Fed Up Queers, or FUQ, was a
queeractivistdirect action group that began in
New York City. The group was made up mostly of lesbians such as Jennifer Flynn (who later co-founded the New York City AIDS Housing Network as well as Health GAP), though notable participants also included gay rights pioneer and
Stonewall riots veteran
Bob Kohler,[1] and writer
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. The activists who formed FUQ came together loosely for a few actions in 1998, but the first action attributed to Fed Up Queers was on
World AIDS Day, December 1, 1998, when they visited New York State Assemblywoman
Nettie Mayersohn's house in Queens at midnight to protest her stance on names reporting.
we tried to create a large-scale radical queer activist group, but we got stuck in endless process and the meetings got smaller and smaller, [so] some of us formed an affinity group called Fed Up Queers to do smaller, targeted actions. ... Originally the idea was that we would only meet when someone had an idea for an action, we wouldn't get bogged down in process, but then we mostly went from one action to the next, since someone always had an idea.
Fed Up Queers held political funerals for murdered
transgender and queer people, and fought restrictive
AIDS policies, but focused much of their work on then mayor
Rudy Giuliani and the
New York City Police Department (NYPD). Fed Up Queers gained notoriety in the media for three actions:
They were the first[4] of the more than 1,200 people arrested[5] protesting the murder of
Amadou Diallo by NYPD officers. As one participant wrote, there had already been "protests, but no one was getting arrested and we wanted to raise the stakes. We wanted to block the Brooklyn Bridge, but we only had eight people who could risk arrest, so we said okay, we'll block the bridge with eight people. That's how desperate and angry and empowered we felt."[6] Arrestees eventually included
Al Sharpton,
Jesse Jackson, former mayor
David Dinkins, and actors
Susan Sarandon,
Ruby Dee,
Ossie Davis, and
Dick Gregory.
Later, Fed Up Queers stormed Giuliani's keynote speech to the
Log Cabin Republicans at the
Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. This action made the news because security guards beat and bloodied several activists, and clips of both the beatings and Giuliani making a joke about "his activists" played on all city television stations.[7][8][9] The activists won a civil suit against the hotel, and were represented by well known radical lawyer Susan Tipograph.
Fed Up Queers, with the support of Act Up and Health GAP, disrupted kick-off events of Vice President
Al Gore's Presidential campaign in three cities, denouncing his role in the threat of trade sanctions against Nelson Mandela's South Africa if it did not repeal the Medicines Act. Ultimately, pressure from Jesse Jackson and activists resulted in the United States adjusting its trade policies to enable poor countries, such as South Africa, to gain access to essential medicines.[10][11]
The group lasted two and half years. Some claim the group disbanded due to tactical disagreements. Others claim the breakup was due to one activist pushing his agenda of cross-generational sex.[12] Various members of the group continued to stage actions using the name, or occasionally reuniting in response to particular events.[13]
A new group called Fed Up Queers formed in 2009, in Arkansas.[14]
Notable actions
Stop the Parade, activists attempted to stop
Rudy Giuliani from marching in the Gay
Pride Parade by chaining themselves across
Fifth Avenue in New York City, June 28, 1998[15]
Queers Bash Back, march to bring attention to the knife attack of a lesbian in Brooklyn, and murders of gay men and trans people in the city, Brooklyn, NY, September 27, 1998[16]
Matthew Shepard Political Funeral, New York City, October 19, 1998[17]
Wake Up for
World AIDS Day, midnight "wake up call" to New York State Assemblywoman
Nettie Mayersohn's house in Flushing, Queens, NY. December 1, 1998[18]
Your Bullets are Racist, protesting the NYPD's murder of
Amadou Diallo, New York City, February 22, 1999[19]
Activists chained themselves to the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center before it was lit (and were promptly arrested), to protest lighting ceremonies being held on World AIDS Day. December 1, 1999[24]
Splayed, a spoof on the straight-owned gay newspaper The Gay Blade, otherwise known as The New York Blade, after it fired one of its employees for their "gay bias" in an article.
References
^Shepard, Hayduk, Benjamin, Ronald (2002). From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization.
Verso.
ISBN1-85984-356-5.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)