The New York Times published its first story about what the world would come to know as HIV/AIDS: “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals” appeared on July 3, 1981.

“Plague! We are in the middle of a fucking plague ... half of you are gonna die .. what are we gonna do about it?” Larry Kramer bellows at the ‘Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center’. 300 people then establish ACT UP - ‘United in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis, along with the broader inequalities and injustices that perpetuate it,’ (NYC), 1987.

ACT UP London held its first meeting on Tuesday 17ᵗʰ January 1989, attended by approximately 110 people. Early organising meetings and planning often took place at Gay’s the Word, a bookshop that served as an important meeting space for LGBTQ+ activism in London.

First protests

1. ACT UP London protest over measly AIDS benefits (March 20, 1990)

2. ACT UP London storm Mayor Reg Rice re-election over HIV discrimination (May 17, 1991)

3. Wellcome AGM invasion by ACT UP London & Edinburgh (Jan 16, 1990)

Protest against the denial of condoms for inmates, launching balloons with condoms over the prison walls. Today doctors can now prescribe contraception. Her Majesty’s Prison, Pentonville, 1989. 

ACT UP London re-forms to confront the Second Silence

Read ‘A Future for Health Activism’
Listen Rage, Resistance, Reconnection

In 2014 ACT UP London dumped half a tonne of horse shit in front of the UKIP office in response to them saying ‘Frankly the last kind of migrants we should allow into the UK are those living with HIV.’ Decorating the manure with a giant red world AIDS Day ribbon and a banner reading ‘What goes around comes around.’

 ACT UP host ‘HIV anti-stigma classes’ in Nigel Farage’s pub in response to when he was asked what sort of people should be allowed to migrate to Britain and he responded “People who do not have HIV, to be frank. That’s a good start or that "foreign patients with aids ('HIV tourists')  should not be treated on the NHS."

Protest outside the Dept of Health calling for the NHS to provide PrEP which is almost 100% effective in preventing HIV transmission. Currently 17 people are diagnosed with HIV every day. NHS (England) claims PrEP is a public health strategy and they will delegate it to local authorities, a decision currently subject to judicial review, resulting in a postcode lottery for provision.

activists entered the London offices of Gilead Sciences and stripped naked with the word “GREED” painted on their backs to protest the high price of HIV drugs and PrEP access. The protest formed part of a coordinated global day of action targeting pharmaceutical companies over drug pricing.

The ‘F*ck off This is My Culture’ party began as a response to grieve and to honour the legend that was George Michael - his music and how he helped millions to re-evaluate and transform how they saw and embraced sexuality. It has since grown into an iconic annual queer and AIDS advocacy freedom protest.

Positively UK and ACT UP Women launched ‘Catwalk4Power’ to create actions to address the silence around women and HIV, increasing awareness of HIV+ women's lives, portraying women with HIV as strong, creative and resilient, not victims. The online ‘Struts’ toolkit guides through the sassy steps they have used to create Catwalks in London, Brighton, and Manchester since 2017.

Premiered on Channel 4 online, the show depicted the lives of a group of gay men and their friends during the HIV/AIDS crisis and received critical acclaim for its emotional scenes, writing, performances and accurate depiction of HIV/AIDS and  became the most binge-watched show to stream on the platform.

Activists have held a ‘die-in’ at London’s Trafalgar Square to mark World AIDS Day in 2022, sending a “clear message that we are here, united in anger, ready to continue the fight”. Die-ins were a common action used by activist groups in the ’80s and ’90s to paint a picture of the loss of life and spur governments into action. 

On World AIDS Day 2023, ACT UP NY launched the ‘Fund Healthcare Not Warfare’ against the genocidal decimation of healthcare infrastructure in Gaza, demanding an increase in healthcare priorities instead. Since, campaigns have catalysed in ACT UP London and Berlin too uniting queer, healthcare, workers’ rights and anti-war activists for an end to the Israeli occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism. 

‘Queue to Nowhere: Demand Lenacapavir Now.’ outside NHS England HQ in Waterloo demanding access to lenacapavir to be secured urgently for those who need it.

Tenderness and Rage Exhibition at the Wellcome Collection exploring HIV and AIDS through stories of protest and care, from the height of the UK’s AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s to global experiences of HIV today.