Description: "In addition to the debates over how to preserve gay liberation, the key issue was scepticism of government health officials, scientific and medical authorities and the pharmaceutical companies." Ann Silversides in conversation with Peter Steven, May 2003 PETER STEVEN : Why is Michael Lynch an important person to remember? ANN SILVERSIDES : Michael played a pivotal role organizing in the gay community when the AIDS crisis first hit in the early 1980s. He had already played a leadership role in the movement for gay liberation in 1970s, so he was well known and politically experienced. When the epidemic hit, he helped set up important organizations -- the AIDS Committee of Toronto and, a few years later, AIDS Action Now! He was also the driving force behind the AIDS Memorial in Toronto. Lynch believed that a cohesive strategy based in the community was needed to respond to AIDS. The AIDS crisis in Canada began with a campaign of right-wing religious fear-mongering. Lynch saw the necessity of fighting against the stigma associated with this health crisis and resisting panic. Later, Lynch and others realized that the official response to AIDS centred on prevention education for the general public and palliative care. There was appallingly little attention paid to the needs of people living with AIDS, and next to no government leadership with respect to testing or releasing promising drugs. The mission of AIDS Action Now! was to make promising treatments available to help people living with AIDS -- in other words treatment activism. Lynch, by the way, was also a poet and his book, These Waves of Dying Friends, includes several AIDS elegies. PS : Did Michael''s travels back and forth between Canada and the US -- his dual citizenship -- help him develop a special perspective? AS : Absolutely. He was an American by birth, a University of Toronto English professor, and he was well connected with US gay movements and gay intellectuals across North America. He had strong ties with people and groups in San Francisco and New York, where he spent time researching early gay history, and he also spent a good deal of time on Fire Island, a famous gay resort near New York. In the earliest days, he knew that AIDS was coming to Canada-it was only a matter of time. Because the epidemic in Canada was two years behind the US, it was possible to learn from mistakes made south of the border. Lynch was critical of the fact that early on in the epidemic, frightened gay men were raising money and donating it to scientific research. Lynch felt the community had to be more critical of the workings of the scientific establishment, and argued that money should go first to people affected by AIDS. When the need for more activism around treatment and drugs became apparent Lynch refrained from criticising service agencies for not doing the political work. Instead, he fostered cooperation between AIDS activist groups and AIDS service organizations. In Canada the bath houses were never closed, unlike San Francisco, partly because the gay community convinced the health authorities that the bath houses were important gathering places for safe sex education with hard-to-reach gay men -- those who were in the closet, for example, or not part of an identifiable gay community. PS : What''s the story of the yellow glove, featured on the cover of the book? AS : In the late 1980s, when activism began to take hold, U.S. police --fearful and misinformed about transmission of HIV -- started wearing yellow rubber gloves at AIDS demonstrations, as if HIV were easily transmitted. In response, Lynch and others wore yellow kitchen gloves at a 1987 demonstration at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The gloves were thus both symbolic and a playful attempt to "accessorize."The glove pictured on the cover is the actual glove that Lynch wore. I came across it by accident at the archives, in a box that had not been itemized. As you can see, it had been signed by other activists in Washington. It was typical of Michael to have saved it -- he saved everything! PS : Tell me about the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. AS : The Archives, which is run by volunteers, has played a key role in the community, and this is their Thirtieth anniversary. Lynch was involved in the early years -- at one point he was even going to will his house t

Please Wait