Showing posts with label ACT UP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACT UP. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Bill de Blasio, New York Liberals, and the Veal Pen (Updated)

PUBLISHED : WED, 08 JAN 2014, 11:11 PM
UPDATED : MON, 21 APR 2014, 04:10 PM

A moment of truth for "liberals" in New York City, as they are corralled into veal pens.

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Calves have no choice and would certainly not volunteer to be trapped in veal pens, where cattle factory farmers intend for calves to atrophy into valuable sources of veal, but liberals in New York City, following the lead of liberals in Washington, DC, check into proverbial political veal pens, eager to take their stated, if cramped, place with conscious volition.

The backroom selection of Melissa Mark-Viverito as City Council speaker on January 8 signaled the end, according to The New York Times, of "weeks of bitter, behind-the-scenes jockeying among county political leaders, union officials and others, who tussled over the speakership using such municipal prizes as committee chairs and patronage jobs as bargaining chips," adding that before Ms. Mark-Viverito was unanimously selected, there had been "rumors up until the noontime vote of a possible floor fight." Although the discord was real, it was safest to tussle in private, because none of the backroom fighters carried on their battles outside of the restrictive confines of the veal pen. There were certainly some expressions of exasperation shared with the media, but for the most part, the large activists groups, good government groups, corporations, and even billionaire business leaders publicly kept mum. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....? Why was that ?

The Mayor Of Magical Thinking

When Mayor Bill de Blasio argued for a special income tax surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers, a tax that is certainly needed to help fund a needed expansion of social services, he said that the income tax surcharge was needed because the annual budget dance of proposed service cuts and minimal budget restorations would make pre-kinder students unnecessary political victims of the vicious annual city budget negotiation process. “When the budget cuts come, children are often the first to take the hit. The vulnerable take the hit,” Mayor de Blasio said. Little did he own up to the fact that now that he's in charge at City Hall, it would be Mayor de Blasio, who would throw pre-kinder students under the bus. (It's the mayor, who plays the leading role in the annual budget dance, a sleazy process where the mayor first proposes budget cuts, then the Council speaker pretends to put on a show to restore the budget cuts, and then once the budget passes, the cuts are restored, and the City Council get to look like heroes, even though this process makes it impossible for city agencies and community groups dependent on city grants to adequately plan any kind of medium-term fundraising or long-term budgets.) Even though the mayor is proposing that the high income tax surcharge be dedicated to expanding pre-kinder, the mayor's failed to propose any budgetary mechanism to ensure that the mayor and the City Council don't cut other areas of public education during the annual budget dance. What does earmarking a dedicated revenue stream for pre-kinder mean if funding for kinder remains insecure ? Seems like it's almost double-speak to make such a big deal about ring-fencing the monies from the high income tax surcharge, doesn't it, if it leaves kindergarden students at risk for budget cuts ?

It's precisely because of this sick and twisted annual budget dance that homeless youths have grown wary of the shady municipal budget negotiations : a few brave homeless youths have turned to the Legal Aid Society to make a full, legal demand for the complete resources to finally provide shelter to homeless youths rather than take a risk that the new mayor will force homeless youth shelters to play along with the disingenuous annual budget dance. More on this shortly.

Going into today's speakership selection, Mayor de Blasio had received resounding criticism from the Editorial Boards of The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, and even amNew York. An anonymous attack video catching Mayor de Blasio in actual hypocrisy over having criticised former Council Speaker Christine Quinn for having been former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's puppet only to want to install his own puppet in the municipal legislature went viral.

Some bloggers dared to stick their necks out, but they were not joined by any large activist groups. The two good government groups in New York City, for their part, either danced on the graves of the County Bosses or issued toothless Cover-Your-Ass editorials, never mind that the deposition of the County Bosses is only replacing one corrupt political machine for another. But for the most part, given the mixed messaging, folks essentially stayed in the familiar surroundings of the veal pen.

Some Calves Refuse To Take Their Place In The Veal Pens

With the exception of the police reform protest group New Yorkers Against Bratton, the pro bono service agency Legal Aid Society, and the AIDS activist group ACT UP, many activists say that they will keep Mayor de Blasio accountable, but they agree to stay put in their veal pens.

