Ah, memories.
Shortly after I moved to Toronto — in large part to join the articulate, angry, political fruits I’d read about (as a protohomo coming of age in Calgary) in the pages of The Body Politic — I started visiting New York regularly and attending ACT-UP and Queer Nation meetings. I’m not ashamed to admit they were as politically invigorating as they were cruisy. I mean, really, a bunch of muscled, unshaven, East Village hotsters in sleeveless flannel shirts, army shorts and Doc Martens? Dude. Dude.
Turns out I’m not the only one reminiscing this week, as ELeven reports on a special gathering in New York this Friday, called “EXPRESSION = LIFE: ACT UP, VIDEO AND THE AIDS CRISIS”, featuring veteran members of ACT UP, filmmakers, and media theorists. Eric also links to an ACT-UP Oral History Project, with some terrific interviews from some of my personal heroes, especially the awesome Larry Kramer, who never fails to piss off and always manages to be right. (Like it needs mentioning, Leven himself is brimming with all the stuff that turned me on to — and at — ACT-UP and Queer Nation “actions”.)
And while my previous post on Russell T. Davies name-checked the U.K. version of Queer Nation — OutRage! — Michelangelo Signorile remembers this week his first encounter with Pope Ratzi and his entrée into queer activism:
One night I was in a bar with my good friend Michael Musto, the Village Voice gossip columnist, when two hot, chiseled guys chatted us up. They talked a bit about AIDS and told us we should come to ACT UP – the AIDS activist group that would become legendary for its protests and which eventually changed the course of the response to the epidemic. When they moved on, Michael, who’d been more politically aware about the government response to the epidemic, suggested we go to the group.
“We can’t go there,” I shot back. “This group is radical. They protest. They get arrested!”
“Yeah,” Musto replied with a smile, “But these guys are cute.”
So we went to ACT UP.
Read the rest of it. No, do. Mike (and his fellow OutWeek columnist Michael Goff (and Larry Kramer)) and that whole, burgeoning, electric, activist scene are a big part of who your host here at This.That.No Other. is today. History won’t be superkind to the Canadian versions of these activist organizations, with their procedural in-fighting and identity-politics clusterfucks and yet… here we are, able to get totally gay-married and stuff. We can’t have been completely ineffectual.
Just remember: the forces which hated us before, hate us still. It’s the middle that’s shifted.
Still, the early-’90s protests and grassroots networking were pretty awesome in those first months. Some weeks were harder than others to schedule, with friends up and dying at the most inopportune times and whatnot. I’ll never forget the protests at the Ontario Legislature over Bill 167 and that fleeting solidarity and anger and outrage. And I’ve still got the fuckin’ tee-shirt, too.
4 comments
There was a weekly show in the early 90s on either bbc2 or channel 4 in the UK called “OUT” and they would report on Queer Nation and ACT UP activities in the states and that’s where I was turned on to Larry Kramer and Michelangelo Signorile and as a young teen queer I was so fucking inspired by them. And by Ian McKellen in an OUTRAGE t-shirt on channel 4 news demanding an equal age of consent.
And seriously , one of these days I will steal that Incite Queerness shirt from you. I’ve been coveting it for years.
You’ll take my tee when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers, Q.
I was in Montreal when that city held a big AIDS conference. I remember AIDS funding for lesbians was the politically correct protest at the time. Hanging around, watching the proceedings, I saw a beautiful blond guy in a black leather jacket. His name tag said “Patrick”. I was too shy to try to approach someone so hot. I saw him later at a club, but was still too insecure.
Leafing through MacLean’s magazine later, I saw a picture of him leading the charge to take the stage while PM Mulroney was giving his speech. He was from New York I know somehow. I’ve never forgot how beautiful he was and wonder if he is still with us.
[...] visitors to This. That. No Other. know that my brand of cranky activism owes a huge debt to the likes of Larry Kramer and Michelangelo Signorile. Y’all also know of my enormous affection for and admiration of my New York bloggerbuddy Eric [...]