Letter to the Editor 1990

[In 1989 and 1990 I was an activist with ACT UP/Seattle, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power. During that time I advocated for people with AIDS and other minorities disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.]

To the Editor,

And to the gentleman from Renton who speaks of the fascism of ACT UP (12/14), the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power. I get the feeling that he, like many others, gets his information from a biased or uninformed press. Action taken by ACT UP may be viewed at fascist, but its politics are more socialist. I'd like to remind the gentleman, and other readers that if it weren't for the fascism of ACT UP locally, there would be no AIDS Housing of Washington in Madison Valley. And if it weren't for the fascism of ACT UP nationally the price of AZT (still the only marketed medication specifically for HIV) would not have been reduced to the still exorbitant $90 a dose. If it weren't for the fascism of ACT UP internationally, there would be almighty few, if any, persons with AIDS involved with policy making at Clinical Trials Units, on city councils, foundations, medical associations, and other places where important decisions are made which directly affect the lives and treatment of people with AIDS.

The ultimate aim of ACT UP is to end the AIDS crisis. Many radical changes must occur around how we perceive HIV/AIDS and the different groups who have vested interests -- PWAs, whose lives are at stake, and Boroughs-Welcome, whose livelihood is enhanced by that $90 a dose chemical, to name just two of those groups. I am heartened by the fact that there are people like the gentleman from Renton who keep their eyes open and their brains in gear. These people will get the message when it is clear enough to be gotten: that AIDS is not a gay white male disease, that there are no "innocent victims" which implies a punishment for the "guilty," and that the industry which has sprung up around AIDS belies the worst evils of our society-- racial and sexual bigotry, which inform the course of action taken against this disease.

Sincerely,
Caren Corley,
Seattle