For weeks before the new mayor was inaugurated, a group of activists seeking to fully end stop-and-frisk in New York City came together to protest and reject the appointment of William Bratton as the new NYPD commissioner. Even though the new mayor had campaigned to "end the stop-and-frisk era," the mayor appointed the man widely credited as the architect of stop-and-frisk, Mr. Bratton. The group has been the leading force to keep Mayor de Blasio accountable to his biggest broken campaign promise thus far.

Two days before the new mayor was publicly sworn into office on the steps of City Hall, the Legal Aid Society filed a federal lawsuit against the City of New York, demanding the full resources to provide shelter to homeless youth. They did so, because the New York City budget never before provided the full resources to make shelter available to homeless youth, as required by law, because before the Legal Aid Society stepped forward, all the homeless advocacy groups had remained in their veal pens like good little calves. The Legal Aid Society, tired of the annual budget dance of proposed cuts and minimal restorations, decided that homeless youth shouldn't become political victims to the way City Hall and City Council probably plan to only concentrate on social service groups or causes that hire The Advance Group as their lobbyists.

Like the Legal Aid Society, ACT UP sees the writing on the wall : they'd been patiently waiting in the veal pen for the last few months, stretching back to before the mayoral primary, hoping to get a meeting with the mayor's campaign team, then his transition team, and now his administration team. But the mayor has not deigned to receive AIDS activists, to hear out their demands for a comprehensive city-wide AIDS agenda that begins by appointing a responsive city health commissioner.

When too much time passed, ACT UP broke free of the veal pen, and they protested outside of the mayor's inauguration ceremony.

"By Your Command" : The Calves Know That The Veal Pen Is Guarded From The Inside

When Mayor de Blasio saw that the Legal Aid Society was challenging it on government policy, how did the de Blasio administration respond ? The mayor recruited the top attorney at the Legal Aid Society, Steve Banks, into his administration. To further neutralize the field of outside activism, the de Blasio administration also lured the noted government reformer Lincoln Restler and at least three Spanish language journalists : Maibe Ponet, Roberto Perez, and Erica Gonzalez into the veal pen, just to be sure. Other activist groups have folded, like Queers for Economic Justice and the Brecht Forum, because now that a Democratic mayor has taken office, entrenched political interests don't want to encourage political pressure from the Left. A large foundation that funds non-profit community groups, the North Star Fund, accepted monies from lobbyists loyal to the mayor, Dan Levitan, a vice president at BerlinRosen, told The New York Times. For the few activists and community groups, which do not fold before the mayor's pressures to impose his top-down policies, there are growing numbers of civic leaders, who are being silenced and rendered immobile by the veal pen.

In contrast to the bold leadership of New Yorkers Against Bratton, two former prominent critics of stop-and-frisk have actually turned their backs on the overwhelming community demand to keep the NYPD accountable. After the Bratton appointment was announced, Councilmembers Ydanis Rodriquez and Jumaane Williams said that they supported the controversial appointment, leading to a sense of betrayal among police reform activists. Even the notoriously independent head of the NYCLU, Donna Leiberman, has climbed into the veal pen. Police reforms that the prior police commissioner never adopted remain outstanding, and Ms. Leiberman has not dared to confront the new police commissioner with the NYCLU's recommendations made following the massive 2003 anti-war protest and the 2004 Republic National Convention. Supposedly, the police department enacted some reforms in 2008, but the NYPD's promises were short-lived, because reforms of controversial police tactics were proven to be situational. Witness the police's militaristic response to Occupy Wall Street.

The message being telegraphed to the community is clear : climb into your veal pen and shut up.

Similarly, the LGBT poster child of police entrapment and unconstitutional sexual orientation profiling, Robert Pinter, has disappeared from any public demonstrations condemning the new police commissioner. Prior to the selection of Mr. Bratton, Mr. Pinter had visibly taken part in demonstrations calling for reform of the NYPD, including having once called for the end of stop-and-frisk. Apparently now, Mr. Pinter takes cues on police issues from Bratton-enablers.

Even Yetta Kurland, who I love, because she saved my job for me when they were trying to fire me at Credit Suisse, does not want to encourage ''left leaning friends'' who ''bemoan'' the appointment of the controversial new NYPD commissioner. The message is clear : the new mayor's supporters want to silence critics.

Other activists noted for their work during the primary campaign have also become muted.

The activist-administrator of one very active Twitter account keeping tabs on the corrupt Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo from the Bronx in the time leading up to the municipal primary elections, @arroyowatch now seems to want to stop short of calling for reforms, and only seems content with changes in figurehead politicians without getting to the root of the broken political system.

