This weekend the New York Times posted, The Living After the Dying, an op ed by Frank Bruni, about ACT UP. While many welcomed ACT UP being written about, some readers did not agree with all it's conclusions.
Tom Léger, Pretty Queer Editor in Chief posted on their Facebook wall, " Everything in this article is wrong", suggesting that after people read the piece they go and donate to the United in Anger kickstarter page.
IN response to the Op Ed, artist Dudley Saunders said "(Frank Bruni's New York Times piece) leaves the false impression that ACT UP was only the direct treatment activists (of whom I was one). During ACT UP's heyday, more lives were actually saved by our forcing changes to the definition of AIDS to include more women and by forcing through changes in insurance laws -- and that's just two things off the top of my head.
David France was not trying to tell a comprehensive story with his film, so I'm disturbed that it's being interpreted that way. This piece unintentionally diminishes ACT UP's legacy and leaves it in the hands of "leaders", when in fact it was groups of very ordinary people who made change happen, and could make change happen today -- if pieces like this did not leave the impression that only "smart boys" can do what we did."
Read the NY Times article here: The Living After the Dying
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