How To Survive A Plague recounts the story of Act Up during the 1980s, when the LGBT community dedicated themselves to ending the Aids crisis and demanded treatment they deserved. Greenwich Village became the epicenter for the movement, and members of the organization were determined to rid society of the sentiment that, as the movie states, gay people deserved Aids and the discrimination that accompanied it by being denied treatment. Sick patients could go four days in a hospital without a bed because the hospitals had incentives not to diagnose, and as a result, people died every single day.
The use of “sacred spaces” in their movement was critical to the success of Act Up. The first example we saw was when the organization protested in front of City Hall, all chanting that, “The government has blood on their hands” and that, “Silence is death”. Then of course medical institutions and hospitals were targeted by Act Up because they wanted to challenge the idea that these places were legitimate in calling themselves sacred, being they withheld treatment to those suffering from Aids. Then there was the extremely moving clip of people pouring their loved one’s ashes on the grass of the White House because Raegan and Bush were responsible for their deaths, and lastly, we saw Act Up protest in the Catholic Church, blaming them for murdering the gay community as well.
This movement was so powerful because of this strategy of theirs to target sacred spaces and to challenge the underlying foundation of all these institutions. Though the government, hospitals and religion pride themselves on being fair and just to all, Act Up was publicly showing that all were failing in their duties regarding the Aids crisis, and no one should be exempt or justified in their actions. And even though they may have widened the gap between the LGBT community and the Church, their efforts were still effective because the media coverage allowed them to reach a far greater amount of people than those within the Church who disagreed with them.
All movements, including the one against police brutality, can learn from Act Up. It is important to try and influence the people who are ignorant, uninformed, or even neutral regarding the matter. Trying to sway extremists is often ineffective and won’t be successful. However, members of Act Up knew that they could influence people because of the attention they would receive since their actions were done publicly. It is this strategic type of activism that has the potential to implement real change in society, just like it did during the Aids crisis.
Molly Ottensoser