Separately, in an article in Gay City News, Charles King, the CEO of Housing Works, said of Mayor de Blasio, "I think the community needs to hold his feet to the fire," but Mr. King's done nothing to actually hold the mayor's feet to the fire.

When a corrupt lobbyist tied to both Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito was exposed for working to defeat LGBT candidates for the City Council, no LGBT civil rights group dared speak out against the politically-connected bigot. Indeed, a corresponding Change.org petition only attracted a few signatures. At today's selection of the new Council speaker, LGBT Councilmembers voted for Ms. Mark-Viverito, even though she had rigorously defended her close working relationship with the bigot lobbyist.

The LGBT community fought so hard to come out of the closet only to, out of political expediency, climb into the veal pen.

Animal rights activists used to carry the banner against the corrupt record of Speaker Quinn, but now they are quick to denounce any activist who tries to hold the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration accountable for delivering reforms.

Even powerful business leaders, seeking to do billions of dollars worth of "business" with New York City, have obediently kept quiet, "saying they are worried about the consequences of offending the mayor," wrote two City Hall reporters for The New York Times.

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The Council speaker takes her post in the veal pen.

The prospect of Speaker Mark-Viverito, who was an organiser with the 1199SEIU, the healthcare union that backed Mr. de Blasio's winning mayoral campaign, serving hand-in-hand with the mayor has been invoked by big business interests in the manner of a menacing scare tactic : the rich are going to leave New York City in droves, business are going to close and move to Florida, and the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration is going to choke off enterprising new businesses from forming in an era of leftist over-regulation, like a planned nominal expansion of the paid sick leave law. Ms. Mark-Viverito also owes her speakership to the interventions of Mayor de Blasio. When some activists criticised the mayor's violation of separation of powers to advance Ms. Mark-Viverito's speakership, they weren't invoking "checks and balances" to help prop up a big business agenda, as some claim, but to, instead, question Speaker Mark-Viverito's resolution to challenge the mayor on controversial neoliberal moves, like the Bratton appointment or the decision to embrace a close relationship with real estate developers. The new mayor has a failed record of fighting for affordable housing in connection with large, controversial zone-busting development deals, like at the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The tragic irony is that for everybody supporting a Democratic take-over of both Gracie Mansion and City Council, Speaker Mark-Viverito may not have the courage to openly challenge the mayor to deliver a truly progressive reform agenda that would include letting the calves know that they could very easily walk out, free from the confines of the veal pen. One need not look any further to how councilmembers refused to either criticise the Bratton appointment or to call for campaign finance reforms following the various scandals tied to the lobbying firm, The Advance Group.

In New York City, the calves get just enough water and feed brought to them that they willingly accept the inhumane conditions of their own existence, and they lash out at anybody trying to fix this system of atrophy and waste. Politicians, like factory farm ranchers, have successfully conditioned voters to mistakenly think that this is all there can be, too, except for the few brave calves who have learned to break free of the veal pen.

As was seen with Ms. Mark-Viverito's successful speaker race, even after the Editorial Boards of four major newspapers challenged the mayor and the Council speaker, the calves still defended their place in the veal pen. What will it take for them to escape this prison of their own making ?

Thursday, January 2, 2014

ACT UP Protest at Bill de Blasio Inauguration

ACT UP Protest at Bill de Blasio Inauguration

On Wed. Jan. 1, 2014, at 11AM, ACT UP protested the inauguration of newly-elected mayor, Bill De Blasio, for his refusal to meet with community groups regarding HIV and AIDS since the election. De Blasio's AIDS platform is vague at best, but his appointment to the city's Health Commissioner COULD reverse rising HIV infections in at-risk communities like young men who have sex with men and trans women and men.

WE NEED a new Health Commissioner. The current one, Tom Farley, has ignored HIV/AIDS for the past 4 years and is actively deterring use of current HIV prevention tools, like PEP and PrEP.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Bill de Blasio never got back to me about his AIDS platform in August

Did Bill de Blasio exploit the LGBT community for votes, only to dump core community issues now that he's gotten elected ?

After mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio took advantage of a few LGBT celebrities to undermine Christine Quinn's LGBT base of support, it appears that Mr. de Blasio was all talk and no action.

After several attempts at getting a meeting with Mr. de Blasio, who will be sworn in as the next mayor of New York City in just two hours, word comes forth of a planned protest by ACT UP at the mayor-elect's public swearing-in ceremony, it seems that the mayor-elect has brushed off any sincerity about proposing a truly reform agenda to help end the decades of official municipal neglect on a core LGBT issue: ending the HIV/AIDS crisis.

