October

 

11 - ACT UP New York and the ACT NOW coalition organize the Seize Control of the FDA protest at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, to demand that the agency speed up the research, development and approval of drugs for AIDS. (1988)

FDA protest

(FDA protest) YouTube.com/SuchIsLifeVideos

 

15 - National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day

 

National LatinX HIV/AIDS Awareness Day logo

15 - During a daily press briefing, President Ronald Reagan’s acting press secretary,
Larry Speakes, mocks the first reporter to ask him to comment on the growing AIDS epidemic. (1982)

(Speakes) Wikimedia, (TV and Microphones) iStock

 

November

 

4 - The Health Omnibus Programs Extension (HOPE) Act becomes the first comprehensive federal AIDS bill and establishes the National Commission on AIDS and the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health. (1988)

NIH National Institute of Health and red ribbon

(NIH) Grandbrothers/Dreamstime.com

 

8 - Angels in America: Perestroika, the second part of Tony Kushner’s epic play about AIDS, premieres at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles.  (1992)

Angel Statue

iStock

 

27 - Seven AIDS activists are arrested after stripping naked inside U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s office in Washington, DC, to protest possible cuts to HIV and AIDS funding as part of the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. (2012)

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner

U.S. House Speaker John BoehnerWikimedia