Those people are trying to create relationships with people in power or whatever, and I would ask, what has that accomplished?Īt some point, shaming people is a very effective tactic and can force action. We were not trying to be liked, as opposed to people who work in organizations who are trying to be liked. We were aware that people didn’t like us. And we’ve said this publicly many times, that we were not there to be liked. Well, we were very clear among ourselves. Some people say that, yes, you get advancement, but it also comes with alienation. I think one of the things that’s been written about ACT UP and the central narrative is that the organization’s anger is a double-edged sword. And that’s really what ACT UP was about: Shaming people in power. I think there is great value in shaming people in power publicly. It was a freedom - being able to say what I thought, without conforming to some organizational line, or way of acting. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images Ann Northrop at the Stonewall National Monument in New York in 2017. My immediate reaction was: I have found my people this is my home.
YES I AM GAY MEME FULL
When I walked into my first ACT UP meeting, I found a room full of really cranky people, really smart, really funny people who were angry and whose preferred tactic was to go out in the streets and yell about what they were angry about. I was out demonstrating against the Vietnam War in the ’60s, and then involved with the feminist movement, and all that kind of stuff.
So I’ve never had much use for authority figures. Well, I’m a very cranky iconoclast, who has been fighting people in power ever since I came up against my parents in my teen years. What was it about ACT UP that struck you back in 1988 and made you join? What made you want to get involved? This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Northrop, who describes herself as “old and cranky,” not only explained the legacy of ACT UP and founder Larry Kramer, but the potency of anger and shaming people in power. ACT UP shouted, screamed, and yelled on behalf of those who couldn’t. To Ann Northrop, a veteran journalist and activist who joined ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in 1988, the idea that we’re having a debate over the politeness of protest is embarrassing enough on its own, but coupled with the right-wing push to eliminate individual federal rights, is flat-out alarming.ĪCT UP is perhaps most famous for its slogan “ Silence = Death”- a message born in the ’80s when the US government neglected gay men who were dying of AIDS.
That’s led to a discussion about (and a sharp reaction in Congress to) whether Americans should be allowed to protest at Supreme Court justices’ homes, and broader conversations about the role of rage in protest. The looming decision stands to not only dismantle a woman’s right to choose but, many speculate, other rights from sexual privacy to gay marriage.
Wade, activists have found themselves in a debate about the necessity of anger in activism. In the wake of the leaked Supreme Court decision that threatens to dismantle Roe v.