➔ RSVP : ACT UP Protests Bill de Blasio's Mayoral Inauguration

Below is the unanswered e-mail I sent to the de Blasio campaign. I was later told by supporters/enablers that I was too controversial of an activist for Mr. de Blasio to ever respond to my query.

Not enough attention has been paid to all of President Barack Obama's political operatives, who have had hand in the mayor elect's campaign and transition teams. The mayor elect's exploitation of the LGBT voting block resembles President Obama's corrupt playbook. Candidate Obama promised to pass comprehensive LGBT workplace protections, but has thus far refused to sign a presidential executive order. Former President Bill Clinton famously curried the LGBT vote, only to betray the LGBT community by passing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and enacting the military's discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

When will the LGBT community wake up and stop getting exploited for cheap election year gimmicks ?

Begin forwarded message:


From: "LF (g-Male)"
Subject: Ed Koch and HIV/AIDS
Date: 1 août 2013 15:49:42 UTC-04:00
To: bill@billdeblasio.com, veday1945@aol.com
Cc: "LF (g-Male)"


Hi,

I saw on the Internet that Bill de Blasio praised former NYC Mayor Ed Koch as one of our "greatest mayor" :

http://politicker.com/2013/02/bill-de-blasio-is-a-little-sick-of-bloombergs-royal-reign/

I hope you know that Ed Koch is seen as a failed LGBT leader for having done nothing to stop the initial outbreak of HIV from becoming the AIDS pandemic we all now know. Because he was afraid to come out of the closet, he let thousands of people die, especially gay men. Former Mayor Koch refused to take bold action during the 1980's out of fear of being associated with gay issues. He was and still is seen as a self-hating, closeted gay man.

So, it seemed astounding that Mr. de Blasio would praise former Mayor Koch.

If Mr. de Blasio is going to try to court the LGBT vote, we hope to hear from him soon about details of his plans to step up HIV/AIDS prevention, improving access to prevention/treatment medication, and other steps that he plans to take as part of his HIV/AIDS plan.

I'm writing this note independently, but I plan to share it with a few activists. So, I plan to share your response with some of my activist friends, too.

Thanks,
-- Louis


Louis Flores
1 (646) 400-1168
lflores22@gmail.com

Bill de Blasio appoints AIDS criminal to advisory post

Bill de Blasio just appointed Stanley Brezenoff, who formerly ran the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) during the 1980's under the late Mayor Ed Koch, to be an unpaid advisor to the First Deputy Mayor. This is the same man, who did shit under Mayor Koch to fight AIDS.

Scott Levenson, who has close ties to Bill de Blasio, was paid to defeat several LGBT City Council Candidates

Sign our Change.org Petition : Bill de Blasio : Do not attend NYCLASS fundraiser to benefit Scott Levenson

WATCH : Will LGBT Groups Protest Scott Levenson for Anti-Gay Attack Ads ? (YouTube)

The Advance Group, which is providing unpaid consultants to Mark-Viverito, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates. (The New York Daily News) Did Scott Levenson sabotage LGBT civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ? (Scott Levenson : Biggest Loser Of The Week * NY Pop Culture & Politics)

E-mail me if you would like to plan a protest against Scott Levenson : louisflores (at) louisflores (dot) com

… the Advance Group's work on behalf of City Action Coalition-backed candidates conflicted with its work for two of its own council clients. And the outside work for the teachers union raises another potential conflict: the Advance Group not only produced mailers promoting Manhattan council candidate Yetta Kurland for the NYCLASS independent expenditure, but Strategic Consultants produced mailers touting her opponent, Corey Johnson, that were paid for by the teachers union. Mr. Johnson won the primary. (Teachers union paid $370K to fake consultant * Crain's Insider)

Why aren't the LGBT civil rights activists protesting against Scott Levenson and his "anti-gay agenda" ? And how can LGBT civil rights activists stay quiet while Ms. Mark-Viverito uses a political consulting operation that hires itself out to work against candidates specifically based on their identity ? This is discrimination and prejudice. How can Mr. Levenson and Ms. Mark-Viverito call themselves "progressives," yet enable bigotry ?

