Talking to Debbie Gould about the demise of ACT UP Chicago ( Part 2 ) ...
"Danny Sotomeyer left in August 1990 and he started Cure Aids Now, which was a group with Danny and a couple of other people. No one else left ACT UP at that time. It was just Danny who left. Then around the same time a group formed called ACT UP Windy City, and that was started by Dan Don who was a PWA, and he felt that ACT UP Chicago had gotten off the topic of AIDS. So he started ACT UP Windy City which was only open to HIV-positive people. Even when that happened I don't remember anybody from ACT UP Chicago leaving, except Dan Don.
"Now, I think this is correct, but when Dan Don died, ACT UP Chicago and ACT UP Windy City reconnected. So it wasn't like the split that happened in San Francisco; where you had two ACT UPs functioning, and tons of people left ACT UP San Francisco and started ACT UP Golden Gate. We never had that. I wouldn't say that ACT UP Chicago ever split, it was just that one person left and formed Cure Aids Now and one person left and formed ACT UP Windy City."
Changing times ...
"One more thing about the decline; when Clinton got elected it became more difficult for ACT UP to operate. The community as a whole, and also a lot of people in ACT UP, saw him as our savior, and there was a feeling that we don't need to be in the streets anymore because we have a friend in the White House, and he'll take care of everything. I think that had an effect on our ability to mobilize people and keep our membership up."
The last meeting ...
"The only committee that was doing work at that time was the Prison Issues Committee and we had a demonstration in December 1994, on World AIDS Day, and then in January '95 was our last meeting.
"There were two new guys there who were really eager to get involved, so there was a degree of hilariousness to the whole thing. I mean, it was tragic, one of those things where we were laughing and crying at the same time. The treasurer started by saying the post office box needs to be closed, we're not getting a lot of mail, so we voted and shut down the P.O. Box. Then it was 'we're not getting any phone messages anymore,' so we voted to close down our voice mail. Then it turned out the bank was charging us every month because our balance had gone below a certain level, so we decided to close out the bank account. So there were these two new guys and they were really eager to get involved, and there we were just shutting everything down.
"We had no money and we didn't have a big membership anymore, and those of us who had been doing this for a long time were really exhausted. We weren't getting the support from the gay community anymore, so we disbanded."
Memory Check: ACT UP: The Early Days
1988
Dec. 1: ACT UP appears in the listings of Gay Chicago for the first time
Dec. 6: Activist and aldermanic candidate, Dr. Ron Sable, attends an ACT UP meeting and advises zaps, demos, and civil disobedience.
1989:
Jan. 31: Decrying the newly formed Illinois AIDS Advisory Council as a rubber stamp for the public health policies of Gov. James R. Thompson, approximately 20 demonstrators representing ACT UP/Chicago march outside the State of Illinois building downtown. Following the meeting ACT UP/Chicago throw 50,000 small pink triangles from the interior balconies of the State of Illinois building and chant "50,000 Dead from AIDS—where's Governor Thompson." Two ACT UP members are arrested.
March 18: Members of the AIDS Advisory Council meet at the Congress Hotel to work on yet another draft of Chicago's long-delayed AIDS Strategic Plan while members of ACT UP try to elude hotel security to break into the closed-door meeting.
March 30: ACT UP demonstrates in Daley Plaza, hoping to draw attention to the list of demands it had delivered earlier in the month to the Chicago Board of Health.
April 6: The Alexian Brothers officially open Bonaventure House, a residence for PWA's. Joseph Cardinal Bernardin was present and then moved on to conduct a mass at St. Sebastian's where he was met by ACT UP/Chicago members. Some people felt the protest was inappropriate given that the Cardinal was supporting AIDS by being there.
May 20: Ten AIDS activists were arrested during a demonstration against the CTA for refusing to hang ads carrying positive illustrations of lesbians and gay men on its buses and trains. ACT UP organized the demonstration at the intersection of Broadway, Clark and Diversey. ACT UP/Chicago were joined by Kupona Network, the Hispanic AIDS Network, and VIDA SIDA. Those arrested for "mob action" were Frank Michaels, Daniel Sotomayer, Carol Jonas, Ferd Eggan, T.J. Rice, Jeff Brown, Ortez Alderson, Jack Michelson, Arthur Gursch, and Billy McMillan. More than 200 people attended the protest.
May 26: ACT UP meets with the CTA at one of their garages at Clark, Broadway and Diversey. The CTA promised to reconsider its decision about the AIDS posters if ACT UP hold off their demonstrations.
May 31: Charges against 10 ACT UP members arrested at the demonstration against the CTA are dropped.
Future historians take note: The memory section in this column contains just that—memories—and are only to be used as a starting point for your research. Send your stories to Sukie de la Croix at Windy City Times. You can leave a message on his voicemail at 773-871-7610. He interviews over the phone, in person, or via e-mail sukiedelacroix@ozhasspoken.com
