SPEAKING OUT, ACTING UP: AIDS activists from around the country came together to “Storm the NIH” on May 21, 1990, setting off colored smoke bombs en route to buildings where NIH and NIAID directors had their offices. The demonstration “made a huge statement” about activists’ demands for increased patient access to clinical trial decisions, says activist Peter Staley. “The people whose minds were ultimately changed: this action made very clear to them how important this goal was to us.”FLICKR, NIH HISTORY OFFICE
National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) director Anthony Fauci raced down the stairs of Building 31. Roughly 1,000 AIDS activists filled the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, Maryland, armed with signs ranging from relatively benign expressions of discontent with the state of AIDS research (“We’re Fired Up”) to attacks directed at Fauci himself (“Fuck You, Fauci”).
Groups split off to perform varied protest actions. Some staged die-ins, lying down across NIH’s lawns as if they were dead. Peter Staley, a member of “AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power” (ACT UP), went for high ground. Flanked by two other activists, he approached building 31 and used his friends’ hands to springboard onto the concrete awning.
Fauci, who had met with Staley and ...