Thursday, September 19, 2013

VIDEO : Robin Hood Tax Rally and March (NYC) - OWS S17 2013

Pass the Robin Hood Tax ! Robin Hood Tax March (NYC) - Occupy Wall Street S17 2013 : Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (financial transaction tax) and march to JPMorgan (London Whale), MTA (interest rate swap), and Bryant Park (union rally).

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

ACT UP Will Protest Mt. Sinai Over HIV/AIDS Medication Discrimination

Updated : Video of ACT UP Protest Against Mt. Sinai's denial of PEP treatment.

ACT UP Calls For July 17 Protest Against Mt. Sinai Hospital

From EDGE New York :

As the result of an alleged case of HIV discrimination, ACT UP has called all activists to gather in front of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan at noon on Wednesday, July 17. The planned demonstration is the consequence of an event that occurred over the July 4th weekend, when the hospital reportedly refused to treat a man who came into the emergency room requesting Post Exposure Phrophylaxis for possible exposure to HIV.

"Emergency room personnel at Mt. Sinai incorrectly informed the man that there was no such treatment," read their July 16 press release. "The man contacted ACT UP/New York who intervened on his behalf with Mt. Sinai. Precious time was lost -- approximately two hours -- before the hospital treated him."

Read more : ACT UP Calls For July 17 Protest Against Mt. Sinai Hospital

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Ed Koch and the AIDS Crisis - A Historical Fact Checking Duel Between NYT and YouTube Videos

In response to the biased "praises" and instant beatification of Ed Koch, I made a YouTube video set to music by Dalida, to help visualise former Mayor Ed Koch's complete failure on the AIDS crisis.

My video was made in response to the video promoted by The New York Times, which whitewashes any responsibility or culpability of the AIDS crisis away from former Mayor Ed Koch :

I'd love to hear what folks think ?

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Ed Koch, the Closet, Neoliberalism, and AIDS

From The Nation

The instant beatification of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch has a lot of folks itching to do some grave dancing. Leftists will denounce Koch because he was one of the original neoliberal mayors, ushering in a regime of gentrification and finance-driven inequality that defines the city to this day. Minorities regard him with suspicion because he marginalized the city’s black and Hispanic leadership and inflamed racial fault lines to corner the white vote, presaging the Sister Souljah moments that would come to afflict the national Democratic Party. And yet even there, among the new Democrats, Koch was never a stalwart, breaking with the party to endorse George W. Bush for president in 2004 and flirting with the neocons over Israel late in his life.

All that said, there is a special place reserved for Koch in gay hell—because he was mayor during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, which he is widely seen as failing to do enough about, and because it’s commonly assumed that Koch was a closeted gay man. “I hope he’s burning next to Roy Cohn”—or sentiments quite like it—have appeared frequently on my Facebook feed, especially from vets of ACT UP. ...

Read more : Ed Koch and the Cost of the Closet (The Nation)

Friday, February 1, 2013

Ed Koch dies unforgiven by AIDS activists (except by Christine Quinn, who is turning his death into a crass voter outreach opportunity).

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From Gay Star News :

After lesbian NYC mayoral candidate Christine C. Quinn released a statement calling Koch a 'great mayor' and a 'great man,' LGBT activists pounced. Among those critical of Quinn is Peter Staley, one of the key members of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) whose activism and innovation is credited with playing a crucial role in HIV-AIDS going from a death sentence to a manageable condition with the help of certain drugs.

'I'm supporting Christine Quinn for mayor, but this mass email she just sent out is completely tone deaf to the generation of gay New Yorkers who worked tirelessly to throw (Koch) out of office (and we succeeded),' Staley writes in a Facebook post. 'We will never forget his contemptible legacy of neglect during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis.'

Read more : Former New York Mayor Ed Koch dies at 88 unforgiven by AIDS activists. Many say he was closeted gay man who didn’t do anything on AIDS when his constituents were dying of disease.

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REALITY CHECK : Christine Quinn is not tone deaf. Instead, she is taking for granted that the LGBT community will vote for her. Therefore, she is taking us for granted. She is playing politics with Mayor Koch's AIDS responsibility in order to appeal to voters in the run-up to this election year. When will people wake up to this fact ?

Ed Koch, 88, Dies - AIDS Controversy - Memorial Tweets

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

AIDS Activists Storm Boehner's Office

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Naked Truth about AIDS Budget Cuts

AIDS activists entered the office of Speaker of the House John Boehner and demanded no budget cuts to domestic or global AIDS programs. Protesters also called for a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street trades.


