Debra Levine

Background: Debra is a 28 year old white Jewish woman who identifies as straight. She grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts, very involved in the Jewish community. She went to the University of Pennsylvania, then moved to New York and worked at off-Broadway theaters. She then got an MFA in theater directing at Columbia, finishing in 1988. Then she started working with Creative Time on a theater piece about AIDS. She went to her first ACT UP meeting as research for that theater piece. Realizing her conception of her theater piece was off-base, she stopped working on that but continued going to ACT UP meetings every week. She started out working with the Outreach Committee, and then transitioned to the Women’s Caucus.

Role in ACT UP: Debra is on the Women’s Caucus, with whom she was instrumental in organizing an action at Shea Stadium. She is also in the affinity group La Cocina. Debra is starting to get involved with advocating for needle exchange: making clean syringes available to intravenous drug users to reduce their HIV risk from sharing syringes. She will want to make sure that any Target City Hall demands or other relevant actions include a push for the city to implement needle exchange, even though it is not currently legal.

Groups/friends at the meeting: Women’s Caucus, La Cocina, Richard Elovich, Ray Navarro, Charlie Franchino

Specific tasks at the March 13, 1989 meeting: With Richard Elovich, she is on the agenda to propose an ACT UP trip to Albany tomorrow (March 14) to protest healthcare budget cuts. Governor Mario Cuomo has proposed a massive $350 million cut in Medicaid spending that will affect all New Yorkers, including people with AIDS and especially poorer people with AIDS. The protest tomorrow is being jointly organized by the New York state private hospitals and the union for healthcare workers. She and Richard should acknowledge that many people in the room have had terrible experiences with hospitals and healthcare workers when attempting to get quality, compassionate care for themselves and their loved ones with AIDS. In light of this, and in light of the risk that budget cuts could have for people with AIDS, Richard and Debra should ask the Floor to debate whether ACT UP should participate in the protest, and then vote on it. If the Floor votes to endorse ACT UP's participation, Richard and Debra should find out how many people will go so they can know how many buses are needed. They should make sure to give the people who are going the information on where/when the buses will leave/return, tell people that round-trip tickets on the bus will be $10, and ask Rollerena to sell seats on the buses around the floor (right now, not at the end of the meeting). 

Link to New York Times article about the Albany issues

Additional information: https://actuporalhistory.org/numerical-interviews/128-debra-levine