Women's Caucus

ACT UP’s Women’s Caucus focuses on activism around women and AIDS. They had a big action protesting Cosmopolitan magazine in January 1988 after Cosmopolitan published an article saying that women were not at risk of AIDS from sex. They also had a large action at Shea Stadium in the Spring of 1988 where they bought 400 tickets to a Mets game and held up huge banners telling straight men to practice safe sex. Just this month, the Women’s Caucus did a teach-in about women and AIDS for ACT UP members.

The women in ACT UP are mostly not HIV positive, and have come to ACT UP because people they know people who have AIDS and/or they are lesbians who care about gay men. Unlike most of the men in ACT UP, many of the women in the Women's Caucus have a history of participating in civil rights activism. Women constitute a smaller but substantial percentage of people with AIDS, and the members of the Women's Caucus tend to speak up at ACT UP meetings to ensure that ACT UP actions and communications include issues affecting women with AIDS. They also tend to speak up to make sure that the people speaking on behalf of ACT UP (to the press and otherwise) are not just white guys.

Members

Marion Banzhaf

Jean Carolmusto

Cynthia Chris

Kim Christenson

Alexis Danzig

Risa Denenberg

Heidi Dorow

Alexandra Juhasz

Zoe Leonard

Debra Levine

Rachel Lurie

Maria Maggenti

Monica Pearl

Sydney Pokorny

Karen Ramspacher

Illith Rosenblum

Polly Thistlethwaite

Judith Walker

Gerri Wells

Maxine Wolfe