Video streaming by Ustream

Activists chanted, "Boehner, Boehner don't be a d-ck, budget cuts will make us sick."

“The naked truth is that if President Obama and Congressional leaders like Speaker Boehner allow these budget cuts to lifesaving programs, global health programs will lose $689 million, while domestic AIDS programs will lose $538 million,” said Eustacia Smith from ACT UP New York, according to the group's press release. (Queerty).

United States of America HIV & AIDS Statistics

From Avert.org :

1.2 million people are living with HIV in the United States of America, with a fifth unaware of their status. Since the epidemic began, an estimated 1,129,127 people in the USA have been diagnosed with AIDS.

During 2010 : (i) 47,129 people were diagnosed with HIV infection in the 46 states which report diagnoses ; and (ii) 33,015 people throughout the USA were diagnosed with AIDS.

The activists today took the radical step of stripping naked to draw attention to the negative consequences that healthcare cuts will create for Americans. The "Fiscal Cliff" of automatic budget cuts will reduce billions of dollars from healthcare and other social services and safety net programs, which would severely impact people living with HIV and AIDS, activists say. A Robin Hood Tax would create new sources of revenue for the government to fund health, social services, and safety net programs.

Seven Risk Arrest in a Naked Protest in Speaker Boehner’s Longworth Office

Washington, DC: Tuesday, November 27, a few days before World AIDS Day, seven AIDS activists entered House Speaker Boehner’s Office and stripped naked demanding a meeting with the Congressmember. The activists from Queerocracy, ACT UP NY, and ACT UP Philadelphia painted slogans on their bodies instead of holding signs: “AIDS Cuts Kill” and “Fund PEPFAR, Fund Ryan White, Fund Global Fund, Fund Medicaid, Fund HOPWA.”

“When you strip away the rhetoric of the fiscal cliff and the grand bargain, you see that these terms are a way to thinly veil draconian budget cuts that will leave millions around the world with absolutely nothing,” said Cassidy Gardner from Queerocracy.

Police arrested three activists for indecent exposure : Cassidy Gardner - 23 yrs old, from NYC, Community Organizer for Queerocracy ; Megan Mulholland - 23 yrs old, from NYC, Community Organizer for Queerocracy ; and Jennifer Flynn - 40 yrs old, from Rhode Island, from Health GAP. The ACT UP NY website reported that the three arrested individuals were later released.

Read more : AIDS Activists Expose Themselves And The Naked Truth About AIDS Budget Cuts

ACT UP/NY Will Protest Against Fiscal Cliff Budget Cuts In Washington

Follow today's actions in Washington, DC on Ustream :


Video streaming by Ustream

ACT UP/NY is planning a pre-World AIDS Day action in Washington, DC to prevent AIDS budget cuts. We will march with activists from other ACT UP chapters, V.O.C.A.L. New York, Housing Works, and Queerocracy demanding that Congress not touch AIDS/Healthcare spending.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Protest at Al Smith Dinner Against Budget Cuts

Hundreds of activists comprised of members of Healthcare for the 99% Working Group of Occupy Wall Street, PNHP, ACT UP, the Granny Peace Brigade, Occupy Queens, OCCU EVOLVE, and other groups protest against impending budget cuts to Medicare and healthcare across the street from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where President Obama and Mitt Romney were participating in the annual Al Smith Wall Street fundraiser.

ACT UP activists also rallied in support of a Financial Transaction Tax to raise money to pay for healthcare and treatments to break the HIV infection curve and end AIDS.

Activists first started a moving picket on the sidewalk in front of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, but police closed the public sidewalk to only registered guests of the hotel and to persons paying at least $2,500 to have dinner at the annual Al Smith Wall Street fundraiser.

Inside the hotel, President Obama and Mitt Romney dined on a luxurious menu that included poached lobster tail and dark chocolate tropical fruit cadeau ; meanwhile, due to the fact that Democrats and Republicans refuse to raise taxes on the top 1% of income earners, the federal government faces draconian budget cuts to core programs, such as Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Bloomberg AIDS Protesters Arrested

People with AIDS under attack. What do we do ? Act up, fight back !

Nine protesters were arrested during the morning of December 1 for blocking traffic outside Mayor Michael Bloomberg's World AIDS Day Bagel Breakfast at the Brooklyn Public Library, reported The New York Times.

World AIDS Day Bloomberg Bagel Boycott Protest from Housing Works on Vimeo.