Museum of Resistance and Resilience

NONCONFORMITY

The purpose of the ACT-UP protests was to provide a disruption to societal procedures, to produce noise, and to break the censorship of oppression. At the time, the LGBTQ community was suffering as the AIDS epidemic swept through. Instead of assistance and support programs from the government, they were met with silence and empty promises. Innocent lives were at stake, and yet political leaders and health providers remained stagnant, assuming the idea the LGBTQ people weren’t worth their time—that they weren’t deserving of any respect. The ACT-UP protests came about as an act of survival and as a way to give a voice to the unheard, breaking free of society’s stigma of gay peope. It was a message to all those who looked away from the injustices towards the LGBTQ community—that their abidance to society’s standards was no longer acceptable. It was impactful, attacking homophobia and ignorance simultaneously. It was nonconformity in its perfect state, addressing the difficult questions that would’ve gone unanswered. It was unorthodox, and loud.

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