I'm very grateful to have this forum to air my concerns and get feedback! (Thank you Johnny and Chi Chi). As for "ACT UP being past and erased" maybe it's something as simple as not *enough* time has gone by (so it isn't "officially recorded" yet, etc.) There were some academics at the Oral History screening, and one said transcripts from the ACT UP film are going into a new history book. Because really, the ACT UP hey day was *not* a "generation" ago. It's only been a few years! --Maybe more and more people will start to hear about as time goes by?
I know I started it, but these "theories" don't seem as crucial to me as just action to help ensure accurate information and community safety. So a word about "messiness." I don't advocate ANY sort of "morality police." God knows in ACT UP there was a *huge* amount of sex going on, and a lot of drug use in the community as well. Far be for ME to judge other people's habits in ANY way. All that would result from lectures about drugs or sex being "bad" is that friends would stop confiding in me, AND that they could throw back in my face my own 87,000 strange quirks and habits and neuroses.(Just last night, at the really fun Charm School party, I was bouncing around all tipsy like a 12 year old in her first aerobics class, tugging up my tube top which is forever slipping down when I bounce! Someone could easily post a topic about being "worried" about people like me.)
All I'm saying is, the ACT UP dissemination of information about safety was never about "judgment." I'm sure a lot of people feel they can use this or that drug recreationally in relative safety, and for those who eventually decide on their own that they can't do it, & they need help to stop, it certainly isn't going to be because they got this or that lecture from me or anyone else. --People are also going to have the sex they are going to have. ACT UP was all about harm reduction, needle exchange and the like, NOT about enforcing sobriety or abstinence.
My worry is just that I wonder if good information floats around. Like, "the risk of this drug is X and, if you choose to do that drug, here's how you can reduce that risk...and if and when you decide you want to stop, here's where you can go, ...and this is how to reduce risk when you have sex, and if you have questions, here's who you can call..." etc. etc. etc. --We all used to talk about all that all the time. --My wish is that we get to that again, constant free-floating accurate information, because I love my friends, and I don't care WHAT their habits are (they put up with MY insanity, after all)...as long as they stay safe.