Can protests save lives? How ACT UP helped tame the AIDS crisis.

UnTextbooked | A history podcast for the future

One morning in 1991, Senator Jesse Helms’ house was covered with a giant fake condom in an act of protest. Helms had been a vocal opponent of funding AIDS research and he had introduced an infamous and popular bill amendment that prevented federal money from being spent on AIDS research. There were few treatments available at the time, and with no help from the government, HIV was actively spreading across the country. In 1991 alone, nearly 30,000 American died of AIDS, and the numbers would keep rising until the late nineties.

The condom on Helms’ house was courtesy of the protest group ACT UP, which led a number of high profile direct actions meant to call attention to the AIDS crisis and get people angry.

UnTextbooked’s Jordan Pettiford was curious about queer history. She came out to her family around the same time the Covid-19 pandemic began. While the context of Covid felt different, she noticed some strange similarities between the present day and the history of AIDS—especially the way in which viruses become political.

In this episode, Jordan interviews David France, author of How to Survive a Plague. David France was a first-hand witness to the AIDS epidemic in New York City. He covered the unique actions of the protest movement that called out the government’s inaction and discrimination.

Book: How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed Aids

Guest: David France, writer and filmmaker

Producer: Jordan Pettiford

Music: Silas Bohen and Coleman Hamilton

Editors: Bethany Denton and Jeff Emtman