The ACT UP AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP NY) is an activist and advocacy group focused on health care issues concerning AIDS and LGBT interests. One of the group’s primary activities is organizing protests, and it describes itself as “united in anger.” ¹

Background

ACT UP NY is an activist group that organizes protests and demonstrations focused on policy concerning AIDS issues. The group claims to be “a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals, united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.” The organization claims to be entirely run by volunteers. ¹

After being founded in 1987, the group notably organized protests against institutions including “pharmaceutical companies, Wall Street banks, the Reagan administration and the Catholic Church,” according to America Magazine. In 1989, the group staged an event called “Stop the Church,” a 4,500-person protest that included interrupting mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The demonstration eventually resulted in the arrest of more than 100 protestors. One of the participants, Michael Petrelis, said after the protest that “standing up in the church, blowing the whistle, the screaming, was my reclaiming my spirituality from the hatred of the church.” Sarah Schulman, an AIDS historian and active member of ACT UP NY from 1987 to 1992, said that the event “turned out that it was one of our best actions. It was covered all over the world.”  ^{2 3}

There are also ACT UP chapters located in London and Paris.  ⁴

Activities

ACT UP NY provides a template email on its website to publicly call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas after the attacks on October 7, 2023. The template calls for action to “refuse the Israeli pinkwashing narrative and proudly stand in solidarity [with] Queer and Trans Palestinians,” and elaborates that silence in this instance “affirms British colonial-era anti-LGBTQIA+ laws and oppression of the LGBTQIA+ community in Palestine.” The organizations targeted by the template are GLAAD, HRC, GLSEN, the Trevor Project, LGBT Network, RUSA LGBTQ+, FOLX Health, Mount Sinai, the Center, and Heritage of Pride (NYC Pride). ⁵

In 2025, ACT UP NY organized the “Death By 1000 Musk Cuts” protest in New York City. The demonstration, which was ACT UP NY’s 38th anniversary protest, aimed to have 1,000 protestors and specifically encouraged individuals who used programs such as Medicaid and Medicare to show up early with prepared stories to share. Co-organizers included HealthGAP, Housing Works, Metro New York Health Care for All, and Rise and Resist. Masks were required at the event. ⁶

Brandon Quicchi, an organizer with ACT UP NY, said in an interview that “[p]eople should be turning out to their Tesla showrooms, they should [be] boycotting everything Elon Musk does, because it has a chance of saving millions of lives around the world,” according to NBC News. ⁷

Funding

In 2023, ACT UP NY re[prted $36,411 in revenue, $48,576 in expenses, and $99,367 in net assets at the end of the year. ⁸

In 2011, the Ford Foundation, while not providing direct funding to ACT UP NY, gave $100,000 to the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival to complete the ACT UP Oral History Project, a project featuring former ACT UP NY members. In 2007, the Ford Foundation also gave $50,000 to the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival for the ACT UP Oral History Project. ^{9 10}

People

As of 2025, Marcelo Maia was the president of ACT UP NY. Maia is also a member of the New York City HIV Planning Council at the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. ¹¹

Sarah Schulman was a producer of the film United in Anger, which documents the history of ACT UP. The film was made primarily from footage of the ACT UP Oral History Project, a project of the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival which was funded in part by the Ford Foundation. Schulman is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and AIDS historian. She was a member of ACT UP NY from 1987 to 1992 and a co-founder of the group Lesbian Avengers. As of 2025, she sat on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace and co-directs the ACT UP Oral History Project. Schulman was also teaching creative writing at Northwestern University. ^{12 9 3}

1. “What Is Act Up?” ACT UP NY, March 20, 2025. https://actupny.com/contact/
2. ^[1] O’Loughlin, Michael. “‘Pose’ Revisits Controversial AIDS Protest inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral.” America Magazine, December 10, 2019. https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2019/06/21/pose-revisits-controversial-aids-protest-inside-st-patricks-cathedral.
3. Sarah Schulman: Department of English – Northwestern University. Accessed April 28, 2025. https://english.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/schulman-sarah.html.
4. About. ACT UP London. (2022, April 6). https://actuplondon.wordpress.com/about/
5. “Act up Store.” ACT UP NY, March 20, 2025. https://actupny.com/halfway-through-pride/.
6.  “ACT UP/New York’s 38th Anniversary Death by 1000 Musk Cuts Saturday, March 29, 2025 Action.” ACT UP NY, March 20, 2025. https://actupny.com/act-up-new-yorks-38th-anniversary/.
7. “Anti-Elon Musk Protests Held at Tesla Dealerships.” NBCNews.com, March 29, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/tesla-elon-musk-anti-trump-protests-rcna198708
8. “ACT UP,” Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990EZ). 2023. Page 1 Part 1 Lines 9, 17, and 2021.
9. “Grants Database.” Ford Foundation. Accessed April 27, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/?search=Act%2BUp.
10. ACT UP oral history project. ACT UP Oral History Project. (n.d.). https://www.actuporalhistory.org/
11. Marcelo Maia – Member – Act up NY | linkedin. Accessed April 28, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelo-maia-734342.
12. ^[1] “‘United in Anger’ Shares History of Act up through Original Footage.” Autostraddle, April 29, 2021. https://www.autostraddle.com/united-in-anger-shares-history-of-act-up-through-original-footage-140945/.