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Peters story has been documented and celebrated in the Oscar nominated 'How to Survive A Plague' and he continues to act - join us to find out about the ‘Staley vs Gilead’ lawsuit that could cost Big Pharma billions - followed by a Q+A with Dan Glass, ACT UP London

 

 

About the Book – Never Silent: ACT UP And My Life In Activism By Peter Staley
Chicago Review Press, 2021

 

In 1987, somebody shoved a flyer into the hand of Peter Staley: massive AIDS demonstration, it announced. After four years on Wall Street as a closeted gay man, Staley was familiar with the homophobia common on trading floors. He also knew that he was not beyond the reach of AIDS, having recently been diagnosed with AIDS-Related Complex.

A week after the protest, Staley found his way to a packed meeting of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power ACT UP in the West Village. It would prove to be the best decision he ever made. ACT UP would change the course of AIDS, pressuring the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, and three administrations to finally respond with research and treatment plans that ultimately saved millions of lives.

 

Staley, a shrewd strategist with nerves of steel, organized some of the group’s most spectacular actions, from shutting down trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to putting a giant condom over the house of Senator Jesse Helms. Never Silent is the inside story of what brought Staley to ACT UP and the explosive and sometimes painful years to follow: years filled with triumph, humiliation, joy, loss, and persistence. Never Silent is guaranteed to inspire the activist within all of us.