A New Wave of LGBT Activism

Reacting to a growing anti-gay climate, on October 14, 1979, some 100,000 LGBT people and their allies march on Washington, and demand equal rights. It is the largest gay rights march to date.

The AIDS crisis brings a new wave of LGBT activism and visibility in the 1980s. Organizations like the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) mount  protests to bring issues before the public. As they do, fights over such matters as insurance benefits bring LGBT issues before the courts.

At the 1987 March on Washington, the AIDS quilt brought home, in a personal and public way, the devastation and impact of the epidemic.

“. . . for the first time we have all come together.”

—committee member Steve Ault, at the rally during the National March on Washington, 1979

Program booklet from the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, 1979. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives

Program booklet from the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, 1979. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives

The National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights of 1979 is the first large-scale LGBT civil rights event to take place in the nation's capital. Organizers put forth a platform that included the passage of comprehensive gay and lesbian rights legislation, federal protection for governmental employees and the military, the repeal of anti-gay and -lesbian legislation, the end to discrimination in custody cases involving gay and lesbian parents, and the protection of gay and lesbian youth. It marked the nationalization of the gay rights movement which until this time had been focused on local issues.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS first came to public attention in the early 1980s when a number of gay men in New York and San Francisco began to contract and later die of a mysterious disease. Within a few years AIDS had turned into a full-blown epidemic. Grassroots organizations and activists stood up to demand action from the government and the health-care industry, while also raising consciousness of the disease, educating community members of their risk, and taking care of dying friends and loved-ones who too often were rejected by their families.

Buttons from the early years of the AIDS epidemic. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives.

Buttons from the early years of the AIDS epidemic. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives.

Members of ACT UP Philadelphia demonstrate at City Hall, 1992. Photograph by Harvey Finkel. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives

Members of ACT UP Philadelphia demonstrate at City Hall, 1992. Photograph by Harvey Finkel. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives


AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) was formed in New York City in 1987 by playwright and activist Larry Kramer. Spawning a loose coalition of regional organizations, groups of ACT UP members regularly performed actions in cities and towns across the country and around the world throughout the 1990s and beyond. Some of those involved in the actions had been at the forefront of the lesbian and gay liberation movements of the 1970s, while others found their voices during this harrowing time.

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was begun in San Francisco by Cleve Jones and a group of fellow activists. Many of those who first died of AIDS did not receive funerals due to the stigma associated with the disease. The quilt panels, designed and sewn by friends and love-ones, provided a much needed opportunity to mourn and celebrate the lives of the deceased. Growing to immense proportions, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was presented in its entirety for the first time on the National Mall in 1987.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display for the first time on the National Mall during the March on Washington, 1987

The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display for the first time on the National Mall during the March on Washington, 1987

“AIDS is a plague—numerically, statistically and by any definition known to modern public health—though no one in authority has the guts to call it one.”

—playwright, activist and founder of ACT UP, Larry Kramer