HIV/AIDS activism

Socio-political activism to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS as well as to advance the effective treatment and care of people with AIDS (PWAs) has taken place in multiple locations since the 1980s. The evolution of the disease's progress into what's known as the HIV/AIDS pandemic has resulted in various social movements fighting to change both government policies and the broader popular culture inside of different areas. These groups have interacted in a complex fashion with others engaged in related forms of social justice campaigning, with this continuing on to this day.^[1][2][3][4]

As a major disease that began within marginalized populations, efforts to mobilize funding sources, scientifically advance treatment, and also fight discrimination have largely been dependent on the work of grassroots organizers directly confronting public health organizations (often government-managed medical bureaucracies) as well as news media businesses, pharmaceutical companies, groups of politicians, and other institutions. In the United States, this has involved political fights involving both the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Presidency given that nation's healthcare system. As recounted in journalist Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On, multiple U.S. doctors inside of groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled the public policy failures as the crisis developed as "an indictment of our era" and had to become activists on their patients' behalf, especially since initially so many "had died unlamented and unremarked by the media." For instance, Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and other institutions sought U.S. news outlets' attention in going against the executive branch and working for anti-AIDS measures that would resemble Project Apollo during the Space Race in both determination and funding.^[1][2][3][4]

Issues such as the controversial lack of action undertaken by the Ronald Reagan administration in the U.S. during the 1980s alongside rampant homophobia and the spread of misconceptions about HIV/AIDS led to outright discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, especially in the days of the pandemic before mass activism. Work by advocates for social justice spread across different parts of the U.S. over time. Movements of mass demonstration such as the grassroots collective ACT UP arose to fight for the rights of PWAs and to work to end the pandemic. Methods of protest have included the writing of position papers and making posters, public marches (and other formalized acts of civil disobedience), candlelight vigils, die-ins, and many creative approaches to direct action, such as kiss-ins involving public affection between individuals who aren't 'in-the-closet'.^[1][2][3][4]