ACT UP FoundationAIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is a direct action advocacy group working towards helping the lives of those with AIDS and was formed in March 1987. The group was formed by Larry Kramer at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Centre in New York, he gave a speech about how to fight AIDS and spoke out against the Gay Mens Health Crisis, a group that he had co-founded but resigned from in 1983 for being politically incompetent. A few days after his speech, he and over 300 people met to form ACT UP. The motto for the group is Silence = Death, as the group focused to bring about legislation, research and treatment in order to bring an end to the disease.
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ActionsShortly after the group was formed, a demonstration on Wall Street took place on March 24 1987 where around 250 ACT UP members demanded greater access to experimental AIDS drugs. They were protesting against the pharmaceutical companies who made large profits on overpriced and largely inaccessible AIDS drugs. 17 members were arrested during the protest and were charged with civil disobedience and were ordered to pay fines. Exactly one year later they returned to Wall Street with a larger number of people, resulting in over 100 arrests. The following year in September, 7 ACT UP members chained themselves to the VIP balcony of Wall Street to protest the high price of the only approved AIDS drug, that costed approximately $10000 per person per year, which was nearly impossible for all HIV/AIDS patients. In the days that followed this protest, the cost was cut almost in half to $6400 per patient per year. By far the most prolific ACT UP protest took place on December 10th 1989 at St Patricks Cathedral in New York. ACT UP disagreed with Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor's views of homosexuality and his public stance against safe sex education in New York Public Schools. The protest was called the first Stop The Church protest where around 4500 ACT UP members attended mass at the cathedral. Around 50 people entered the Cathedral and began to chant slogans interrupting mass and lying down in the aisles. Over 100 people were arrested but only minor charges were filed and no jail time was ordered. These demonstrations were very extreme but still featured a large amount of protestors mainly because most of the protestors were suffering from either HIV or AIDS and could not offered the treatments.
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