Mike Frisch

Background: In Mike's own words:  I was born in Summit NJ - my parents divorced when I was 2 and 1/2. My Dad was a Chemistry Professor at SUNY Albany and his immediate family just barely got out of Austria and Europe during World War II (My great grandmother died in the Holocaust). He was a non-practicing Jew and while I was brought up Quaker - I knew that I was half Jewish. I visited him usually once every two weeks. My mom came from an old NY Quaker family -- Murrays of Murray Hill. Growing up in a single-parent household during the late sixties and seventies was part of my identity. I'm the youngest, and have a brother 2.5 years older.  My mom became more involved in Quakerism after the divorce. We would go to anti Vietnam war vigils and my mom refused to pay her telephone tax which went to support the Vietnam war. 

In 1972, my mom built a pre-fab cabin on land that my grandmother owned in East Chatham NY. It was kind of a back-to-the-land effort that also worked to simplify my Mom's life. She was working for the Quaker conference center Powell House. I went to the local public schools and was the overweight  Quaker gay kid (although not out) who got bullied in Junior High (6-9th). I doubled up on classes and graduated from New Lebanon Central School a year early and went to a Quaker College: Earlham in Richmond, Indiana. While I majored in Economics at Earlham - I also did a lot of activism, and read a lot of non-violence theory - especially the books by Gene Sharp. 

I slowly started coming out to myself in 1983 - about the same time that I learned about AIDS. I slowed down my coming out because it did not seem wise given this disease, and it was not until I had a friend in Lansing MI that gave me more courage to come out in 1985-1986. In the summer of 1986, I got a job at the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, which was Barry Commoner's research institute at Queens College. My office was located at 163-03 Horace Harding Expressway in Flushing and I had windows that gave me a full view of the Manhattan skyline. Moving to NY meant that I was going to be fully out. 

A part of my job with Barry Commoner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Commoner) was to assist local environmental groups fighting polluting facilities such as trash incinerators. We were working on developing alternatives to trash incineration and eventually found that we could recycle 84% of household garbage. I was also working on an evaluation of the weatherization program in the State of New York. At the time, I lived in a 4-person non-cooperative share on the last block of State Street in Brooklyn right by Atlantic Terminal. It was a long commute to work - 1 hour and 15 minutes on an average day.

John Bohne (Quaker and graduate of theological seminary) and David Alan Harris (a dancer, and Earlham grad) brought me to Act UP in May 1987. John and his husband Bill were married in Morningside Friends Meeting in 1985/1986. When I came to NY, I went to Friends for Gay and Lesbian Concerns (Gay and Lesbian Quakers) group both nationally and locally in NY. David was representing AFSC in the organizing of the 1987 March on Washington. Our affinity group (MHA) began meeting for the civil disobedience at the Supreme Court in the summer of 1987. Our early affinity group meetings (we often met at Charles Stimson's loft on 13th street) and discussions with Gregg Bordowitz were really important to me at this time. I was on the Actions Committee  and since I had been trained as a non-violence trainer before - I quickly became one of the non-violent direct action trainers along with Jamie Bauer. I occasionally did logistics - going to a site and figuring out how a protest could work. I often marshalled at demonstrations. I was committed to my environmental activist job so I usually did support type jobs for Act Up demos. My handful of arrests came when the police would pick a few marshalls off. 

By 1989, I was becoming fully comfortable with myself. I was in talk therapy. I had figured out safer sex and what risks I was comfortable taking. On weekends, I would hang out with Act Up folks at The Bar (First Avenue and 4th Street) but I found that as a non-twink, I did better at the bars in Chelsea such as The Spike and The Eagle. I had a leather jacket and wore timberlands sometimes. It wasn't until the early/mid 1990s that I figured out that I was a "bear" - gay, hairy, and a little overweight guy. I was 26 years old in March 1989. Act Up was a big part of my becoming comfortable with my gay identity and this timing coincides with Target City Hall. 

I hung out with non-violence trainers - Alexis, Jamie, Jean Elizabeth, and the other MHA members before and after Act UP meetings - Rich Jackman, Ortez, Bill M, Steven Cordova, Charles Stimson, Ira Manhoff, Gregg Bordowitz, etc as well as the Actions Committee crowd - Alan, Ron, etc. Through John Bohne I got to know folks on the Issues Committee, David Barr for example, especially David Kirschenbaum (I was part of his gay bridge group for more than a decade starting in 1990).  I thought the "swim team" guys were hot, but unattainable for me. I loved the feminist edge that the women's caucus brought to meetings and I had been reading the feminist sex debates. I was very comfortable being a cog of support for this movement. 

I think this gives a sense of who I was in 1989. We heard a lot of latin-freestyle music in NY in the late 1980s. It was blasting out of every bodega. For an example, listen to TKA or Noel's "Silent Morning". I loved the house music I would hear in dance clubs late at night (I would go to Act Up benefits and parties). I listened to New Order, the Cure, Pet Shop Boys and Erasure. When I listen to Erasure's "Ship of Fools" and "A Little Respect." I think of this time in Act Up.

Role in ACT UP: Mike is one of the civil disobedience trainers.

Groups/friends at the meeting: The civil disobedience trainers

Specific tasks at the March 13, 1989 meeting: From minute 4:10 to 18:28 of the video entitled ACT UP Pre-Action Meetings on this page, Mike Frisch and Gregg Bordowitz are leading a civil disobedience training (Mike is the leader with a mustache and glasses). Together with Amy Bauer and the rest of the civil disobedience trainers, Mike and Gregg will lead a similar exercise during the March 13, 1989 meeting.

Mike is also on the agenda later in the meeting with Gregg Bordowitz to explain the Wave structure of civil disobedience:

- Announce that a pre-action meeting will take place on Thursday at 7:30pm

- All affinity groups planning to engage in civil disobedience should attend, or at least send a representative

- At Target City Hall, the Wave structure will work as follows: At 7:30am, the demonstration starts with pickets forming. Affinity group members should find their support person. At 8am, the first affinity group will do their action, then the second affinity group will go at 8:15am, then the third affinity group will go (adjusting as necessary based on how the previous actions have gone).

- Mike and Gregg should explain that they don’t need to know (and don’t even want to know) what each group's specific action will be. But, Mike and Gregg need to know approximately where the action will take place so Mike and Gregg can coordinate press and video, and so everything doesn’t happen (and everyone doesn’t get arrested) all at once.

- Distribute a Direct Action Guideline Sheet

After Mike and Gregg finish explaining the Wave structure, Alan Klein, Gregg, and Mike should ask people in affinity groups and on committees to get together (right now) with their groups to hash out their actions/civil disobedience plans for Target City Hall. At the same time as the groups are meeting, David Barr will give a 5 minute Legal Observer training to the rest of the people at the meeting.

The groups should then choose a representative to tell Alan, Gregg, or Mike the basic details so that Alan, Gregg, and Mike can coordinate timing, media coverage, etc. Alan, Gregg, and Mike can then meet among themselves to synthesize the information and figure out when each group's action should happen at Target City Hall. 

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