In the lengthy Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, author Sarah Schulman documents and analyzes the ideals, actions, successes and failures of the people who made up the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power.
How ACT UP Shook the Straight Power Structure
Sarah Schulman has written the most comprehensive political history ever assembled of ACT UP and AIDS activism in the U.S.
The accomplishments of the direct-action HIV organization, ACT UP, are staggering.
Over the course of six years, from 1987 to 1993, ACT UP designed a fast-track system where those who were sick could access unapproved experimental drugs, ran a four-year campaign to force the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its definition of those at risk for AIDS to include women, made needle exchange legal in New York City, started Housing Works, a service for homeless people with HIV that exists to this day, ended insurance exclusion for people with AIDS, reconceptualized what effective treatment looks like, and in the process redefined how the world thought about people with HIV and the larger LGBTQ+ community.
By Jules Boykoff
Mr. Boykoff is a political scientist who studies the Olympics. He is the author of âPower Games: A Political History of the Olympics.â
The Tokyo Olympics are in big trouble. Postponed by a year and slated to begin in July, the Olympics have become a political flash point in Japan, where almost 60 percent of the population opposes staging the Games this summer and where less than 2 percent of the population is vaccinated for Covid-19.
The International Olympic Committee, local Olympic organizers and Japanâs ruling party maintain that the Games must go on, even amid pandemic conditions. As Covid cases surged in Japan in January, Thomas Bach, the I.O.C.âs president, said he had âno reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on July 23.â He added, âThere is no Plan B.â
Storm the NIH ACT UP Action, May 1990 / Image: NIH History Office
Sarah Schulman’s new history of AIDS activism group ACT UP NY is a definitive and instructive history of how outsiders forced the government to accept that they mattered.
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993
Sarah Schulman
Let the Record Show, Sarah Schulman’s monumental new history of ACT UP New York, is a war chronicle in which the teller is both scribe and veteran. Schulman joined the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) a few months after it was founded in 1987. At that point, six years into the crisis, there were an estimated 500,000 people living with HIV in the United States alone, there were still no effective medical treatments, and the U.S. government’s anemic response to the pandemic was a toxic cocktail of homophobia and hysteria.
TRAVEL: The return of Provincetown
May 9, 2021 |
From Staff reports
The summer season is around the corner, and Provincetown is ready to welcome visitors, the city’s leaders say. From LGBTQ-themed weeks with COVID-compliant events to enjoying a poolside cabaret singer to outdoor attractions like whale-watching, picnicking on the beach, dune tours, and bike-riding, to a getaway focused on wellness and tranquility there are so many ways to experience a Provincetown vacation.
And the small businesses of Provincetown, supported by the Provincetown Business Guild, are planning a myriad of fun ways to enjoy your summer in America’s original LGBTQ destination.