Angles Sept 1990: ACT UP spits back - Socred government spits on People With AIDS

Four supporters of what Premier Bill Vander Zalm called a “crazy irresponsible nasty bunch“ were thrown into paddy wagons and detained for several hours on the night of August 24, 1990. The crime: disturbing the peace.

The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) made a splash in the media and a mess of several hairdos. Although there was no indication that anybody was about to bite a Socred, the police were apparently called in to teach the protesters to be more polite.

The melee started when a large gray-haired man of apparent infamy, seeing the big cheese in trouble, blew his cool and bucked like a stallion. Mr. Big managed to topple the people that Lillian tripped over. That’s when the blonde in the “Vanna“ white dress turned around and caught a protester’s knee with her stiletto heel. The crowds chanted “shame“ at the Socreds and followed them into the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth Theater.

A few cops arrived and had trouble dampening the situation until their backup arrived. Many of the protesters had been fairly enraged by the Socred violence. The police response to their acting up was swift and decisive.

One man was dragged from the theatre and then two women were plucked from the crowd who approached the paddy wagons. Three-quarters of an hour later a lone protester was surrounded by four officers as he walked away from the dwindling ACT UP group. He was picked up and loaded into a third paddy wagon.

The four targeted members of that “nasty bunch“ sat in the wagons for a couple of hours. They were released later that night after a trip to the police station. Meanwhile, dozens of police officers stayed to guard the barricade though the rainbow flag was no longer evident, a fate it had in common with the red banner on the stage inside.

Les Misérables is a tale of struggle and devotion set in the increasing oppression of early capitalism in France. The red flag of the Paris commune marks the short-lived debut of applied revolutionary Marxism. The good guy dies at the end after years of loving sacrifice for the hope of the future.

The irony of their choice of entertainment apparently escaped the Socreds or was naïvely ignored by the owners of the quarter-of-a-million-dollar party fundraiser. They also goofed by having their much toasted and roasted leader lead the troops with misguided arrogance. As ACT UP’s Christine Cumming noted, “Through its lack of action, Vander Zalm’s government has been spitting on PWA’s since the onset of the HIV crisis. A little bit of our saliva on his tuxedo cannot hurt him, but his policies are killing us.“

The mood was genuinely riotous for only a minute. Many will judge this an inappropriate place or time for such a gesture, but a great deal of anger and frustration was manifest in the actions of the hundred or so present.

Our lives may not be as miserable as the slavery and starvation of Les Misérables Paris, but they are the only ones we’ve got. Few would deny that the current state of our collective health, safety and security begs some serious attention. I salute those who put their politeness into the closet to fight the power, to unleash our power, to speak the truth and to save lives.

By Dan Guinan (he/him) publishedin 1990.

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Context

The Social Credit Party (known as the Socreds) governed British Columbia under Premier Bill Vander Zalm from 1986 to 1991 on a socially conservative platform. Vander Zalm’s government introduced a bill to allow locking up people with AIDS and they refused to fund medical coverage for abortions. Groups like ACT UP, the Vancouver Lesbian Connection and the Vancouver Persons With AIDS Coalition organized to defeat the bill and the government.

(Vander Zalm and his wife Lillian retired to a rebuilt Fantasy Gardens castle in Richmond after he resigned in a conflict of interest scandal in 1991. Voters tossed out the Socred government later the same year.)

Activists took to the streets, the media and the lobbies of the legislature to oppose the repressive policies and build a better B.C. Some activists met members of the Social Credit government at a special performance of Les Misérables, held to raise funds for the party. Some were unruly. Spittle flew in the direction of the premier. This, in the eyes of the law, constituted assault. (Apologies to those of Irish descent who object to the demeaning reference to “paddy wagons.“)

The unruly protests against Vander Zalm’s government highlight the way that 2SLGBTQ+ folks in the 1980s and ’90s had to fight for equal rights. The attacks on equal rights today across North America (and Europe and elsewhere), the attempts to erase the existence of trans people, ongoing efforts to block Pride celebrations and push queer knowledge out of schools and libraries – these are well-organized and well-funded movements that aim to reverse the gains that our communities have won in the past decades.

The B.C. Conservative Party and the Conservative Party of Canada are the mainstream voices of this movement. Today’s activists will have to work together and with allies fighting for dignity in other areas to protect what we have won and to prevent the chaos, cutbacks and destruction that is happening in the United States from taking hold in Canada.

— Richard Banner (he/him)