In celebration of their one year anniversary, the direct action group ACT UP/San Francisco staged a lively, 50 person demonstration last Saturday, April 20th. The event was aimed at drawing attention to the impact of increasing evictions and rental price increases in San Francisco on people living with HIV/AIDS. The group, and a coalition of supporting LGBT and housing rights organizations, began at 16th and Mission Street and worked their way up to Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro. The marchers, who took to the streets chanting ‘Housing is a right, housing is a right, ACT UP!’ and ‘Housing equals healthcare and eviction equals death!’, made multiple stops along the way. Though perhaps small in size, the demonstration made a strong and colorful stand, one that hammered in the point that the increasing rents and waves of evictions hitting San Francisco hurt people living with HIV/AIDS and their supporters. Despite the inclusion of lavish street theater and brightly painted signs, the protest was not all noise. Imbedded in their style, ACT UP offered a pointed critique of San Francisco’s City government, especially District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, a gay man who the group feels has turned a blind eye to evictions in his neighborhood.
For the last two weeks, the New York Post has been running a bunch of really inflammatory articles about how shifty homeless people are coming to this city for supposedly luxurious free shelter accommodations. Obviously, this is totally ridiculous – anyone who has ever stepped foot inside a shelter knows they’re awful. But the Post doesn’t care about the truth; they just want to scare & stir up conservative readers who already think homeless people are a public menace.
So PTH member Maria Walles wrote a letter to the editor, saying “If you think homeless people are living it up in the shelters, you can take my spot there.”
Surprise, surprise, the Post didn’t run it. But we don’t need them. WE ARE THE MEDIA. Here’s Maria’s letter.
