NEVER SILENT

The dramatic life story of an indispensable AIDS activist.

Despite the fact that the provocative AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is a radically democratic organization, Staley (b. 1961) was, as he acknowledges, one of its “poster boys,” due largely to his mediagenic talents. In those early days, ACT UP, which did so much to force Republican administrations and the National Institutes of Health to fund research to fight HIV, was barbed, relentless, and righteously angry. The organization quickly garnered national, even global, attention for its innovative actions—e.g., infiltrating the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 and unfurling a banner urging the traders to “Sell Wellcome,” the pharmaceutical company making a hefty profit from AIDS patients; or the 1989 demonstration against the Catholic Church’s “anti-condom, gay-bashing, AIDS-spreading policies” during Mass inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Staley was a plucky showman, as evidenced by his creation of the memorable stunt of wrapping virulently anti-gay Sen. Jesse Helms’ house in a condom. One incident in the author’s childhood demonstrates that his showmanship was born early: When he was 5, his father taught him how to start the family’s lawn mower, and he proceeded to start all the lawn mowers on his street, “until a chorus of mowers echoed down the block.” His memoir is a gripping, moving text that deserves a wide readership, especially now that it’s become clear that ACT UP’s innovations have influenced current-day movements for social justice in America. Staley’s account arrives close on the heels of Sarah Schulman’s Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, which pointedly takes the spotlight off prominent White gay members of ACT UP like Staley and Larry Kramer and places it on lesser-known activists. Staley acknowledges his relative privilege but also drives home the point that his activism was vital.

A cleareyed, hard-earned, even affectionate recollection of a valiant fight against AIDS and bigotry.