In 1987 when Ron Goldberg was just 28 years old he discovered that ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power was about to hold a rally near his workplace. He was not normally into any form of political protest, but like all of us gay men at that time he was scared, angry, and more than a little “freaked out” about AIDS, he says.
Soon after the rally, he went to attend an ACT UP meeting and he was hooked That led to attending larger rallies and helping with organizing and getting his fellow activists fired up. This all became a defining moment for Goldberg as he learned how politics mixed with activism, and why ACT UP tangled with the Reagan administration’s leaders.
Now almost 40 years later Goldberg has put pen to paper to write this compelling memoir. He says about those years back then “There was hard work, grief, and anger, surely, but there was also great joy.” He was “a witness” so he wanted to preserve his memories.”
The AIDS pandemic destroyed so many lives and we all lost countless friends and loved ones on an unimaginable vast scale. For those of us who were lucky enough to survive, we couldn’t avoid the grief that permeated our lives for several decades after.
Goldberg’s book serves as a record of the experiences of someone who was in the middle of it all, and his authentic voice makes a great contribution to that period’s history. For some, it will be a very tough read as facing that reality again will be quite gut-wrenching. Yet we need our community’s history recorded and written about particular by one of our own.
Ron Goldberg is a writer and activist. His articles have appeared in OutWeek and POZ magazines, Central Park, and The Visual AIDS Blog. He served as a research associate for filmmaker and journalist David France on his award-winning book How to Survive a Plague and enjoys speaking at high schools and colleges about the history of AIDS and the lessons and legacy of ACT UP.
BOY WITH THE BULLHORN A MEMOIR AND HISTORY OF ACT UP NEW YORK By Ron Goldberg
