ACT-UP, or the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power, "is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals ... committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis." - from the ACT-UP/New York website.
ACT-UP was formed in March of 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Three weeks later they held their first protest on Wall Street. As of 2004 there are over 70 chapters worldwide and thousands of members. ACT-UP uses non-violent direct action and often civil disobedience to bring attention to the AIDS crisis. ACT-UP also sought to stem the spread of HIV by engaging in frank public discussions about AIDS, sexuality and sexual practices.
They are well known for their provocative demonstrations and their famous slogan/logo: "Silence = Death" with an uninverted pink triangle, which is reminiscent of the pink triangle assigned to accused homosexual men in Nazi prison and death camps.
ACTUP was effectively formed on March 10, 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York.
ACTUP held their next action at the New York City General Post Office on the night of April 15, 1987, to a "captive audience" of people filing last minute tax returns.
ACTUP, while extremely prolific and certainly effective in its heydey, suffered from extreme internal pressures over the direction of the group and of the AIDS crisis.
ACTUP, the commonly used acronym for the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, is a grassroots AIDS organization associated with nonviolent civil disobedience.
ACTUP also demanded the creation and implementation of a federal needle-exchange program, called for a federally controlled and funded program of condom distribution at the local level, and asked for a serious sex education program in primary and secondary schools to be created and monitored by the federal Department of Education.
ACTUP members have established needle-exchange programs, which are now widely accepted as having contributed to a decrease in the rate of HIV infection among both injecting drug users and their sexual partners.
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