT UP calling to urge you to attend an important demonstration that can save tens of thousands of people from HIV infection. US and Ugandan government policies have caused a dramatic 10-month long condom shortage in Uganda, the African country best known for its successful HIV prevention efforts. 32 million condoms remain locked up in Uganda's governmental warehouses while the US government ramps-up abstinence-only prevention programs. Join us on Tuesday, August 30th at 1PM for the "Unlock the Condoms" demonstration outside of Uganda's Mission to the UN - 336 E 45th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues in Manhattan. Call 646 645-5225 for information. Thank you.