Demonstration on women’s AIDS issues at the Sixth International AIDS Conference in San Francisco, June 22, 1990; photo by Daniel Nicoletta, used with permission, all rights reserved.
Thirty years ago, the Sixth International AIDS Conference was held in San Francisco at the height of the AIDS crisis. Activists and people with HIV from around the world confronted political and public health leaders, demanding action in response to the growing pandemic. A reunion of activists and attendees of the 1990 conference will provide opportunities for remembrance of the conference, and reflect on the conference's legacy and role during the COVID era. This event is scheduled during the 23rd International AIDS Conference, originally planned to be held in San Francisco and Oakland, which is now taking place online from July 6 to July 10.
Our “Fighting Back” series is an intergenerational discussion that brings together community leaders, experts, historians and activists to explore lessons from the past that might be useful in formulating “resistance” efforts today.
MODERATORS
Moisés Agosto-Rosario is a longtime treatment advocate and educator for people living with HIV and AIDS. He is currently the Director of Treatment for the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) in Washington DC. In the 90's Mr. Agosto-Rosario served as the editor of SIDA Ahora, the Spanish publication of the People with AIDS Coalition of New York and was an active member of ACT UP New York from 1988 to 1992. Mr. Agosto-Rosario has lived with HIV since 1986.
Terry Beswick was a founding member of ACT UP in San Francisco and advocated for HIV/AIDS research and treatment with Project Inform, the Human Rights Campaign and the White House Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. More recently, he spearheaded a campaign to save the Castro Country Club for queer people with substance use disorders and co-founded the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. Currently, as executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, he is leading an effort to establish the first full-scale museum of LGBTQ history in the United States.
Gerard Koskovich is a San Francisco historian and rare book dealer. A founding member of the GLBT Historical Society, he has been active in the movement to create LGBTQ archives and museums for nearly four decades and has curated numerous exhibitions. Koskovich has presented widely, including talks at the Ecole du Louvre, Kyoto University and Oxford University. His writing on LGBTQ history and culture has been published extensively in English and French. He has lived in San Francisco since 1988 and was a frequent legal observer at ACT UP/San Francisco protests.
Carol Leigh (aka Scarlet Harlot) is an American artist, author, film maker, and sex workers’ rights activist. She is credited with coining the term “sex worker” and currently chairs the Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival and is the director of BAYSWAN, the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network.
Brenda Lein was a Shanti volunteer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, providing practical support for people with AIDS. She also served as a member of ACT UP San Francisco and was a founding member of ACT UP Golden Gate. She helped to form WORLD, Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases, an organization for, by and about HIV-positive women. Lein also held the dual positions of director of information and advocacy and director of Project Immune Restoration at Project Inform. Most recently, she served as the program director for the Delaney AIDS Research Enterprise to Cure AIDS, a large, government-funded, international, multicenter, bench-to-bedside research effort. She is currently the president of the Linda Grinberg Foundation for AIDS and Immune Research, which funds cutting edge immune and HIV/AIDS cure research.
Lito Sandoval has served on many nonprofit boards in the Latino and LGBTQ communities. He is a former President of the San Francisco Latino Democratic Club and was a former Secretary of ACT UP San Francisco. Lito’s essay “I Love You Alto” appears in the anthology Virgins, Guerrillas y Locas: Gay Latinos Writing on Love (Cleis Press, 1999).
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
This event will take place online. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link and instructions on how to join the Zoom webinar as an attendee. The event will also be livestreamed on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GLBTHistory/ and then archived on our YouTube page at https://bit.ly/2UyGVbG.
ADMISSION
Free | Suggested donation of $5.00
Register online here: https://bit.ly/2Ydpyil
The event is limited to 500 attendees.
ASL INTERPRETATION
ASL interpretation provided upon request. Please write at least three days in advance of event to leigh@glbthistory.org.
JOIN THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Become a member of the GLBT Historical Society for free museum and program admission, discounts in the museum shop and other perks: www.glbthistory.org/memberships.