March 24th

03-24-1987 30th Anniversary of ACT UP – ACT UP was formed at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer posed a question to the audience: “Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?” The answer was “a resounding yes.” Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP. On this day in 1987, 250+ ACT UP members demonstrated at Wall Street and Broadway 250+ to demand greater access to experimental AIDS drugs and for a coordinated national policy to fight the disease.On March 24, 1988, ACT UP returned to Wall Street for a larger demonstration in which over 100 people were arrested. Their demonstration in September, 1989 at the New York Stock Exchange was successful in lowering the cost of the approved drug, AZT from $10,000 per patient per year to $6,400 per patient per year.