On Friday, July 27, 2018, ACT UP NY went to the Whitney Museum’s evening hours and stood silently next to specific artworks in both the Incomplete History of Protest and David Wojnarowicz exhibits, holding framed recent news articles about the HIV/AIDS epidemic that were formatted to look like museum plaques.
Our goal was to connect these otherwise excellent exhibits to the current, ongoing struggle against HIV/AIDS which was left out, and which is continually glossed over not only by arts institutions, but also by governments and through public ignorance.
Many patrons were upset when they realized they were only getting half the story. Dozens of shocked museum-goers spoke to and photographed each of us and our plaques. One woman plaintively asked, “How can we teach kids about HIV when teachers and adults still don’t know anything about HIV?” People gasped about HIV rates in American communities of color, and about the President firing the entire Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Teenagers and young women, pulled in by the recent dates and the presence of living humans, stood and read and asked questions about this complex subject.
In other words, in just one hour, we facilitated hundreds of short, personal conversations and revelations about dozens of ongoing HIV issues.
Read our full statement for more on this action.
“America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa, The New York Times, June 6, 2017
“Transgender Honduran woman’s death in US ‘ice box’ detention prompts outcry” by Carla Green, The Guardian, May 31, 2018
“The Battle for Truvada” by Daniel Summers, Slate, May 31, 2018
“For Gays, the Worst Is Yet to Come. Again.” by Larry Kramer, The New York Times, July 11, 2018
ACT UP Mission Statement, 1987–present
“Trump’s migrant fiasco diverts millions from health programs” by Dan Diamond, Politico, July 18, 2018
“Trump’s Gag Rule and Alarm Over HIV Pill Are Partners in Sex Panic” by Sarit A. Golub, Village Voice, June 11, 2018
“Trump administration fires all members of HIV/AIDS advisory council” by Ben Guarino, Washington Post, December 29, 2017
“Stigma may keep women from using HIV-prevention drugs” by Shereen Lehman, Reuters, June 14, 2018
“Jail to Pay $27,500 to Inmate Who Was Isolated for Having HIV” by Trenton Straube, POZ Magazine, April 2, 2018
“Infected and Invisible” by Noreen Marcus, U.S. News, April 11, 2018
“‘Dangerous complacency’ to global HIV epidemic risks resurgence” by Alex Therrien, BBC News, July 20, 2018
“Rural Indiana Struggles to Contend With H.I.V. Outbreak” by Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, May 5, 2015
Also excerpted were statements affirming U=U:
“People living with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting
HIV to their HIV-negative sexual partners.”
— U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, September 2017
“Undetectable = Untransmittable, U=U” campaign aims — and is having success in — changing forever the way organizations and people with HIV talk and think about viral undetectability and infectiousness. Little is more likely to help demolish the stigma against HIV than spreading the U=U news to their partners, family, and community. It offers them and all of us hope.”
— Gus Cairns, NAM aidsmap, February 2017
AIDS is not history. And you can help spread the word.
Share these articles, and if you can, join us Saturday, August 4 at 4:30 p.m. for a repeat action during the Whitney’s sign language tour.
(If you need an ACT UP shirt, order one and mention that you’re coming — or shoot us a message if it’s a financial hardship — and we’ll have it for you at the action.)
This is a really rewarding action, and your help will make it even better.
