On April 23, 1993 ACT UP/LA held an action outside of the Health and Human Services (HHS) building in Washington D.C. This action was supporting 23 lesbians who then met with Donna Shalala, handed her a box of donuts, and demanded to be listened to. Donna was the newly appointed director of HHS. The meeting was with Donna, and various officials from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), the CDC, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The group was initially allowed only 20 minutes, and ended up talking for 40 minutes. They discussed women to women transmission of AIDS, the lack of understanding of lesbian relationships in sex in AIDS research and counseling, and women’s exclusion from review boards and clinical trials.
“A CDC official once said to us: "Why should we study woman to woman transmission? Do lesbians have sex?" That's our government's response to this ever increasing crisis. That's how we are being treated in this crisis.”[1]
-Mary Lucey and Nancy MacNeil
