ActUp/RI

Last updated April 12, 2023

ActUp/RI, the Rhode Island chapter of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, was formed in the spring of 1987, largely through the energies of Stephen Gendin, and continued as an active organization until 1993. Frequent targets of the group's demonstrations included the RI Department of Health, RI Project AIDS, and The Providence Journal .

Actions

Health Department sit-in

In the spring of 1987, ActUp/RI took the lead in planning a protest against the imposition of mandatory HIV testing planned by the RI Department of Health. Six members were arrested while occupying the office of H. Denman Scott, Director of the RI Department of Health, while dozens of supporters rallied outside with placards and chants. The effect of this and similar efforts was to substantially alter the legislation enabling mandatory HIV testing, by restricting its implementation to prison inmates (the original legislation had included provisions for testing all pregnant women, anyone admitted to a hospital, anyone seeking prenatal care or family planning services, and anyone seeking treatment for drug abuse).^{[ citation needed ]}

Westminster Street die-in

Soon after the introduction of AZT to the market in October 1987, ACT UP groups around the country protested what they perceived as prices so high that most people with HIV would be unable to afford them. ActUp/RI staged a die-in outside the CVS store on Westminster Street in Downtown Providence in order to draw local media attention to the issue. Protests such as this were effective in pressuring the drug's maker, Burroughs Wellcome, to substantially reduce the price charged for AZT.^[2]

Ed DiPrete's bid for Governor of Rhode Island

Members of ActUp/RI disrupted the 1988 candidacy announcement of Ed DiPrete for Governor of Rhode Island in order to address what they felt was a lack of attention and resources being devoted by the State to AIDS treatment and HIV prevention. One year later, a subsequent demonstration called Lunch with the Governor was held on the State House grounds.^{[ citation needed ]}

Providence Journal

The Providence Journal was targeted by ActUp/RI on several occasions. The largest demonstration involved circling the building with chanting protestors, and replacing the front page displayed in newspaper sales boxes with pages reading 'OUT OF ORDER' and various of the group's complaints. The Providence Journal was targeted by the group because they felt that the paper had editorial policies strongly slanted against the rights of people living with HIV, as shown by various editorial positions taken by Phil Terzian; and allowed vehemently homophobic letters (chiefly written by surgeon Warren Francis), while squelching letters written in support of people with AIDS.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zidovudine</span> Antiretroviral medication

Zidovudine (ZDV), also known as azidothymidine (AZT), is an antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. It is generally recommended for use in combination with other antiretrovirals. It may be used to prevent mother-to-child spread during birth or after a needlestick injury or other potential exposure. It is sold both by itself and together as lamivudine/zidovudine and abacavir/lamivudine/zidovudine. It can be used by mouth or by slow injection into a vein.

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, and working to change legislation and public policies.

Post-exposure prophylaxis, also known as post-exposure prevention (PEP), is any preventive medical treatment started after exposure to a pathogen in order to prevent the infection from occurring.

COYOTE is an American sex workers' rights organization. Its name is a backronym for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics, a reflection of the fact that sex work tends to be stigmatized primarily because of society-imposed standards of ethics. COYOTE's goals include the decriminalization of prostitution, pimping and pandering, as well as the elimination of social stigma concerning sex work as an occupation.

Sheldon Whitehouse is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Rhode Island since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Attorney from 1993 to 1998 and the 71st attorney general of Rhode Island from 1999 to 2003.

HIV/AIDS was first diagnosed in 1981. As of year-end 2018, 160,493 people have been diagnosed with HIV in the United Kingdom and an estimated 7,500 people are living undiagnosed with HIV. New diagnoses are highest in gay/bisexual men, with an estimated 51% of new diagnosis reporting male same-sex sexual activity as the probable route of infection. Between 2009 and 2018 there was a 32% reduction in new HIV diagnosis, attributed by Public Health England (PHE) to better surveillance and education. PHE has described an "outbreak" in Glasgow amongst people who inject drugs, and has campaigns targeting men who have sex with men in London and other major cities. London was the first city in the world to reach the World Health Organization target for HIV, set at 90% of those with HIV diagnosed, 90% of those diagnosed on HAART and 90% of those on HAART undetectable. The UK as a whole later achieved the same target. Under the Equality Act 2010, it is illegal to discriminate against someone based on their HIV status in the UK.

