Any activism is only as powerful as the place where it occurs. At each place the audience, ambiance, and overall message of an activist activity will be slightly different. ACT UP is an advocacy group to peacefully fight for people who suffer from AIDS. They feel as though this epidemic has not received enough attention so they believe that it is their responsibility to help the LGBT community to educate others and help find a cure. Since millions of people were dying from the AIDS crisis, ACT UP made sure to have their voices heard and shed light on topics that were overlooked, especially throughout the 1980’s.
One of the ways that ACT UP was able to succeed with their mission was through their slightly controversial use of sacred spaces across the country. I think that sacred spaces are anywhere that people feel a connection to or that they see as a respectable institution. Throughout their existence, ACT UP has used sacred spaces to hold their activist movements. Some instances include walking into a NYC hospital to question the doctors and how hard they were trying, throwing ashes of people who passed away due to AIDS/HIV straight onto the White House lawn, as well as walking into St. Patricks Cathedral while a service was going on. The purpose of using these specific locations was to make a valid point and directly question the institutions that were not doing enough to help or even institutions that were speaking against the cause. Although coming to sacred spaces and making a statement was not usual, it was imperative for the ACT UP cause to get more attention.
ACT UP decided to incorporate sacred spaces into its actions to directly have an impact. They knew that by using spaces which people had an emotional connection to would definitely evoke a response and it would result in the exposure and attention that they desperately needed and wanted. It’s important to keep in mind that this exposure meant that there were positive as well as negative reactions. While these actions did raise awareness, some people simply couldn’t understand how the activists could dare to “invade” sacred space. Overall, ACT UP was able to succeed in their goal of creating more awareness although they may have taken the unconventional route.
The organization helped make the “unconventional route” more normal and also reinforced the idea of having your voice heard regardless of the immediate change among many people. These lessons can be applied to the Uber vs Taxicab issue that exists today in NYC and may even empower the taxicab drivers to have the issues that they face to be more well known. I think that the most effective way for the Uber vs Taxicab issue to see some reform is by using their strength in numbers, similar to how the people that were a part of ACT UP did. In addition, since it is known that Uber drivers aren’t the enemy, the company of Uber itself is, they should make sure to fight the root of the problem instead of causing more tensions between the drivers themselves. In this issue, informing the public is very critical and this was also seen done by ACT UP in numerous instances. By learning from the lessons of the past, the Uber and Taxi issue can see significant progress in its change and reform.
-R.Rasheed
