ABSTRACT
In the past year there has been a surge o f interest in the topic o f A IDS. 1 Yet the history o f resistance to the political crisis surrounding A IDS is in danger o f being lost to a revised history that counts only the actions and concerns o f the professionals who have taken up AIDS as an issue. The instant experts o f 1987 — well-intentioned and intelligent people w i th the power to convey information and set policy — are not largely the true experts, those who have been involved in sorting out the wide-ranging effects o f AIDS since the epidemic began. It is critical that the experience o f the gay community in AIDS organizing be understood: the strategies employed before 1985 or so grew out o f gay liberation and feminist theory. It is also axiomatic that those most affected — the gay, injecting drug user, black, Hispanic and sex work communities — be listened to when we set new strategies and draw new lines o f resistance.