The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) was a law passed by the United States Congress in 1992 which allowed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collect fees from drug manufacturers to fund the new drug approval process. The Act provided that the FDA was entitled to collect a substantial application fee from drug manufacturers at the time a New Drug Application (NDA) or Biologics License Application (BLA) was submitted, with those funds designated for use only in Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) or Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) drug approval activities. In order to continue collecting such fees, the FDA is required to meet certain performance benchmarks, primarily related to the speed of certain activities within the NDA review process.

Prostitution in Rhode Island was outlawed in 2009. On November 3, 2009, Republican Governor Donald Carcieri signed into law a bill which makes the buying and selling of sexual services a crime.

HIV/AIDS in El Salvador has a less than 1 percent prevalence of the adult population reported to be HIV-positive, El Salvador and therefore there is a low-HIV-prevalence country, but the virus remains a significant threat in high-risk communities, such as commercial sex workers (CSWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM).

HIV/AIDS was first detected in Canada in 1982. In 2018, there were approximately 62,050 people living with HIV/AIDS in Canada. It was estimated that 8,300 people were living with undiagnosed HIV in 2018. Mortality has decreased due to medical advances against HIV/AIDS, especially highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eileen S. Naughton</span> American consultant and politician

Eileen Slattery Naughton, is an American consultant and politician from Warwick, Rhode Island. A Democrat, she served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, representing the 21st district, which contains the neighborhoods of Conimicut, Hoxsie, and parts of Hillsgrove, including the T.F. Green Airport. She was first elected to the House of Representatives November 3, 1992, and was defeated in the September 13, 2016, primary election in her bid to serve for a 13th term.

<i>How to Survive a Plague</i> 2012 American documentary film by David France

How to Survive a Plague is a 2012 American documentary film about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the efforts of activist groups ACT UP and TAG. It was directed by David France, a journalist who covered AIDS from its beginnings. France's first film, it was dedicated to his partner Doug Gould who died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1992. The documentary was produced using more than 700 hours of archived footage which included news coverage, interviews as well as film of demonstrations, meetings and conferences taken by ACT UP members themselves. France says they knew what they were doing was historic, and that many of them would die. The film, which opened in select theatres across the United States on September 21, 2012, also includes footage of a demonstration during mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989.

Peter Staley is an American political activist, known primarily for his work in HIV/AIDS activism. As an early and influential member of ACT UP, New York, he founded both the Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the educational website AIDSmeds.com. Staley is a primary figure in the Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague.

Seth Michael Magaziner is an American investment professional and politician who is the U.S. representative for Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district. He served as the 31st General Treasurer of Rhode Island from 2015 until 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Magaziner won the November 2022 election to succeed retiring representative James Langevin.

Michael Anthony Petrelis is an American AIDS activist, LGBTQ rights activist, and blogger. He was diagnosed with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1985 in New York City, New York. As a member of the Lavender Hill Mob, a forerunner to the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, he was among the first AIDS activists to protest responses to the disease. He was a co-founding member of ACT UP in New York City, New York, and later helped organize ACT UP chapters in Portland, Oregon, Washington, D.C., and New Hampshire, as well as the ACT UP Presidential Project. Petrelis was also a founding member of Queer Nation/National Capital, the Washington D.C. chapter of the militant LGBTQ rights organization.

Cannabis in Rhode Island is legal for medical and adult use. Medical use was legalized through legislation approved in 2006, and adult use in 2022.

Social and political activism to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, as well as to raise funds for effective treatment and care of people with AIDS (PWAs), has taken place in multiple nations across the world since the 1980s. As a disease that began in marginalized populations, efforts to mobilize funding, treatment, and fight discrimination have largely been dependent on the work of grassroots organizers directly confronting public health organizations as well as politicians, drug companies, and other institutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. state of Rhode Island is part of an ongoing worldwide viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019, a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. As of August 18, 2022, there has been 414,931 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Rhode Island, 89 of which are currently hospitalized, and 3,636 reported deaths. Rhode Island's COVID-19 case rate and death rate per capita are the highest and twentieth highest, respectively, of the fifty states since the start of the pandemic.

This is a list of protests in Rhode Island related to the murder of George Floyd.

Project Weber/RENEW is a peer-led harm reduction and recovery support center in Providence, Rhode Island.

References

↑ "Newly Revived ACT Up Chapters". ACT Up NY.
↑ Crimp, Douglas; Adam Rolston (1990). AIDS demo graphics . Seattle: Bay Press. pp. 26–29, 46–51. ISBN 0-941920-16-X.